Wargaming Small Wars (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for this article by:

Dr. James Lacey is the Professor of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps War College.

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/

[AmericanPride]

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.

[Brian Train]

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.
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

[AmericanPride]

I co-designed A Distant Plain (Afghanistan 2003-13) with Volko Ruhnke, and I am finishing up Colonial Twilight (Algeria 1954-62) right now.
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?

[Brian Train]

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?

Thanks for your pre-order! I understand that copies will be heading out Real Soon Now.

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