WW1 Games We May Have

Played On the Home

and Western Fronts

Examples of games on display or described:

Halma An old, complete set with boards and ‘men’

Tyrolean Roulette A modern version, bought in a mountain bar in Italy

Happy Families Two sets, one new, both by J Jaques featuring the Tenniel images

Dominoes A ‘new’ set of Jaques’ double-nines, with spinners

Nine Men’s Morris A modern pocket-sized version of the old game

The Invasion of Europe: The Great War Game P66/67 in ‘Play the Game’

Shut the Box A modern wooden version, by Jaques

Trencho (see Nine Men’s Morris) P 62/3 in ‘Play the Game’

Crown & Anchor P 95 in ‘Play the Game’

Chess: The classic ‘game of Kings’ A Jaques ‘Staunton’ set dating from 1870s

Snakes & Ladders P 22/3 & 91 in ‘Play the Game’

Reversi Modern-day Othello Mancala A modern commercial version

The list of possible contenders for inclusion would obviously have to

feature such ‘classics’ as Chess, Draughts Backgammon and the

many card games. The following selection concentrates more on

the rather less-well-known games, or those with interesting histories.

The presentation finishes with a range of games-related images

and photographs

Halma

Originally invented over a hundred years ago, this race game, a forerunner of the modern Chinese Checkers, involved skill and fun to get all your ‘men’, (13 or 19 depending on how many were playing), from their starting positions at one corner of the 16 x 16 squared board to the opposite corner. One step (or leap if an opponent got in the way) is taken in any direction at a time, blocking the opposition’s progress where possible. A basic strategy is to try to make ladders or chains of your own ‘men’ that give you routes to your destination. Although similar to draughts, in that you can jump over an opponent’s man if there is a vacant square available beyond it, in this game ‘men’ are not captured, but left on the board.

Tyrolean Roulette/Top and Five Balls/Bauernroulette/Poor Man’s Roulette

The origins of this game seem to be argued about. It could be German, Austrian or Italian, and exists in several forms, with different names. All, however, have something of the feel of casino roulette, involving a small playing board with pits and pockets, differently coloured wooden (properly, beechwood) balls, and a small spinning top. The top is given a good spin (using the palms of both hands), and as it comes into contact with the balls it ‘fires’ them around the playing area, hopefully

landing some at least in the pits or pockets, scoring according to the colour of the ball and the value of the pit. A very portable game, early versions are now collectors’ items, but modern copies can be easily located (we bought ours in a little café/bar in the Dolomites). This image is taken from a book on antique games, and the game dates from mid 1900s.

Happy Families

Sir John Tenniel, chief cartoonist of Punch, and illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was commissioned by the London games developer, John Jaques, to design images for this much loved family card game involving the collection and swapping of cards to form family groups. Many children grew up with Mr Bun the Baker etc., and original versions of this game are collectors’ items.

Spellicans (aka Pick-up-Sticks/Pic-a-stix/

Mikado/Jack Straws/ ‘Les Jonchets’)

Most of us will have played a version of this popular family game. Although it comes in different guises, the aim is the same: starting with an untidy pile of 30 – 70 differently valued slender objects (sticks; straws; etc), you try to extract as

many as you can, one at a time, without causing any of the remaining objects to move at all. To assist with the removal, games made use of hooks, wands, sticks. The winner was the player with

the lowest value of sticks remaining after all had had their turn. The sticks themselves were variously made from ivory, bamboo, bone, plastic or

wood, and could depict a range of tools, national figures or just plain sticks. Some sets involved elaborately carved sticks.

Although many modern versions exist, the game it believed to have its

origins in China, but evidence exists of similar games from over 2,000 years ago, in the Far East, Middle East and Europe. British versions, called ‘Old

Fashioned Jack Straws’, can be dated from 1888. By 1900 bone straws were more common.

It perhaps led to the development of the modern game of Jenga.

Dominoes

Although there are several tile-type games (including Mah Jong, Tangram, and more recently Rummikub) dominoes has the greatest popularity in the UK. Like so many of our ‘traditional’ games, its origins are unclear, although it probably began, in some form, in China. One explanation for the name ‘Domino’ features two medieval monks, disguising the fact that they have improvised a game and set to stave off boredom, chanted Psalm 110 in Latin if the abbot approach, but he had always moved away before they got to the word ‘dominus’! So this is what they called their pastime when explaining it to other brothers! Our ‘modern’ sets (usually double-six, but double nines/twelves/fifteens and eighteens can be found) date from around 250 years ago, and strictly speaking what we call ‘dominoes’ (like ‘cards’ and ‘dice’) refers to the equipment rather than a specific game. Being simple in design, however, they were capable of being created from many materials - wood, plastic, ivory, and (significantly) shrapnel and other military debris. And they were highly portable.

