Wargaming Small Wars (merged thread)

[BayonetBrant]

^ I'll see you there!

[The Olive Sword]

I haven't finished reading through this thread yet, so I'm not sure if this particular war game has been mentioned yet or not. If so, it's probably worth a 2nd mention:

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/Product...ve_action.html

I've been using this just to gain a better understanding of what goes into corps level operations. From what I've seen this is the only commercially available game where proper organization is a must. A lot of core doctrine principles also transfer directly to the game. Plus, there's immense strategic depth having to manage moral, op tempo, logistics, recon, PSYOPs, and EW to go along with the fundamentals.

I think it's a good piece of software for civilians and professionals alike. I believe it was used at the Army General Staff College for a couple of years even.

I'm sure some of you guys should find it interesting and useful, and if you ever need a civilian to beat up on, let me know.

[Rex Brynen]

The Connections 2011 interdisciplinary wargaming conference was recently held at NDU.

Connections is the only national conference dedicated specifically to wargaming. Since 1993 Connections has worked to advance the art, science and application of wargaming by bringing together all elements of the field (military, commercial and academic) so participants can exchange info on achievements, best practices and needs.

As might be expected, there was much discussion of things COIN.

The agenda is available at the link above. Brant live-blogged the proceedings during the event at Grog News, and I have an after action review at PAXsims.

Side note: Andean Abyss (still in development) seems likely to emerge as my favourite COIN-themed commercial wargame to date.

[Rex Brynen]

From the Simulation & Training Journal, 25 August 2011 (by yours truly).

Preparing for an era of uncertainty
As the U.S. military leaves Afghanistan and places less emphasis on COIN operations, how will it prepare for the next unpredictable conflict?


The reduction of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan certainly does not mark the end of the counterinsurgency (COIN) mission there. However, it does signal a need to think about how military training and simulation requirements might change in the coming decade. With U.S. and NATO forces likely to face unexpected opponents operating in unexpected ways in unfamiliar settings, simulation-based training needs to emphasize creativity and adaptability, as well as hone more conventional skills.

...

Part of the answer is to shift training from its current mission-determined preoccupations with COIN to more generic, full-spectrum war-fighting skills that are likely to be useful in a variety of settings. A second requirement, however, is to also develop training and simulation assets that encourage the kind of critical thinking and flexibility that will allow military personnel to adapt quickly to a range of inherently unpredictable mission requirements.

Here, a certain paradox presents itself. While few in the military would reject the importance of critical thinking skills, military training systems are not always designed to truly encourage them. Training (including simulation-based training) is often about standardization, not original and out-of-the-box thinking. It revolves around doctrine, even though the very notion of prepackaged, doctrinally based solutions may reinforce the dysfunctional tendency to use cookie-cutter approaches in very different operational contexts. Training may suggest there are right and wrong ways of achieving a desired solution, when those on the ground may actually find themselves faced with a difficult series of “least worst” trade-offs where definitive outcomes are elusive. Post-Cold War missions often pose complex moral and political choices, where it is far from clear what the right thing to do is.

What are the implications for simulation design? A number of possible considerations can be identified, many of which stress the value of integrating uncertainty into the training process.

Training and simulation materials ought to be designed to encourage students to ask the right questions, not to impart unvarying “right answers.” Post-simulation debriefing should place at least as much emphasis on how participants decided upon a course of action (and what assumptions were embedded in this) as on the course of action itself....

Comments welcomed here or at PAXsims.

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Lowy Institute Thomas Ricks in a short article:http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts...YVjJ54.twitter

[Rex Brynen]

Hat tip to Lowy Institute Thomas Ricks in a short article:http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts...YVjJ54.twitter

And some thoughts on the piece at PAXsims.

[BayonetBrant]

http://tsjonline.com/story.php?F=7681050

Steve Goodwin, director of the strategy and operations division of National Defense University’s Center for Applied Strategic Learning, echoes Lambert’s assessment.

“The exercise community has not generally been successful in developing COIN models and simulations that can predict outcomes with a reasonable degree of confidence,” he said. “This is particularly true of games looking at complex contingencies, where psychological and social lines of operation, such as information operations and political negotiation, are hard to capture in mathematical models.”

But in just the past few years, the mood has changed. Don’t call it optimism. Call it realism, a sense of what is possible and what isn’t. Irregular warfare models and simulations are coming. But if you’re hoping for a computer program to tell you how to beat the Taliban, don’t hold your breath.

further down the article...

Another example is Gemstone, a strategic simulation for senior leaders that was developed at the Center for Applied Strategic Learning at National Defense University (NDU).

“Most COIN sims and games have existed at the operational level and lower,” said Guillory, who co-designed Gemstone. “Their focus was on the guys in the field. How does the grunt talk to people? How does he avoid pissing people off? We have also done OK with battalion and brigade staffs. What we haven’t done is look at the strategic-level thinkers that are putting out policy, allocating resources, money and time over the course of two, three, 10 years. If I’m going to put a lot of budget into governance, or infrastructure, or military development, will it pay off for me in five years? We don’t game those things very well, if at all.”

Gemstone is essentially a BOGSAT (bunch of guys sitting around a table) seminar-style game, backed up by computer adjudication. Originally designed to orient new students at NCU’s College of International Security Affairs, the game puts players in senior central government roles in a nation beset by insurgency. Last year, the game was set in Colombia, and Colombian officials participated. A subsequent exercise in September centered on the Philippines.

Gemstone divides a country into provinces or states. Players allocate resources such as troops, police and economic funding. Their decisions are fed into the computerized adjudication model, and the results are displayed as color-coded outcomes on a scale of red to green. The simulation is expressly designed to incorporate Field Manual 3-24, the Army’s COIN doctrine.

“Elements of the doctrine include the game’s focus on lines of operation, including service provision, governance, perceived security, information operations and economic development,” said NDU’s Goodwin. “There is a lot of emphasis on gaining an understanding of how the parts feed into the whole in 3-24.”

[AdamG]

The Vietnamese take on 'Call Of Duty'. Can their brand of tactical simulations be far behind?

Anybody with a computer can slay virtual terrorists, storm troopers or kamikaze pilots.

Now videogamers can play the role of Ho Chi Minh's communist forces as they rout French colonists in a blood-spattered shoot'em-up.

Developed by Hanoi-based Emobi Games, "7554" is an example of how Vietnamese entrepreneurs are setting their sights on creating their own brands, instead of doing piece work for foreign companies. That can help them avoid falling into the so-called middle-income trap afflicting many emerging-market businesses.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...200588958.html

http://www.emobigames.vn/EN/Games/7554.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/video/ass...C-5B7EBAFA69BA

[Rex Brynen]

I ran some student volunteers through a stabilization game today that worked quite well:

Afghan Provincial Reconstruction game

It certainly isn't a high fidelity (or even medium fidelity) simulation of Afghanistan by any stretch, and has relatively little to say about the kinetic end of things. However it does do a nice job of representing the challenges of security and development in conflict-affected states in an easily playable package, especially as they related to issues of resource allocation, donor coordination, and the importance building local community support.

[BayonetBrant]

http://tsjonline.com/story.php?F=7681050

just an update, the corrected link is

http://www.defensenews.com/article/2.../Firmer-Ground

since TSJOnline rearranged all their content