tition gives. A war game may be simply a game of sport--and
sometimes it is so played; but the intention is to determine some
doubtful point of strategy or tactics, and the competitive element
is simply to impart realism, and to stimulate interest. When two
officers, or two bodies of officers, find themselves on different
sides of a certain question, they sometimes "put it on the game-board,"
to see which side is right.

This statement applies most obviously to tactical games; but it
applies to strategic games as well; for both are inventions designed
to represent in miniature the movements of two opposing forces. The
main difference between strategic and tactical games is the difference
in size. Naturally, the actual means employed are different, but
only so different as the relative areas of movement necessitate.
In the strategic games, the opposing forces are far apart, and do
not see each other; in the tactical games, they operate within
each other's range of vision.

War games when played for the purpose of determining the value
of types of craft and vessels of all kinds, may take on almost
an infinite variety of forms; for the combinations of craft of
different kinds and sizes, and in different numbers, considered
in connection with the various possible combinations of weather,
climate, and possible enemy forces, are so numerous as to defy
computation.

In practice, however, and in a definite problem, the number of
factors can be kept down by assuming average conditions of weather,
using the fairly well-known enemy force that would appear in practice,
and playing games in which the only important variable is the kind
of vessel in question. For instance, in the endeavor to ascertain
the value of the battle cruiser, games can be played in which battle
cruisers are only on one side, or in which they are more numerous,
or faster or more powerful on one side than on the other. Naturally,
the games cannot be as valuable practically as they otherwise would
be, unless they consider the amount of money available. For instance,
if games are played to ascertain the most effective number and
kinds of craft for which to ask appropriations from Congress at
next session, the solution, unless a money limit were fixed, would
be impossible. In other words, the amount of money to be expended
must be one of the known or assumed factors in the problem.

As this amount can never be known, it must be assumed; and, in
order that th