Therefore the element of chance only is wanting to make of war a game, and in that element it is least of all deficient. We see ... how much the objective nature of war makes it a calculation of probabilities: now there is only one single element still working to make it a game, and that element it is certainly not without: it is chance. There is no human affair which stands so constantly and so generally in close connection with choice as war. But together with choice, the accidental, and along with it good luck, occupy a great place in war. --SUMMARY OF INSTRUCTION - p 205: Vol III. (Defence of) Buildings and Enclosures, Villages, Small Towns, etc. If troops are brave and carry on a war with enthusiasm there is no place nor condition of things in which a few can so well resist many as in the defence of houses. But if we are not quite certain of the men individually it is better only to occupy the houses, gardens, etc., with riflemen and place guns at the approaches and to draw up the greater part of the troops Qi-2') in close column, in the place itself or behind it under cover, in order to rush upon the enemy with this reserve when he attempts to enter. --Clausewitz Bk. I en 1 (Trans. Colonel J.J.Graham 1908). Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 114 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com