The War Game
He must have been about 12 when he invented this game. It required a smooth floor (no designs), chalk and some pieces of scrabble. We drew on the floor a battle ground that looked like this
Two teams are indicated as the adjacent Red and Blue battle squares. The small squares in green are soldiers. The yellow squares are Politicians.
Objective of the game: Clear your opponents pieces off the board!
Playing it is a bit like carrom (but I liked it a whole lot more then carrom) - use your pieces to hit the opponent's and if your piece goes off the boundaries, your opponent's comes back in.
This is the simple version of the game - there's no politician.
The more complicated version was... well, more complicated! I don't even remember all the rules. When I consulted with The Inventor, he said we had to make up rules as we played to keep the game from disintegrating! But here are the rules as I remember. If you want to play this, go ahead, and just make up the rules!
Each soldier here is made by stacking 3 scrabble pieces. He has a similar stack of ammunition next to him. You hit the enemy soldier with the ammunition from your soldiers. If you scatter 2 or more scrabble pieces from the enemy's body, the enemy is ‘dead’ (otherwise just wounded) and his scattered body and ammo become yours! This is where the complication comes in - Is a wounded soldier allowed to attack, or just stay there? And the weapons you acquired from a killed enemy were not for immediate use. They became "auxiliary" weapons (I had heard the word for the first time), and there were some rules about when to use them - such as a certain level of depletion of your own ammo. As I said, just make up the rules as you go along!
The politician, as you can see is heavily protected. His scalp is the ultimate prize.
We had loads of fun playing this on lazy summer afternoons, unaware of the addictive powers of the television and internet.
And if you have more kids, just draw a battle square for each kid!
When I started writing this, what really intrigued me was – a 12 year old thinking of placing the politician behind flanks of soldiers, making him the ultimate target (and not a very popular figure in the impressionable mind of his sibling). On second thoughts, not much of a surprise. This was around the time of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and the Inventor would have soaked up dozens of dinner time political talk.
posted by Cloudy @ 1:14 PM
10 Comments:
First comment cloudy
And a salaam from TCP to the inventor :-) I think I should send L1 your way but he will be in India come Monday.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hey V!!! I so so so loved this post!!!! Totally made me nostalgic – And what I liked most about the game (apart from the fact that you could play it without understanding the rules – because back then, I never could) is the ability to change human carcass into ammo!
Very well written!
I used to play games by myself sometimes – when we moved away – only my pawns were millipedes and godhus – here too, there was duality between pawns and opponents.
Your first day first post! And what do you know?? TCP beats me to the comments! Darn. But know what? I’ve always felt he was a lot like one of us cousins. You knows him??!
Will mannaatu ever feature on this list?? Perhaps it’s a little too unstructured. I loved that game you taught me – speed.
TCP, ThankU :) Does L1 invent games too? Wants them preserved? Send them across!
Oy T! Mannaatu is definitely going to be featured. The more unstructured, more the fun! Write up your millipede game and send. Will feature it :)
Nope, don't know TCP, apart from that great blog of his.
Hi Cloudy, nice blog. Read it and wsa reminded a little of Puli-Meka (Tiger and lamb) that I used to play with my grandmother. She was really good at it. Wish i could play one more game wiwth her.it was great fun.
Wow! Nice idea Veena! Hats off to your brother's creativity.
Most of our creative ideas revolved around making new rules to home/galli cricket. We invented many more ways of getting dismissed. You won't find these terms in first class cricket - 2D (2 runs), pitch catch out, hit the window, full toss into a compound, but you find them all in galli cricket.
One of the recent games we invented was in UVCE. Yes! We invented hand ball like game using frisbee. The players pass the frisbee to their fellow team members , or score a goal if they can. The only condition is, the player shouldn't move even a single step while he has the frisbee in his hand.
Keep posting new games whenever you find time :-)
RS, nice to see you here! Your Puli-Meka sounds interesting... would love to know more about that!
Hey Roshan, that was a revelation... and I thought you were one of the guys who studied! ;-)
Post a Comment
<< Home