Crown and Anchor

Put these words into Google, and high up in the results will be locations for pubs with this name. This reflects the one-time popularity of this gambling dice game involving three special dice, a marked out playing

surface (board, cloth or improvised drawn layout), showing the images found on the dice (Crown; anchor; and the four playing card aces). A banker is identified (he/she usually comes out making money). Although once a very popular game for sailors (Royal Navy, merchant and fishing fleets) it is now quite

tightly controlled. It remains popular in the Channel Islands, where it is feature in their annual agricultural shows, and Bermuda. It is highly likely that it featured as a popular pastime among the Navy personnel of WW1

Nine Men’s Morris

Also known by several other names (Windmill, Mill, Mule, Merels, Merrills, Three in a Row) this game of great antiquity, found in many parts of the world, is for two players, with the aim of lining up three piece in a row and removing the opponent’s pieces. Evidence of its existence include C17th Turkey and India, Israel, Ireland, Norway, C13th Spain, and even the ancient city of Troy, together with medieval

European cathedrals (monks improvised board in the cloisters). But excavations of Egyptian tombs dating from 2000 BCE have found clear indications of a similar game, giving the game a very long history. It has a long tradition in Yorkshire, and the folk museum in the Dales village of Hutton-le-Hole has a special display and interest as it hosted the World Merrills Championships in years gone by.

It can be played with various numbers of ‘men’ (three, six or nine), the most common British number being nine per player, and rules do vary, even within UK counties. One of the attractions of the game that would have suited troops in the trenches is that all the necessary equipment (board and playing pieces) can be quickly improvised using pebbles and a flat earth surface.

As this game was a regular feature of pub life at the

time of WW1 it is highly likely that our troops at least, and possibly those from other countries, would have

passed the time playing it.

As further evidence of this, an Australian version of the game was published by Chad Valley in 1917, called ‘Trencho’. This used

images of guns for the ‘peg holes’, located on a framework of troop-filled

lines. This game may have been known by the Australian troops and their

families. Other, similar versions of this game were called ‘In the Trenches’, ‘Fall

In’ and Shell Fort’.

Reversi (aka ‘Othello’)

This is a two-person strategy game, dating from 1883. Although it is known it was invented by two English men, the two concerned disputed ownership of the idea. There was a similar dispute in 2002 when the Japanese press began publicising the ‘new’ game of Othello - this was simply a straight 1971 copy of the original game, given a new name based on Shakespeare’s play depicting conflict between black (Othello) and white (Desdemona). “Simple to learn; a life-time to master”, it involves

placing your 32 black/white discs one-by-one on a 64-square board (a chess board will do), turning over any white/black discs that you manage to trap between your discs. The game usually ends when the board is full, the winner being the player with more colours showing. Discs may be turned over many times during the game. Reversi clubs were set up in many parts of Europe, with tournaments arranged from as early as 1886 in Belgium. The game was also popular in Germany by the start of WW1.

Pachisi (aka Ludo)

“The people of the Raj - modern India and Pakistan -

were not consulted about their participation in the war. More than 1 million soldiers served overseas in the Indian army - and 75,000 died. By autumn 1914, Indians were

already on the western front, facing the threat of projectiles like the ‘Black Maria’. (Fountain 2014).

And these troops (plus the 48,000 Indian manual labourers employed by Britain to work in France) will have brought their own games and pastimes, and one such is the ancient game of Pachisi, India’s national game. Evidence of this game has been found in cave temples, and dated back to the C6th. Originally played with cowrie shells (serving as dice), up to 25 ‘points’ could be rolled to speed your way to a win in this racing game. (‘Pachisi’ itself is the Hindi and Urdu word for 25).

A simplified American version, named Parcheesi, was developed in the 1860s, but, if the image of the original Indian playing board or elaborate fabric course look familiar we should note that in 1890 a British patent was applied for relating to another variation, known to us as …..Ludo! The Germans had their own version, Mensch ärger dich nicht, (“Man, do not grow weary”). Such was the popularity of the

game that it was distributed to military infirmaries, where its popular name was taken as a word of consolation. Today, as well as Ludo, it is also marketed under the names ‘India’ and ‘He Who Laughs Last’!

Snakes and Ladders

Most of us will have grown up with this game, probably not realising that this too has its origins in India, developed as a means of religious and moral instruction and encouragement towards maintaining an upwards course in life. The Indian (Hindi) name of

Gyan chaupar (Game of Wisdom) or moksha patamu was very similar to the game familiar to us, involving rolling a dice across a board, with landing on the base of a ladder leading to upwards progression (morally worthy), whereas to land on the head of snake led to a swift descent and loss of moral virtue. It probably has its origin in C13th – C14th, among Hindi or Jain communities, before being adapted for Muslim communities as illustrated in the circa 1810 example. Each square had its own moral and ethical significance, with the aim being to reach ‘the Throne of God’ at the very top.

