Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
Little Wars and over 300,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
18 used & new from $3.20

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Little Wars
 
 
Start reading Little Wars on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
 
  

Little Wars (Mass Market Paperback)

by H.G. Wells (Author), Gary Gygax (Author), Michael J. Varhola (Author), Diane K. Varhola (Author) "Little Wars" is the game of the kings-for players in an inferior social position..." (more)
Key Phrases: little wars, right gun, Hook's Farm, Modern Beginnings Page, The Rules Page (more...)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

List Price: $9.95
Price: $9.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
  Special Offers Available
Usually ships within 1 to 4 weeks.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

8 new from $4.79 9 used from $3.20 1 collectible from $10.00
Also Available in: List Price: Our Price: Other Offers:
Kindle Edition (Kindle Book) $1.00
Paperback $12.99 $12.99 15 used & new from $8.99

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
  • Over a hundred thousand items are eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. How do I find more eligible items?


Frequently Bought Together

Little Wars + Floor Games + H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars
Price For All Three: $24.89

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

  • This item: Little Wars by H.G. Wells

    Usually ships within 1 to 4 weeks.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Floor Games by H.G. Wells

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars by H.G. Wells; Michael J. Varhola; Skirmisher Game Development Group

    Usually ships within 1 to 4 weeks.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars

H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars

by H.G. Wells; Michael J. Varhola; Skirmisher Game Development Group
4.4 out of 5 stars (5)  $2.99
The Games of War: A Treasury of Rules for Battles with Toy Soldiers, Ships and Planes

The Games of War: A Treasury of Rules for Battles with Toy Soldiers, Ships and Planes

by John Bobek
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  $29.65
Wargaming: An Introduction

Wargaming: An Introduction

by Neil Thomas
Achtung Schweinehund!: A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat

Achtung Schweinehund!: A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat

by Harry Pearson
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  $7.95
Field of Glory: Ancient and Medieval Wargaming Rules

Field of Glory: Ancient and Medieval Wargaming Rules

by Richard Bodley-Scott
3.8 out of 5 stars (8)  $23.07
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Review
Wells wrote a ground-breaking work when he penned Little Wars, which started the hobby of military miniatures war-gaming. -- Gary Gygax, March 2004

Product Description
Originally written in 1913 by one of the fathers of modern science fiction, this is a reprint of one of H.G. Wells' lesser-known works. Little Wars will appeal to science fiction fans, history buffs, students of politics and international affairs, wargamers and RPGers, and anyone interested in the other works of this great author.

Features of this edition include:

• Clear, authoritative, and entertaining text that reveals both the great mind and the sense of humor possessed by one of the world’s greatest science fiction authors.
• A complete miniatures wargame system that can be played as-is or used as the basis for other miniatures rules.
• An appendix on Kriegspiel that expands upon Little Wars and shows how it can be adapted into a military training tool.
• Foreword by Gary Gygax, whose development of Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons were influenced by H.G. Wells in General and by Little Wars in particular.
• Introduction by editor Michael J. Varhola, author of several history books, gaming sourcebooks, and the Skirmisher miniatures rules.
• 19 original black-and-white photographs from the 1913 edition of Little Wars.
• More than 75 black-and-white line drawings from the 1913 edition of the book.

See all Editorial Reviews


Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 98 pages
  • Publisher: Skirmisher Publishing (April 2004)
  • ISBN-10: 0972251154
  • ISBN-13: 978-0972251150
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #616,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Inside This Book (learn more)


What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below.

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

 

Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A genuine classic. Buy it for all boys between 7 and 15!, June 29, 2005
By B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
It is immensely appropriate that I review `Little Wars' by H. G. Wells on the day Stephen Spielberg's remake of a film version of Wells' `War of the Worlds' opens in theatres around the country. I have known of Wells' little book for at least 45 years, when I first became interested in wargames and searched out titles on the subject which, in 1960, seemed to be few and far between.

The early sixtys were the heydey of Avalon-Hill's tabletop sized board games with little cardboard counters representing everything from a single sargeant to an army corp. These games grew out of the minatures rules which would later contribute, along with the popularity of the `Lord of the Rings' novel to the creation of `Dungeons and Dragons' roleplaying games. Both Avalon-Hill styled and Dungeon and Dragons styled boardgames have been partially superceded by computerized versions of these simulations and, while I still fondly fondle my chit representing the 82nd airborne division as it participates in the Normandy invasion, I get much more satisfaction out of a good computerized version of the same campaign.

And yet, Wells' simplified minatures rules with no more than a few dozen pieces per side and firing success being determined by real live aiming, physics of ballistics, and the effect of wind deliver the same kind of charm evoked by that old Robert Lewis Stevenson poem of the young boy with his toy soldiers navigating the hills formed by his blankets lying over his outstretched legs.

I am not intimately familiar with minatures rules, but what I do know tells me that they are quite complicated with lots of tables based on the role of dice. Wells' rules are much simpler. And, he is not deeply involved in realistic landscapes which are so interesting to minatures hobbyists. Not a word is said here about cleaning and painting raw lead or tin soldiers. All our troops here are fully clothed straight out of the box. All the landscapes are created by nothing more complicated than the kind of plain wooden building blocks I so coveted when I was a kid. These are embellished with the outsides of houses painted or drawn on the plain side of wallpaper which is then folded and glued around the blocks. There is not interest with any ability to hide inside any of these houses, as this would simply slow things down and make the rules more complicated. The only other concern is that if rivers are part of the landscape that there are enough fording and bridged points to not funnel things too much into a single choke point.

