History of KS - the use of wargame miniatures as seduction aids in 1616

I note that The Perfect Captain’s first class site cites an instance of miniatures gaming in 1616 from Ben Jonson's comedy 'The Devil is an Ass'.

The Devil’s dodgy advice to the gamer (or perhaps his fellow club members) unsurprisingly mixes and promotes both sex and violence:

"Get him the posturing book, and his leaden men, to set upon a table, 'gainst his mistress chance to come by, that he may draw her in, and shew her ............ battells. "

Clearly then, Jacobean wargamers did exist in 1616, though with diabolic seduction techniques like this they appear to have died out again until Laurence Sterne arrived in the eighteenth century.

Many thanks for this titbit YRH. It's always nice to get an insight into your world .

I wonder how far back wargaming (as opposed to the more abstract chess) goes back?

The Romans certainly had board & counter games of various types, although I don't think we actually know the rules for any of their games. Based on the boards which have been found so far, there were quite a number, but they appear to be more akin to something like 9-men's Morris or checkers than anything with an explicit military flavour.

You never know with the Romans though. In some areas they were much more advanced than we normally assume, because so much of it was lost after their empire ceased to be. Occasionally stuff is found on achaeological digs and people say wow! Never suspected they had that. We didn't get that technology again until the Industrial Revolution etc. So something might yet turn-up.

Martin (J)