Six Rules for Wargaming: The Lessons of Millennium Challenge ’02
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Six Rules for Wargaming: The Lessons of Millennium Challenge ’02
Entry Excerpt:
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Six Rules for Wargaming: The Lessons of Millennium Challenge ’02
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
Work: Wargaming Critical in Dynamic Security Environment
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The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst has recently reintroduced manual wargaming into the curriculum—part of a slow renaissance of manual wargaming methods at a few professional military education institutions in the UK, US, and elsewhere.
You'll find a description of their simple platoon-level game and how it is used at PAXsims: https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/0...t-kreigsspiel/
Hat tip to WoTR for this article by:The focus is on the use of wargaming in the classroom for strategic studies, but somehow I think it is worth adding here:http://warontherocks.com/2016/04/war...om-an-odyssey/Quote:
Dr. James Lacey is the Professor of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps War College.
There is a series of board games by GMT games starting with Cuba Libra and ending most recently with Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt against Caesar simulating, to some extent, the complexities of COIN conflicts. I'm curious if anyone else is familiar with them and would like to know your thoughts.
Also - I recently introduced into my Reserve unit a variety of the Matrix Games exercise and it met with great applause from the participants (junior and mid-career analysts and officers). War-gaming isn't just about mapping out courses of actions but can also be useful in juicing the creativity and analytical focus necessary for tackling complex problems. In this context, 'realism' is not always welcome or even helpful.
I co-designed A Distant Plain (Afghanistan 2003-13) with Volko Ruhnke, and I am finishing up Colonial Twilight (Algeria 1954-62) right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanPride
Another game I designed in 2000 on the Algerian War inspired some parts of Volko's COIN system.
The first COIN system game was Andean Abyss, on Colombia in the 1990s: Cuba Libre was the second.
Obviously I am "pro" these games!
Matrix gaming can be a wonderful tool as well.
Good for you for using it.
Brian
Thanks Brian. I have the most recent reprinting of A Distant Plain on order - so Fire in the Lake and Liberty or Death are keeping me busy in the interim. When you have time, could you elaborate on some of the concepts you thought important to include in the game design and how you arrived at deciding what to include and what to exclude?Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Train
Thanks for your pre-order! I understand that copies will be heading out Real Soon Now.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanPride
I think the best answer to your question is in our Designer's Notes to A Distant Plain, which you can read in the Playbook available here: http://www.gmtgames.com/adistantplai...BOOK-FINAL.pdf
I go into some detail about the differences between the four factions in the game, why they are the way they are, and what is represented in the game by the map, pieces and game mechanics.
I think Volko and I would be pretty confident in letting these remarks stand for themselves.
In designing the original volume of the COIN system, Andean Abyss, Volko was partly inspired by another counterinsurgency game I had designed in 2000, "Algeria" (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/...ence-1954-1962).
This game is part of a family of games using variations on a common system I had devised for COIN: in order of design they were Tupamaro (Uruguay 1968-72), Shining Path (Peru 1980s-90s), Algeria (1954-62), Andartes (Greece 1947-49), Kandahar (2009 ca.) and EOKA (Cyprus 1955-59).
These games feature area movement, asymmetrical force structures and menus of missions for each side, and particular rules to reflect the nature of each conflict (Peru's internal war, organizational morale and friction, external sanctuaries, etc.).
The latter two games have more moving parts than the others and incorporate further features such as criminal gangs and non-state militias.
You can look up all of these on Boardgamegeek.com for a look at their components (except EOKA, I am about to publish that one shortly).
Meanwhile, in things COINy I am working through Colonial Twilight, the first GMT COIN system game to be designed for 2 factions, not 4. Quite a change but still has the essence of the system.
Brian
In an effort to explore the benefits of bringing wargaming into the classroom, the US Army War College's Strategic Simulations Department is conducting a discussion panel and game play event on 27 August, 2016, at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, in Carlisle, PA. The panel will open with discussion from academia and military institutions. Game play will follow the panel and drive home the theories covered by the panelists. The event is open to anyone, educator, gamer, and hobbyist. The event will run from 10:00 A.M until 4:00 P.M.
Further details at PAXsims.
I've written up a brief report on the recent "wargaming in the classroom" event at the US Army War College, and posted it at PAXsims:
https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/0...the-classroom/
A report on the recent Connections UK professional wargaming conference at King's College London:
- main conference report (via PAXsims)
- Civil War in Binni (pre-conference not-so-serious megagame)
- Connections UK wargaming website (includes slides and video from conference)
While I'm at it, I might as well also point out my recent crisis simulation report for the Atlantic Council:
- Exploring US engagement in the Middle East: A crisis simulation (Atlantic Council)
- More on the game (via PAXsims)
- More on the game methodology (via PAXsims)
Marines Begin Wargaming, Refining ‘Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment’ Concept
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The Forum's Rex Brynen is co-hosting this wargame @ Kings College London and the BBC has a short report. Citing Rex:Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41172485Quote:
Prof Brynen says in recent years there's been a major resurgence of war gaming as a serious analytical and training tool in both the US and UK
This thread is about a nearby regional problem, with 44.3k views:Wargaming the South China Sea
A short commentary on gaming an attack on Estonia via KIngs Wars Studies blog:http://www.strifeblog.org/2017/05/30...-save-estonia/
My report on the recent Connections UK professional wargaming conference can be found here:
Connections UK 2017 Report
Tom Mouat's report on the earlier Connections US conference is here:
Connections US AAR
Some musings on uses for wargaming
http://grogheads.com/featured-posts/9720
(way more at the link)Quote:
The professionals talk about wargaming in very different terms than the casual hobbyists do. Don’t get me wrong, the professionals know the difference between a hobby or game and their jobs. Most of them also wargame for fun, and have a huge knowledge of the hobby. But for casual wargamers the professional uses of wargames mainly seem like two cases, and an occasional third.
Some recent wargaming posts at PAXsims that may be of interest:
- Developing a wargame of the 2017 liberation of West Mosul: https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2018/0...oming-nineveh/
- Trip report from a week of wargaming discussions at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory: https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2018/0...isdom-at-dstl/
Good article, albeit two years old.
INTERWAR-PERIOD GAMING TODAY FOR CONFLICTS TOMORROW: PRESS ‘START’ TO PLAY, PT. 1
http://cimsec.org/interwar-period-ga...z_PCp4sYOUZW-c
Shoutout here -Quote:
“As the interwar period suggests, wargaming is one of the most effective means available to offer senior leaders a glimpse of future conflict, however incomplete. Wargames offer opportunities to test new ideas and explore the art of the possible. They help us imagine alternative ways of operating and envision new capabilities that might make a difference on future battlefields.”1
– Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work and General Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, December 8, 2015
Quote:
Red “cells” and red “teams” are frequently confused for each other. A red cell is an entity typically led by a staff intelligence officer tasked with representing enemy doctrine and its likely courses of action. A red team is tasked with challenging perceived norms and assumptions made by a commander and his staff in order to improve the validity and quality of a plan.