[PTTG]

In Kriegsspiel, a series of small changes lead to much of the western world considering France's position in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to be virtually unassailable; nonetheless, the actual fighting of the war was practically identical.

The utter shock of the world to see France defeated by a relative underdog lead to an even more enthusiastic search for the Prussian secret. As in our time, Prussia possessed the only military to make extensive use of wargaming, a fact sized upon by thinkers the world over.

Every major military power became convinced that the secret to military strength was the detailed strategic training available through kriegsspiel.

In the present day (1959), the fad has run its course and be re-invigorated time and time again. While military kriegsspiels are top secret, (and in the english-speaking world, are exclusively called 'war games' since WWII,) civilian variations exist with an immense amount of detail and scale, while remaining practical and fairly easy to use, often with specialized slide rules and mechanical calculators available.

These games have the prestige of Chess and Go the world over; their motifs are used in literature and art. Professional civilian players exist, and although they are recognized as not really commanders, the media does seek out their thoughts on strategic considerations.

The valuables of this world are, of course, finely tuned pen-and-paper war games and miniature models. For better or worse, WWII introduced both armored tactics and maneuver warfare. There is also the possibility that within the top-secret military war games, there are strategic games for fighting even more advanced conflicts... even perhaps something presaging global thermonuclear war.

For the civilian market, sure, most of those games are pretty unimportant. For the military market, there may be some very interesting ideas locked up in strategic gaming institutes of Moscow, London, or Bethesda.