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

[SWJ Blog]

Work: Wargaming Critical in Dynamic Security Environment

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[SWJ Blog]

Marines Begin Wargaming, Refining ‘Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment’ Concept

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[davidbfpo]

The Forum's Rex Brynen is co-hosting this wargame @ Kings College London and the BBC has a short report. Citing Rex:

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

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41172485

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/

[Rex Brynen]

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

[BayonetBrant]

Some musings on uses for wargaming

http://grogheads.com/featured-posts/9720

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.

(way more at the link)

[Rex Brynen]

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/