military wargaming process

[59][60], Immediately after the end of World War II, there was a precipitous drop in wargaming in armed forces all over the world. In piloting the game in the spring of 2020, faculty observed that the students were engaged and active throughout the experience. The BLUE armada would exhaust itself, and ORANGE would recover and counter-attack. Reisswitz showed his wargame to the Prussian king and his General Staff in 1824. The emphasis was on the experience of decision-making and strategic thinking, not on competition. List known critical events and decision points Step 5. The exception was the Soviet Union. To encourage revisiting and reworking important concepts and approaches, institutions should establish topic-specific funding for series of wargames rather than funding by event. [a] In 1828, General von Moltke the Elder joined the Magdeburg Club and became its manager. A wargame is about tactical or strategic decision-making. In order to wield a new technology optimally, it is not enough for a military to merely have it, but also develop good tactics and know how to organize around it. As a consequence, errors in wargame models tend to persist. The convoy system proved effective against German submarines, which typically operated alone. Modification of the planning process for sustainers part 2: The military decisionmaking process. The staff at WATU would then design counter-measures and test them in wargames. Specifically, the Joint War Games Agency, an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Having simple, loose rules also keeps the learning curve small, which is convenient since most officers have little or no wargaming experience. One side is blue, replicating a NATO-type alliance, while the other is red, to indicate a multi-national Russian led coalition. Wargames, and games more broadly, are not new instruments, nor are they new to the classroom. The wargames foretold that a war with Japan would instead be a prolonged war of attrition, and America would need advance bases in the western Pacific where its warships could get resupplied and repaired. Every person that enters the wargaming room brings with them some biases. Air, land, and maritime, as well as space and cyber forces, are loosely modeled on the current and projected military capabilities of the relevant participants. Photo Description: A resident seminar in the AY20 Class at the U.S. Army War College works its way through a round of Joint Overmatch: Euro-Atlantic applying lessons learned throughout the year. An example is the "Chart Maneuvers" practiced by the US Naval War College during the 1920s and 1930s, which most often simulated a hypothetical war in the Pacific against Japan. READINESS IS PRIORITY #1, BUT READY FOR WHAT? Prior to the 2020 academic year, the MSC course concluded with a student led operational design planning and briefing exercise that assessed how a 15-person seminar synthesized joint, multinational, and service capabilities; joint and Service concepts; and joint functions in a fictional scenario against a regime that was supported by a near peer competitor. Although useful, student effort was inconsistent. [55][56], After World War II, wargaming ceased in Germany, as well as in the other Axis powers. sculptures of soldiers, vehicles, and terrain; which generally serve an aesthetic purpose and have little if any consequence on the simulation. The umpire then moved the pieces across the game map according to how he judged the virtual troops would interpret and carry out their orders. The relative merits and drawbacks of rules-heavy and freeform wargaming are still debated to this day. This meant the players could not react to what the enemy was doing. WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS? Secrecy makes it harder to disseminate corrections if the wargame has already been delivered to the clients. Over the years, other officers updated Reisswitz's game to reflect changes in technology and doctrine. The two most frequently played scenarios were a war with Japan and a war with Britain. Service, experience, or other biases, from student and faculty alike can enhance or detract from implementation and prevent the best learning by the seminar. harvp error: no target: CITEREFCaffrey2019 (, In a letter from Hellwig (an early wargame inventor), dated 26 September 1801, quoted in, These were Admirals Max Horton and Percy Noble. DMSPO primarily accomplishes this through the Military Strategy and Campaigning (MSC) course, which is required for all USAWC students. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense. Soviet wargames typically comprised only a single turn. Ultimately, designers must be mindful of their biases, balance realism with playability, and … Students analyzed a future-oriented, Euro-Atlantic scenario set in the spring of 2027 that was intended to reinforce and practice operational design, operational art, campaigning in conflict, and other principles learned throughout the course. It was based in Liverpool, directed by Captain Gilbert Roberts, and staffed mainly by young women from the Women's Royal Naval Service. They were greatly impressed. CSL has an emerging relationship with a University Affiliated Research Center to explore the possibilities of using Joint Overmatch: Euro-Atlantic as an analytical tool for Combatant Commanders or other Department of