chitect makes of a house which some one wants to build; the plans
and drawings are not so realistic as a real house, but they are
better than anything else; and, like the war games, they can be
altered and realtered until the best result seems to have been
attained, considering the amount of money allowed and other practical
conditions.

The idea of devising war games and war problems seems to have originated
with Von Moltke; certainly it was first put in practice by his
direction. Shortly after he became chief of the General Staff of
the Prussian army in 1857, he set to work to carry out the ideas
which he had had in mind for several years, while occupying minor
posts, but which he had not had the power to enforce. It seems to
have become clear to his mind that, if a chess-player acquired
skill, not only by playing actual games and by studying actual
games played by masters, but also by working out hypothetical chess
problems, it ought to be possible to devise a system whereby army
officers could supplement their necessarily meagre experience of
actual war, and their necessarily limited opportunities for studying
with full knowledge the actual campaigns of great strategists,
by working out hypothetical, tactical, and strategic problems.
Von Moltke succeeded in devising such a system and in putting it
into successful operation. Hypothetical problems were prepared,
in which enemy forces were confronted with each other under given
circumstances of weather, terrain, and distances, each force with
its objective known only to itself: for instance, you are in command
of such and such a force at such and such a place; you have received
orders to accomplish such and such a purpose; you receive information
that the enemy, comprising such and such troops, was at a certain
time at a certain place, and marching in a certain direction. What
do you do?

Classes of army officers were formed, and compelled to work out
the problems exactly as boys at school were compelled to work out
problems in arithmetic. The skill of individual officers in solving
the problems was noted and recorded; and the problems themselves,
as time went on and experience was gained, were made more and more
to conform to probable situations in future wars with Austria,
France, and other countries, actual maps being used, and the exact
nature and magnitude of every factor in each problem being precisely
stated.

By such work, the pupils (officers) acquired th