Shout out to Johann Opiz

[Malchor]

Just going to put it out there that when it comes to the development of wargames (Kriegspiel), Johann Opiz and his Kriegsspiel does not get enough attention.

In many ways Johann Opiz pioneered most of what Georg Leopold von Reisswitz (the elder Reisswitz) gets credit for.

There were a couple of earlier Kriegsspiel games before Johann Opiz, but they amounted to games with chess-like mechanics. Johann Opiz created a game with dice to introduce chance and simulation, one unit represents a battalion of infantry, cavalry, artillery and other strategic units. Opiz intended his game to be used for both recreation and military training. 

Here is an example of how sophisticated this game was—remember, this was the first of its kind, before von Reisswitz's Kriegsspiel (source: boardgamegeek.com/thread/1029638/basic-description-rulebook:)

Paragraph 33,
How casualties are calculated with the help of dice.
The result of 2 d6 (2- 12) is multiplicated with 1, 2, 3 or 4.
This is how many men of a unit are killed in an attack. The number of casualties is subtracted from the total number of men a unit has and is noted in a chart.
E.g.: A unit (batallion) of Light Infantry has a total strength of 1000 men and is attacked.
The result on 2 d6 is 7, this is multiplicated with 4 (the standard attack number).
The casulaty number is 7 * 4 = 28. This number is subtracted from 1000. So, the adjusted strength of the Light Infantry is 972.

Would love to hear a comparison between Johann Opiz and Georg Leopold von Reisswitz's early game.

von Reisswitz the younger is, of course, the person who finally got Kriegspiel into us in the Prussian military.

More here: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146461/das-opizsche-kriegsspiel and boardgamegeek.com/thread/1029638/basic-description-rulebook 


increment Any info on Johann Opiz's Kriegsspiel and just how much he pioneered Kriegsspiel before our friends the Reisswitz?

[increment]

Nov 4, 2018 13:39:26 GMT -6 Malchor said:

increment Any info on Johann Opiz's Kriegsspiel and just how much he pioneered Kriegsspiel before our friends the Reisswitz?

Jorit Wintjes has done some direct work on Opiz, he and correspond about Opiz occasionally. Wintjes had an article on the subject in the British Journal for Military History about him; also, his article in Vulcan #4 (2016) might be found online. I guess I don't quite see Opiz's use of dice as a clear step towards a true simulation, but certainly I'd agree Opiz deserves to get more light shed on him. I'd also say it's case of parallel evolution that is only documented after the fact, which always adds a little uncertainty to the historical process.

[Malchor]

Nov 4, 2018 17:43:33 GMT -6 increment said:

 I'd also say it's case of parallel evolution that is only documented after the fact, which always adds a little uncertainty to the historical process.

Thanks for the links and resources.

On parallel evolution, that can't be correct. Georg Leopold von Reiswitz acknowledges Johann Ferdinand Opiz.

First off, there is an overlap in their lifetimes and Opiz's book was out for 6 years before Reiswitz developed his game. Johann Ferdinand Opiz's kriegsspiel book was published in 1806, he claims he invented it in 1760. Opiz died in 1812, the same year Georg Leopold von Reiswitz (1764-1828) is credited with developing his kriegsspiel. 

See also: www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01916599.2017.1366928

The difference between the game developed by Reiswitz Sr in 1812 and the version developed by Reiswitz Jr in 1824 is instructive in a similar way. Dice were only introduced by the younger Reiswitz, nine years after the Napoleonic wars. It is possible of course that the concept was already developed by his father, but in the introduction to his 1812 game Reiswitz Sr duly and perceptively acknowledges the novel random trait in Opiz’s game, without showing any readiness to include dice in his own game.¹

¹Reiswitz Sr (1812), xxiii–xxiv.

Adding text from the Reiswitz Sr book.