Defense organizations. At the tactical edge, wargaming is generally limited to the military planning process and course of action analysis (PDF). Kriegsspiel, the original military wargame, is an example of a tactical-level wargame. For manual wargames, simplicity is paramount. Japan was code-named ORANGE, Britain was code-named RED, and America was code-named BLUE. Military wargames rarely use physical models because aesthetics aren't important to the military and the scale at which military wargames typically play make physical models impractical. To assist it in this task, the Wargam-ing Department asked CNA to help it develop a new approach to war-gaming, one that provides structured and disciplined techniques for This definition is used by the. [24], An example is German submarine doctrine in the World Wars. A particularly noteworthy variant was free Kriegsspiel, developed in 1876 by General Julius von Verdy du Vernois. Using techniques learned in the Soviet Union, North Vietnamese officers wargamed their attacks against South Vietnam and her allies, and were able to coordinates complicated attacks without the need for radio communications by memorizing timetables. List all friendly forces Step 3. [44] It's possible that the US Navy didn't imagine getting into any sort of serious naval conflict in the Atlantic with anyone, and that it simulated wars against Britain simply because it saw the Royal Navy as its role model. He kept a mental track of where the hidden units were, and only placed their pieces on the map when he judged they came into view of the enemy. [58] Had the German submarine threat to merchant shipping not been thwarted, Britain would have been forced to capitulate to the Germans for lack of food and other necessary imports. [8][9], Although commercial wargame designers take consumer trends and player feedback into account, their products are usually designed and sold with a take-it-or-leave-it approach. Wargames can help players master through practice certain routine skills such as how to discuss ideas, share intel, and communicate orders. In World War I, submarines were a new thing and nobody knew how best to use them, and Germany developed its submarine doctrine on the go. See, Sigma II-64 final report: "Most important, perhaps, was the feeling that the Viet Cong might well be able to continue operating in SVN for a considerable period of time using existing stockpiles, captured stores and weapons, and levies on the country, despite destruction of major military and industrial facilities in NVN. They can be organized quickly and cheaply as they do not require the mobilization of thousands of men, their armaments, and logistics systems. Faculty adjudicate and role play the non-military elements as necessary based on team briefings and requests for assistance and information. Attributes and skills required of strategically minded joint warfighters, as well as how many repetitions of those assessments, are required to accurately evaluate student performance. [73], The Johnson administration went on the apply their strategy of graduated pressure in Vietnam, and the outcome of the war proved very similar to what the wargames had foretold. This could also include technologies that can bridge the gap between current seminar wargaming and more structured wargaming, such as technologies that help record and cluster information generated during seminar wargames. The pieces could be moved across the map in a free-form manner, subject to terrain obstacles. It was a highly realistic wargame designed strictly for use as a professional tool of training, and not for leisure. The more telling marker, however, is going to be how (or if!) [26], Around the turn of the 19th century, a number of European inventors created wargames based on chess. [30] When the troops engaged the enemy on the map, it was umpire who rolled the dice, computed the effects, and removed defeated units from the map. A wargame must have at least one human player. These ideas were tested in a combination of wargames and naval exercises. [32] By the 1850s it had become very popular in the army. The German navy at the time did not use wargames and tested new ideas immediately against the British. [43] The board maneuvers simulated battles in detail, with the aid of model ships. In a tactical-level wargame, the scope of the simulated conflict is a single battle. As tensions peak near the end of WarGames the main character types, “Is this a game or is this real?” Joint Overmatch: Euro-Atlantic successfully blurs the lines between reality and gameplay just enough that students and faculty will respond in much the same way as the computer: “What’s the difference?” And this is probably the strongest endorsement for wargames within JPME. The scenario significantly alters or generalizes real-world facts and invalidates some strategic assumptions in order to avoid classification issues. Within the USAWC, the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations (DMSPO) is responsible for ensuring that the unique joint, service, and multinational concepts, capabilities, and planning products are incorporated into the resident education program. In this context, wargames are used to help players understand the decision-making process of wartime command. Additionally, the game simplifies many of the complexities of near-peer conflict in order to focus