Hardback with red cloth cover with coloured pictorial onlay, 111pp, sixteen black and white photographic plates and red marginal illustrations to every page by J. R. Sinclair. Published by Frank Palmer, Red Lion Court, London 1913
Little Wars was the follow up to Wells’s 1911 ‘Floor Games’ greatly expanding on the rules and system of play for miniature toy soldiers, incorporating infantry, cavalry and artillery. Inspired by an evening spent with Jerome K. Jerome (author of Three Men in a Boat) knocking down W. Britains’ toy soldiers with a toy cannon, Little Wars was written for older children ‘from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty…” providing simple rules for miniature wargaming. Regulations on movement, firing and close combat were developed with a set amount of time for each player to manoeuvre and fire. A short appendix gives suggestions on military logistics, engineers, cavalry charges and the railway transportation of troops.