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.