on critical and creative thinking about the application of all domain warfighting. A military wargame, specifically, is a wargame that is used by military organizations to train officers in tactical and strategic decision-making, to test new tactics and strategies, or to predict trends in future conflicts. Step 1. The first such club was the Berlin Wargame Association. [33] Kriegsspiel was therefore the first wargame to be treated as a serious tool of training and research by a military organization. In a naval wargame, the players need not wait days for their fleets to sail across the ocean, they could just advance the time-frame to the next decision they must make. Prussia was considered a second-rate power and wargaming an unproven novelty. The two competing teams receive specific and unique national level direction to develop and fight a campaign in armed conflict. The computations also slowed down the game; sometimes, a session would take longer to play than the actual battle it represented. This made it difficult if not impossible for German officers to develop their doctrines through field exercises. The pieces, each of which represented some kind of army unit (an infantry battalion, a cavalry squadron, etc. The pieces were painted either red or blue to indicate the faction it belonged to. The game rooms were designed to the resemble the command centers where the Navy coordinated its fleets. The Wargaming Department has a long history of gaming conven-tional military operations. Hitler discouraged strategic-level games, as he was confident enough in his own ability to make strategic judgments. The players concern themselves with higher-level, strategic concerns such as logistics and diplomacy. Live exercises have a similar weakness as the enemy can spy on them to learn what is being tested. If the enemy isn't exploring the same issues in their own wargames, then one can gain a significant edge over the enemy when war breaks out by deploying a more mature doctrine. They teach players how to discuss ideas, and the protocols for sharing intel and communicating orders. Diligent faculty coaching brings students back to the operational and strategic level. [5] In the US Army, many preferred the term "map maneuvers" (in contrast to "field maneuvers"). By the mid-1930s, the wargames resembled very much what the Navy later experienced in the Pacific War. If the wargame is computer-assisted, then sophisticated models are feasible because they can be written into the software and processed quickly by the computer. MORS has partnered with Virginia Tech to offer this certificate. Ken S. Gilliam is a Colonel in the U.S. Army and is the Director of Strategic Wargaming at the U.S. Army War College where he encourages the integration of games in education, analysis, and experience. wargaming process. In a recreational wargame, such looseness would lead to concerns over fairness, but the point of a military wargame is education, not competition. Executing a METL crosswalk using the MDMP in turn facilitates the execution of troop-leading procedures (TLPs) at the company/troop/battery level. They didn't have a good understanding of what submarines could do. In 1894, the US Naval War College made wargaming a regular tool of instruction. The planning process is an ongoing activity, But wargames can be done in good secrecy, so the enemy cannot know what ideas are being developed. This list of tasks, known [72] Another reason was that Johnson's strategists did not like the proposed alternatives. This is in contrast to most wargames, which are played during peacetime and investigate hypothetical scenarios. [16] They teach the players how to cope with incomplete, delayed, incorrect, or superfluous information. Wargames cannot provoke the anxiety, anger, stress, fatigue, etc. This approach was optimal for decision-support but poor for developing the players' thinking skills. Since 1894, wargaming has been a regular tool of instruction there. Select the war-gaming method Step 6. This was an oft-cited justification for wargaming at the US Naval War College. He therefore did not bring the findings to President Johnson's attention. [49], On the other hand, the wargamers at the Naval War College failed to develop good submarine doctrine. During the inter-war years, the German navy experimented extensively with new submarine tactics in wargames (in tandem with field exercises) and developed the "wolf-pack" doctrine to defeat the anti-submarine counter-measures that had been developed during World War I (notably the convoy system). A game that only exercises the player's technical skills, such as a combat flight simulator, is not a wargame. The umpire also managed secret information so as to simulate the fog of war. Previously, wargaming was relegated to individual faculty preference, incorporating wargames into the core curriculum where they saw opportunities, but there was no stock, “off the shelf” model designed for all to use. Creative Thinking about National Security and Defense. The game does not use specific units or combat platforms. [38], After World War I, the Navy suffered severe budget cuts that prevented it from upgrading and expanding its fleet. At the US Naval War College, some preferred the terms "chart maneuvers" (when simulating campaigns) and "board maneuvers" (when simulating battles), although the term "war game" was never officially proscribed.