From page xxiii:

Das alteste strategische Kriegsspiel, wlches wir besitzen, ist unstreitig von der erst 46 Jahre nach ihrer Entstehung bekannt gemachten Erfindung des Kaiserl Königl. Bohmischen Banko-Geffalle-Inspecteurs Joh. Fred. Opitz zu Czaslau in Bohmen von dessen Sohme G.E. Opitz, und in Halle in Handels Verlage 1806 in 8vo. herausgegeben 145 Seiten und 1 Kupfer. Das Spiel selbst ward schon zwoschen 1759 und 1761 von dem Verfasser als Jesuit in Klattau in Bohmen erfunden, und der damalige Jesuit, nachherige Oberstlicutenant Peter Novaz, so wie der Jesuit und nacherige Proessor der Mathematik zu Prag, D. Stanislaus Wydra nahmen an der Erfindung des damals erst 19 Jahr alten Opitz thatigen Antheil.

In English: 

The oldest strategic war game, which we own, is indisputable from the invention of the Kaiserl Königl, which was only published 46 years after its creation. Bohmian Banko-Geffalle-Inspecteurs Joh. Fred. Opitz zu Czaslau in Bohmen of his Sohme G.E. Opitz, and in Halle in trade publishers 1806 in 8vo. issued 145 pages and 1 copper. The play itself was already invented between 1759 and 1761 by the author as Jesuit in Klattau in Bohmen, and the then Jesuit, later Colonel Licentiate Peter Novaz, as well as the Jesuit and later Professor of Mathematics at Prague, D. Stanislaus Wydra took part in the invention of Opitz, who was only 19 years old at the time.

Reiswitz Sr was very much aware of Opiz and his game.

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Nov 4, 2018 19:12:11 GMT -6 Malchor said:

On parallel evolution, that can't be correct. Georg Leopold von Reiswitz acknowledges Johann Ferdinand Opiz.

I didn't say parallel evolution with Reiswitz, I meant with the entire wargaming tradition that began with Hellwig, as we are to understand Opiz independently lighted on similar principles.

[Malchor]

Nov 4, 2018 20:51:57 GMT -6 increment said:

Nov 4, 2018 19:12:11 GMT -6 Malchor said:

On parallel evolution, that can't be correct. Georg Leopold von Reiswitz acknowledges Johann Ferdinand Opiz.

I didn't say parallel evolution with Reiswitz, I meant with the entire wargaming tradition that began with Hellwig, as we are to understand Opiz independently lighted on similar principles.

Got it. That was not clear.

With that clarification I agreed. Yes, it would seem Opiz work was in parallel with and independent of Hellwig and Venturin.

If anything, it seems Hellwig and Venturin are more or less an evolutionary deadend—though ironically better known than Opiz.

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Nov 4, 2018 21:59:43 GMT -6 Malchor said:

If anything, it seems Hellwig and Venturin are more or less an evolutionary deadend—though ironically better known than Opiz.

Well, I think the situation is perhaps a bit more complicated; this is something Wintjes and I have corresponded about. I am not so sure that Opiz's use of dice really triggered the 1824 Reiswitz simulation system: my recollection is that Opiz largely used dice determine troop movement rather than combat results, apart from their use for a loss multiplier. The fact that the elder Reiswitz does not describe the use of dice in his 1812 wargame is also a bit of a puzzler if we want to draw a direct line of influence here, as it appears to me that the younger Reiswitz created his probability tables based on other sources, a use which seems very different from Opiz's. Moreover, the elder Reiswitz said he was working toward his wargame, on the Hellwig model, in like 1783/4, which is more than two decades before the Opiz system saw print. The very late publication of the Opiz rules also makes me wonder to what degree they accurately reflect the game as originally played - it is certainly possible that some principles in the Hellwig/Venturini tradition ended up being quietly fused into the rules as we read them. This is a question we always face when someone documents practices decades after the fact with the claim that they preceded some uncannily similar, and very well-known, game.

The elder Reiswitz is in any event unambiguous about the influence of Hellwig and Venturini on his work.