Wednesday 20 November 2019

Successful Professional Wargames: A practitioners handbook

New book published by the History of Wargaming Project. link

The back cover says:

"You will benefit from this book if you are a practitioner of the art of serious wargaming. Done well, the simple act of putting players in an immersive environment, asking them to make decisions and then face the consequences of those in a dynamically evolving narrative generates astounding insights and internalises learning objectives. Yet, as Clausewitz said of war, everything in wargaming is simple, but doing the simplest thing is difficult. This book explains the seemingly simple. It is a detailed guide to designing and delivering successful wargames, whether you apply the technique to Defence, other government departments, business, the emergency services, academia or humanitarian operations. This is important because good wargames save money but, first and foremost, they save lives.
The author

In his book, Graham Longley-Brown draws on his first-hand experience and those of leading professionals around the world to tell the story of wargaming best practices. From delving into the nature and applicability of wargames (they’re not just for the military), to building the best teams for producing and managing them, to articulating the life cycle of a successful game, it is a story which will prove invaluable for professional practitioners of wargames for both security and business.
Peter Perla, author of The Art of Wargaming

This book offers a cornucopia of invaluable information and ideas based on Graham Longley-Brown's decades of hands-on experience in designing and running professional wargames. There are extensive contributions from other experts, making the book a gold mine of insights from across the global wargaming community. It is essential reading for anyone wishing to use this increasingly prominent analytical and educational technique.
Professor Philip Sabin, author of Simulating War

Soldiers take great pride in being physically fit. Sport plays a major part in Army culture. But fighting power comprises three components: physical; moral and conceptual. The physical component is important, but the conceptual component is the decisive and campaign-winning differentiator: in war, the winners are the thinkers, the rest are losers. Wargaming is not only a directed element of the military planning process, but it also provides a fitness training programme for the brain in which every thinking Army officer should engage. Anyone involved in military thinking, or indeed any form of tactical or strategic thinking, from government to business, will derive huge benefit from Graham Longley-Brown’s excellent exploration and explanation of the (often neglected) art of wargaming.
General (Retired) Andrew Sharpe CBE
 

Sunday 3 November 2019

David Rowland's The Stress of Battle: Quantifying HumanPerformance in Battle for Historical Analysis and Wargaming

by David Roland
Editor: John Curry
This is one of the classic works on historical analysis of combat by David Roland as part of his work in the Ministry of defence. It was widely recognised for its pioneering research on combat.
 
The book starts by summarising development of UK MoD historical analysis from studies in the 1970s. The development in the 1970s, of pulsed laser weapon simulators enabled real-time force-on-force exercises to be conducted and monitored. Analysis of these exercises, allowed advice to be given on more realistic combat modelling, and in particular human behaviour and reactions, underpinning operational effectiveness, force structures and equipment procurement studies.
 
Using quantitative Historical Analysis (HA), it was possible to extend to comparisons between the levels of effectiveness between simulated and real combat and to establish basic combat degradation estimates, one weapon class at a time. The effects of suppression, surprise and shock, were also quantified. The result of this research shed new light on infantry combat, armour v anti-tank weapons and heroism on the battlefield.
 
The large number of diagrams make the analysis clear and although the book is based around statistics, no in-depth maths is needed to understanding the conclusions.
 
The book has been published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of ongoing efforts to document the development of professional wargaming.