Design for Gan Chapar c 1810

Developed for the British market by Jaques in 1880, their version was originally based on a circular route rather than the more common side-to-side racing game and became a firm family favourite. (Interestingly, during WW2, Jaques produced wooden versions of this game for the British prisoners of war, but secreted maps between the cardboard layers of the printed game.)

The Invasion of Europe - The Great War Game

Perhaps not in the best of taste by today’s standards, in 1910 the games publishing company Chad Valley marketet a strategic territory-winning game for two players, the aim being to place counters in a way as to gain possession of European countries. The Admiral and General deploying their army and navy could move their forces, in directions determined by a spinning compass. How popular the game proved, either before or after 4 August 1914, is unclear.

Shut The Box

This dice game, at least 200 years old and thought to be French in origin (especially popular in Normandy and the Channel Islands), and was popular with sailors from the Normandy coast to amuse both themselves and their passengers on long journeys. The game is known by several other names, some indicating its maritime links: e.g. “Batten Down the Hatches”). By the mid C20th it was a popular family and pub game, and remains a favourite pastime in Thai bars. The physical form of the game took many shapes, but essentially it provided a means by which, depending on the roll of two dice, numbered open spaces

could be closed off, the winner being the player with the lowest total value of remaining ‘boxes’ open after s/he rolls dice that cannot be used to ‘close’ any more boxes. At first glance it is a simple game of chance, but it does involve tactics, calculations and judgements, making it a good game for developing rapid number skills. The inclusion of Shut the Box among the games contained in C19th games compendia was quite common. Although the basic equipment needed lends itself to improvised DIY versions (using paper, sand, pebbles or other materials), wooden commercial versions, with between 9 and 15 boxes, remain available.

Yahtzee (or ‘Yatch’ or ‘Yam’)

This dice game, known by many other names across the world, has several forms, but basically players aim to thrown their five dice over 13 rounds to obtain this highest

score. Different ‘hands’ for the five thrown dice attract varying scores, and on any one turn a player can chose to throw some or all of his/her dice up to three times to seek a ‘hand’ yet to be claimed or to maximise their points tally. Scoring each hand (e.g. four of a king; full house; low/high straight) follows rules very similar to poker dice or cards poker. All that is needed to play the game is a set of five dice and, preferably, a shaker.

Ideally, a written score sheet for each player (contained in most commercial versions of the game), helps in the scoring process and, depending on how many players are involved (it can be just two, or several) it can be a popular bar and parlour game. Although the throw of the dice makes it a game of chance, much tactical expertise is needed to become a good player. It is thought that the modern game was first patented in 1954 by a Canadian couple (although a similar American game dates from 1940s, and other earlier non-commercial versions are known about), under the name of ‘Yacht’ (reflecting the fact

that it was devised to while away the hours with friends on the couple’s yacht!), but its origins, in various forms, go back much further. Like many other ‘modern’ games, its beginnings are shrouded in mystery, but again its portability made it a suitable pastime for troops and families during the war years. It took some years to ‘catch on’ commercially, but was used by teachers to help students with their maths programmes.

Mancala

Throughout the War, British, French and German forces were supplemented by

many from outside Europe. Britain and France, both with ‘strong’ colonial histories, drew heavily from former or existing colonial nations. India alone provide over 100,00 troops, while British forces were strengthened by, among

others, some 15,000 West Indians of African origin. The French received troops from the area that became known as ‘Francophone Africa’, with the Tirailleurs Senegalese serving with much distinction. It is likely that those recruits with African backgrounds will have been familiar with a group of games known by the collective name of ‘Mancala’ (meaning, in Arabic, to move or take away - this game many have had its origins in Arabia, Egypt or the Sahara). Although there are many (over 200!) variants, the basics are the same. There is evidence of the game being played some 3,500 years ago, and African slaves took their versions to Surinam, America and the West Indies. A number of ‘pits’ are carved (in wood) or scraped (*in sand/soil), and two players distribute or ‘sow’ their ‘pips’

(pebbles; shells; seeds; chips; pips) equally among the pits on their side of the board. Playing turn-by-turn, pips from one pit are then moved round clockwise from pit to pit, ‘winning’ the opponent’s pips if the last one falls in an opposition pit with 2 or fewer of the opponent’s pips in it. There is more to this counting and tactical game than this, which is probably why it remains a popular game across much of the world (some regard it as Africa’s national game). Board

carving is done with great skill, incorporating symbolic images and passed down through families.

Drawing prepared by a U3A Drawing roup member, for display at the 4 August 201BU3A event.