Professional wargaming

Overview

• Professional wargame: wargame used by military organizations for training and analysis, distinct from recreational wargames.

Definition

• Defines wargames as adversarial simulations involving human players and tactical/strategic decision-making, excluding field exercises.
• Discusses terminology preference variations like Kriegsspiel, map/chart/board maneuvers.

Professional wargames vs commercial wargames

• Professional games prioritize realism over game balance and fairness.
• Professional games are often commissioned by military clients and used as a tool, whereas commercial games are products for entertainment.

Design concepts

Models

• Focuses on conceptual models of weapons/terrain rather than physical models.
• Stresses simplicity for manual games to avoid distracting calculations.

Level of war

• Distinguishes between tactical (single battle) and strategic (campaign/war) levels.

Utility

General strengths and limitations

• Cost-effective and time-saving alternatives to field exercises.
• Cannot perfectly replicate human emotional stressors of combat.

Education

• Enhances decision-making, information processing, and communication protocols under pressure.

Research and planning

• Facilitates confidential development of military doctrine and equipment acquisition strategies.

History

The Reisswitzian wargame

• Details Georg von Reisswitz's 1824 Kriegsspiel, which replaced chess-like grids with accurate maps and professional mechanics.

German professional wargaming (1824–1914)

• The Prussian army adopted Kriegsspiel as training; its success in the Franco-Prussian War popularized it globally.

Wargaming spreads around the world

• Influenced Strategos and US Naval War College training.

Wargaming at the US Naval War College (1919–1941)

• Used to prepare for World War II in the Pacific, developing strategies against the Japanese ORANGE force.

German wargaming after World War I

• Used to circumvent Treaty of Versailles restrictions on equipment and train for wolf-pack tactics.

British naval wargaming during World War II

• The Western Approaches Tactical Unit used real-time wargaming to develop convoy defenses.

Soviet Union

• Utilized rigid, single-turn wargaming on 3D models for decision-support.

The Navy Electronic Warfare Simulator (1958)

• The first computerized wargaming system, though limited by 1950s technology.

SIGMA war games (United States, 1962–1967)

• Strategic-level games that correctly predicted the ineffectiveness of graduated escalation in the Vietnam War, but were largely ignored.