[6][7]. [74] In their post-mortems of the Vietnam War, numerous historians have cited the dismissal of the Sigma wargames as one of many important failures in planning that led to America's defeat. ; and accordingly the umpire used a ruler to move the pieces across the map. [17], Wargames can be used to prepare grand strategic plans and develop doctrine with a low risk of the enemy becoming aware of these developments and adapting. [45] A war with Japan, on the other hand, was a real concern, and as the years passed the wargames were increasingly played against ORANGE. The umpire placed pieces on the map only for those units which he judged both sides could see. A wargame, generally, is a type of strategy game which realistically simulates warfare. A variety of improvisational gimmicks were required to run wargames for the contemporary era.[66]. Subsequently, the military decision-making process (MDMP) is analyzed to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the process as compared to the current operational environment and the way experienced commanders naturally make decisions. In January 1942, the British Royal Navy established a naval tactical analysis unit called the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), which was tasked with developing ways to counter the German submarine "wolf-packs" that were devastating shipping convoys in the Atlantic. Before we get too far, let’s address some of the baggage that comes with wargaming. "Business wargames" do not simulate armed conflict and are therefore outside the scope of this article. Students square off in Joint Overmatch as two competing combatant command level Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTF) with subordinated component commands. A wargame is adversarial. During the Course of Action (COA) Analysis stage of the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP), staff members wargame the options of both friendly and enemy forces in an action-reaction-counteraction cycle to expose and address potential issues. Whereas a commercial wargame might have thousands or even millions of players, military wargames tend to have small player bases, which makes it harder for the designers to acquire feedback. Faculty from across the college, however, are in a constant dialogue about how to assess the OPMEP-directed. In 1933, the Navy's Research Department reviewed the wargames played from 1927 to 1933 and concluded that the fundamental problem was that the armada over-extended its supply lines. When Germany began openly rearming in 1934, its officers already had fairly well-developed theories on what armaments to buy and what organizational reforms to implement. Wargaming tries to visualize the flow of a battle. The game also had some rules that modeled morale and exhaustion. List assumptions Step 4. The chart maneuvers were about fleet movements, scouting and screening operations, and supply lines. Doing so allows wargames to assume more prominent roles in Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) at the Senior Service College level. However, almost all of them had participated in wargames at the Naval War College, so they had plenty of virtual combat experience. Before the MDMP process begins, the BSO needs to get into the wargaming fight. Dice, rulers, computations, etc. For example: After World War I, Germany was forced to downsize its armed forces and outright give up certain weapons such as planes, tanks, and submarines. [36] The world's first recreational wargaming club was the University Kriegspiel [sic] Club, founded in 1873 at Oxford University in England. The staff at WATU used wargames to test various hypothetical submarine tactics against virtual convoys, and if a certain tactic proved consistently effective and produced outcomes similar to what the actual convoys were reporting, WATU assumed that is what the Germans were in fact doing. The application of military power is the central focus of the game, but political, economic, and informational instruments of national power can impact perceived political victory reflected in the payoffs of military outcomes. [64][65] When the system was first made operational in 1958, the Navy discovered that it could not model recent advances in military technology. [53], German wargaming at this time was restricted to tactical and operational-level play. The application of military power is the central focus of the game, but political, economic, and informational instruments of national power can impact perceived political victory reflected in the payoffs of military outcomes. The other meaning, from miniature wargaming (a form of recreational wargaming), is physical models, i.e. A wargame is about decision-making, not about learning the technical capabilities of a particular weapon or vehicle. I shall recommend it enthusiastically to the whole army." Wargaming thus became a vital means of testing hypothetical strategies and tactics. Military practitioners may reflect back on the painful steps in the Military Decision Making Process or an equally agonizing multi-day exercises in a simulation center. Unlike the German navy, the US Navy had no significant experience with submarine warfare. Other students might operate within the teams as selected CJTF staff at the direction of their Faculty Instructor.

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