Hellwig's Conquest

What and why this book?

Hellwig's Conquest: A Tactical Game Based on Chess 

by Dr. Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig. 

A book translated from German by Nate Dray. 

ISBN: 978-0-9822892-5-9

 

I just published this book, or Diluvian Enterprises did, and it's been almost impossible to explain this little project to people. It's either because it's an unusual thing to do or that I'm terrible at explaining things. Probably a bit of both.

But let me try again here...

If one digs into the origins of current conventions employed in the design and play of wargames at the club, or in the classroom, kitchen, drawing room, parlor, library, man cave or church basement, one inevitably runs into the name Dr. Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig. It’s my contention that the modern wargame as we know and recognize it today really originated with the publication of his book Versuch eines aufs Schachspiel gebaueten taktischen Spiels von zwei und mehrern Personen zu spielen in Leipzig in 1780. At the time, you could probably also pick up a copy around Christmas in Brunswick. Either way, it’s the first appearance of something, of a game, that concerns itself with and regulates with written rules the things we use today to model war operations and make games or simulations. Before Hellwig, wargames were just variants of chess or Go type games.

As soon as I learned that this game existed I wanted to play it or at least understand how it was played and so spent a good bit of time looking for an English version of the rules. I searched and searched but couldn’t find one anywhere. Failing that, I decided to start translating them for myself, realizing along the way that other people might want to read them too. I’ll admit, I thought that with all the new smart translating software out there now that this would be an easy project. I was very wrong.

The original book is not written in the German language as we know it today. This book was penned long before the formation of the modern German state and before anything like a standardized German language existed. It's archaic regional German and I think - I think - it's a South Marchian dialect, but I could be completely wrong. Old-fashioned terms and ideas abound in this document and the original was printed in a really funky Gutenbergy typeface that was already long out of fashion even in 1780. Concepts of organization and presentation are primitive as well. Tables, lists, charts and reference can be somewhat difficult to parse.

And players are expected to make or have made 900 playing pieces and the game boards themselves. Actually, players are expected to have them made by craftsman along with a specially made table with compartments for storing the pieces and extendable shelves for holding lamps at the four corners of this custom eight and half by five foot table made exclusively for this game. If you want to avoid the tiresome task of setting up the game for yourself, the rules tell you that a competent domestic servant can be taught to set it up for you given patient instruction.

But most importantly, this book, when first published, was a first for many things. Primarily, it’s a popular press wargame book with an honest attempt at making a realistic warfare simulation. Making a board game that deals with and models things like line of sight, terrain, artillery and supply was completely new, novel and unprecedented at the time of publication as far as I can tell.