How to Play With Toy Soldiers

Playing with toy soldiers is a simple way to entertain yourself and spend your free time. Toy soldiers date back thousands of years to the time of Egyptian pharaohs. In more recent decades, plastic soldiers and accessories have become available and can be ordered online.

Buy a set of toy soldiers. Sets are available from local toy stores and online, where you can buy characters from different times and places throughout history. Some toy soldiers are solid colors, others have more detail.

Create a conflict for your two sides to fight about. Whether it is a conflict within a country that causes a civil war or a war over resources in a foreign land, the soldiers need a reason to fight and you need a story line to keep you entertained. One side needs to attack the other. Determine which side is the aggressor.

Set up a battlefield. The war could be fought on your bed, the kitchen table or in the vast expansive space of the outdoors. Online retailers sell accessories to equip your soldiers, like bunkers, cannons, bodies of water and more. Do not let the battlefield get too large or some soldiers might go "missing in action." You could get in trouble if your soldiers are captured by your parents after they've been left in a place where others could trip.

Read books about war history to determine fighting strategies. Learn about the Trojan horse from the days of ancient Greece or about George Washington's surprise attack on the British when he crossed the Delaware River on Christmas morning 1776. You can also read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu to learn about some of the oldest military strategy that still exists today. Determine a battle plan for your toy soldiers and march on.

Negotiate a peace treaty. Once the toy carnage is over--or when it is time for dinner--negotiate a peace treaty between the two sides. Create allied forces and go buy more toy soldiers to prepare for the next day's battles.