The rules only deal with three kinds of troops, infantry, cavalry, and artillery. As this book was written in 1913, and Europe had largely been at peace for almost a hundred years since the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, it is not surprising that the strategies evolving from these three types of troops are strongly similar to Napoleonic battles. As this was the period of muskets, long range infantry fire was remarkably ineffective compared to the destruction caused by Napoleonic era artillery. To a person versed in 20th century wars, it is strange to see the lineup of forces at, for example, the Battle of Waterloo, where the guns were in front of the main lines of infantry rather than far to the rear. This was before the age of indirect artillery fire, which just began in the American Civil War and it's great mortars.

So, the only way our small forces can inflict damage at a distance is by little cannons which fire real live wooden projectiles and, a soldier is killed only if you actually succeed in knocking the little fellow down with the wooden pellet.

A similar combat simulation which existed in parallel with Wells' and other minatures' rules is the kind of wargame simulations invented by the German General Staff with the very German name of `Kriegspiel' or War Play. An expert in English Kriegspiel practice compares this professional exercize with Wells' game and finds the latter far more fun, as the Sandhurst (English Army Military Acadamy) version is weighed down with rulings from referees and the kind of tables of outcomes so familiar to modern manual wargame rules.

Remembering that this book was written in 1912-1913, it is chilling to read Wells' final assessment of the lack of proficiency of professional military men at this little game. The most chillingly Strangelovean statement is that `You have only to play at Little Wars three or four times to realize what a blundering thing Great War must be'. This was written in 1913!!!

One may be discouraged from reading this book by the prospect of reading 120 pages of game rules. This is not what this book is about. All the details of the rules are compressed into the last six pages. Everything which goes before is the stuff which is written to bring out the little boy in us all. And, the author knows nothing of politically correct gender washing, as he is firmly committed to the idea that this is an activity for little boys, and maybe girls who think like little boys.

A minor classic worthy of it's famous author.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great wargaming book!, May 11, 2004
By Bob McLaughlin (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews
I was curious when I first heard about Little Wars, a wargaming book written by H.G. Wells. I really wasn't familiar with the title until recently, when some friends told me it was about to be reprinted and how excited they were about it. I got a copy and have to say that it's a tremendously enjoyable read and a fascinating chance to see how an English gentleman and author went about developing a wargame system using toy soldiers and toy cannons... decades before wargaming caught on as a popular hobby. The book is written with a great sense of self-humor and details how Wells and his friends developed the system through repeated play-testing... what worked, what didn't and what was changed around. In the end you have a very effective and simple system for wargaming with toy soldiers, that has a number of interesting rules conventions not normally seen in modern miniatures rules. Wells talks about types of troops, turn based movement, initiative, fire support, terrain and all the elements we're used to seeing in modern wargames. I strongly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys wargames or may even be working to develop their own.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally back in print!, May 10, 2004
By Angus Beaucage "AB" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
As a fan of BOTH H.G. Wells and table-top miniatures, I've been looking for a reasonably priced copy of Little Wars for years. It is finally back in print! Thank you Skirmisher Publishing! My collection is now *complete*
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The grandaddy of wargaming
In 1913 HG Wells wrote this book on wargaming.This edition includes many of the original illustrations. Read more
Published 5 months ago by James O'connell

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the best!
I've played many minis games in my life (Warhammer, 40k, LotR, etc...) and I have to say this original of H.G.Wells is still one of the best rule systems out there! Read more
Published 21 months ago by R. Moraes

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!
Wells is the man! Thank you Skirmisher for putting this classic into my hands. It's a great family game - not too complicated, but not inane. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Og

5.0 out of 5 stars A piece of wargaming history
I've been an avid wargamer for 15 years. I'd heard of the rules set down by Wells but hadn't gotten around to reading them. I am glad I did. Read more
Published on December 21, 2006 by Jeremy Balin Deloach

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick it up
This is really worth picking up. A great book and a good time.
Published on April 13, 2006 by Matthew Valentine

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unexpected Pleasure!
For years, gamers in the English-speaking world have gone to all sorts of extremes to acquire copies of H.G. Read more
Published on February 1, 2005 by Nigel James

5.0 out of 5 stars Before the Big War
What a treat to finally be able to read the original words of H.G. Wells' "Little Wars." I'd seen it mentioned many times in other literature and I knew it was a treasured... Read more
Published on January 7, 2005 by L. Albers

5.0 out of 5 stars A great look back
"Little Wars" is a good opportunity to look back 100 years and see how wargames were played then. Wells has a lot of interesting tips on the way to improve your game playing... Read more
Published on October 9, 2004 by L. Howard

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master speaks from the top of the last century.
Probably one of Wells' least known works, Little Wars has nonetheless helped to spawn an entire hobby, industry, and lifestyle. Read more
Published on July 31, 2004 by Leon R Garvin

5.0 out of 5 stars At Last!
I'd heard about this book for a while now, and I've always been fascinated to learn which celebrities are closet gamers...so of course I had to pick this up. Read more
Published on July 30, 2004 by R. Fernandez

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   


Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


So You'd Like to...


Look for Similar Items by Category


Up to 50% Off Chocolates

Leonidas Chocolates Sale
Save up to 50% on gourmet chocolates from Ghirardelli, Godiva, Leonidas Belgian Chocolates, and more from Amazon Gourmet.
 

Big Savings in Books

Bargain Books
Find great titles at fantastic prices in our Bargain Books Store.
 

Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free

4-for-3 Books
Order any four eligible books under $10 and get the lowest-price book free in our 4-for-3 Books Store. See more details.
 

Pull It Together

Shop for drawer pulls
Well-chosen cabinet and drawer pulls provide unity and charm to your home's look.

Shop for drawer pulls

 

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Where's My Stuff?

Shipping & Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue shopping: Top Sellers
Paranoia
Paranoia by Joseph Finder
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Darkfever
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates