Wargaming Small Wars (merged thread)

[Steve Blair]

You also might be able to modify Warhammer 40k or standard Warhammer to work for this. Lots of terrain and such out there, and the miniatures are of a good size as well.

[Rex Brynen]

You also might be able to modify Warhammer 40k or standard Warhammer to work for this. Lots of terrain and such out there, and the miniatures are of a good size as well.

Believe it or not, my Warhammer 40k Orks are already modelled on the West Side Boys. However, what shreds of credibility I still have would vanish if I put those in front of a class.

[M-A Lagrange]

While searching for wargame board material to play with a Yemeni officer who is rotting in the same hole than me, I found that game: Breaking news

I did not play it but thought it could be interesting as this game seems to integrate the media dimension (have to read the rules in depth).
Believe can be an interesting teaching material for 1st course/introduction to media management on operation field.
Especially as the scenarios are mainly focussed on counter terrorist/swat operations with civilian population involved.
http://www.dadiepiombo.com/bnrules.html


For those like me who are stuck far from nice little plastic angry warriors ( I do miss my WH40K and LoTR in the field), I found that game: Iraki Roads.
The very good point of it is that everything is available for paper soldiers. Just have to download your squad, vehicules... print it and play.
http://www.iraqiroads.de.tl/
(Tips: adverts and pop up are very, VERY annoying on that site)

[Rex Brynen]

I did not play it but thought it could be interesting as this game seems to integrate the media dimension (have to read the rules in depth).
Believe can be an interesting teaching material for 1st course/introduction to media management on operation field.
Especially as the scenarios are mainly focussed on counter terrorist/swat operations with civilian population involved.
http://www.dadiepiombo.com/bnrules.html

I've seen those.

Phil Barker, of Wargames Research Group fame (arguably the best rules-writer in the business, ever) has been working on a set of modern company-level COIN-type rules for the past few years. I'm not sure I like the dice system, but they otherwise look excellent. You'll find them here (at the bottom of his page, as a .doc file).

[pvebber]

I think this site may have been brought up in the past, but a great resource for classroom wargames is:

http://www.juniorgeneral.org/

Simple, rules, that can be modified easily, and easy to make components.

Pete Pelligino, a contributer to the site, has used the simple rules to run "cocktail party games" on the parque dance floor at the O-Club here in Newport to commemorate Trafalgar, Midway and Tsushima.

[Rex Brynen]

Cross-posted from PaxSims, on behalf of the folks at the Center for Applied Strategic Learning, NDU:

Regular readers of PaxSims will have seen the occasional posts about a series of roundtable events at National Defense University (NDU) on the subject of strategic gaming, hosted by the Center for Applied Strategic Learning (CASL). The goal has been to create a regular forum for practitioners and scholars to exchange ideas and compare notes about issues relating to game design, the use of games for analytical and teaching purposes, and interesting projects in the field. CASL is pleased to announce that our quarterly series of in-person roundtables will now have an affiliated online component, the Strategic Gaming Roundtable group site at APAN (All Partners Access Network).

The site is intended to be a place to continue conversation from the quarterly meetings, as well as a place to discuss gaming experiences, works in progress, and the state of the field. We hope that the new site will further advance our goals of getting to know and building lasting professional connections between gamers.

If you have a professional or academic interest in strategic gaming (or in simulation of peace and conflict issues, as Rex likes to say) we hope you will join the conversation. Please email Tim Wilkie to request an invitation.

[Rex Brynen]

GMT Games recently brought out a GWOT boardgame, Labyrinth: The Global War on Terror, 2001- .

It has generally great reviews at BoardGameGeek, although there has been some thoughtful criticism of its portrayals and assumptions. Obviously it is a hobby wargame not a serious/professional one, but I thought it was interesting.

[Rex Brynen]

I recently played (and reviewed) the boardgame Hearts and Minds (Vietnam, 1965-75). It is a solid effort with very playable game mechanics, although I didn't find it especially engaging.

While the victory conditions are largely political (US casualties and NVA/VC successes generate "hawk/dove points" that determine the game winner), although these political outcomes are largely achieved through military force.

That left me wondering--if one was asked to design a strategic (10 year) simulation of the Vietnam conflict, would would be the essential dynamics that the game mechanics would need to capture?