Jobs in Professional Wargaming

 

Connections USA is the professional wargaming conference. Colonel Matt Caffrey, USAF, was ordered to run a conference to further professional wargaming, and the order was never rescinded. So, since 1993, the great and good of professional wargaming have gathered to discuss their art and craft.

Before the pandemic, I was sitting around a table in a bar during Connections USA. As I bought a round of drinks, I realised that the majority of the active professional wargamers in the world could fit around a single table: Peter Perla, Roger Mason, Ed McGrady, Yuna Wong, Tom Mouat, Tim Price, and a handful of others. Professional wargaming was a tiny world in 2017.

In 2026, professional wargaming is an integral part of military education, training and analysis. Practically every defence company of note now has at least a few staff with some responsibility for wargames. Many people are interested in getting into this world, and some of them ask me how to get a job in professional wargaming. I respond by suggesting how they might become a rounded professional because that's the skill set that will actually get them to an interview.

Know your domain

The first step is to become a master of your professional domain. If you want to run a space wargame, you need to know about satellites. The same goes for cyber, air, submarines, and any other area of modern warfare. You cannot expect a political party to let you umpire a game about a "run on the state currency" unless you can persuade them you understand national economics. It helps, of course, to have a subject matter expert to facilitate the game — but you still need to know more than the basics yourself. When I ran a game about a "run on the pound" some years ago, it helped enormously to have an advisor from the Bank of England on the team, but I still spent a week reading before the initial sponsor meetings. Wargaming is a skill, but it doesn't replace the need to be genuinely knowledgeable about the topic being gamed.

Know your craft

When I talk to professional wargamers, I'm often frustrated by how limited their mental toolbox of techniques can be. Wargamers who say they only use "simulations," or only “digital games”, or only “manual games”, are restricting their expertise to a narrow slice of the field. Some insist that every wargaming problem can be solved with a matrix game (or a board game, or whatever their comfort zone happens to be).

To be a master wargamer, you need to be familiar with a very wide range of games,  professional and hobby alike. You should have designed matrix games, used AI to assist a strategic-level game, and understood military course of action analysis (and why it isn't a wargame). You need to know what a hidden scenario is, what a committee game is, and stay aware of developments in roleplaying. Watching someone run a game of Dungeons & Dragons can be a masterclass in conjuring a scenario and immersing players in a game world. A roleplaying session of Call of Cthulhu can teach you a great deal about putting players under mounting stress. Practically every top-rank professional wargamer I know plays hobby games to some degree. So if you don't know what a megagame (or muggergame) is, or what confrontation analysis is, go and find out.

Getting to the interview

There's a wide range of professional wargaming jobs out there and some jobs in serious games, and even more in hobby wargaming, but to get to an interview you need to know the military domain being gamed to a good standard. You also need a genuinely broad base of wargaming experience, spanning miniatures, Eurogames, cyber, multi-domain operations etc.

When you're on that lifelong journey to becoming a master wargamer, I'll see you at the bar. The round's on me, while you tell me about the trials and tribulations of the professional wargaming world. Is professional wargaming an art or a craft? We have never been able to agree, but perhaps you will be able to tell us.
 

Something strange happened at Charing Cross Underground Station

In May 2026, the main stream media and social media reported that the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) set up a HQ on the platform to a NATO wargame about an invasion of the Baltic States in five years time.

Some people in defence thought it was fake news; the thought of a reported ‘top secret’ exercise held in the public eye seemed ridiculous. Actually, the exercise did take place, but it was not exactly what it seemed. Using an underground station does not protect from NBC attack. It offers some protection from N, but without back up generators, water supply and secure hardened communications channels, the HQ might survive but without communications. A HQ that cannot communicate is useless. Without forced air systems, an underground station offers little protection against B and C.

The ARRC HQ has 400+ staff and they simply would not fit on the platform at Charing Cross. Also the computer monitors were facing the track, so those passing on the trains could photograph what was on the screens.

Practising deploying to an underground carpark out of the public eye would have given the same training benefit to the HQ.

So what was the purpose of the exercise? It seems likely it was to be seen. It is part of an attempt to shift the narrative and prepare the British public for the threat of war affecting the UK homeland.

Actually, councils in the UK are considering civil resilience; issues such as climate change, floods, cyber-attack, food shortages, civil disorder etc. If the UK government mentioned civil defence, such councils would object on ideological grounds. However, everyone agrees that developing local resilience is sound apolitical policy. There is a surge in table top wargames about these topics up and down the UK.

Applying Deception in Wargaming: Introducing Limited Intelligence into Wargames

 

This book covers:

“Guide to applying deception in wargaming”

“Techniques for adding limited intelligence to wargames”

“Fog of war mechanisms for realistic gameplay”

“Practical handbook for wargame designers”

“Innovations in wargaming methods and practice”

“Military deception concepts for hobby and professional wargamers”

Limited intelligence is pivotal in wargaming because it realistically simulates the uncertainty and unpredictability of real-world operations. When players only have partial information, they must make decisions based on assumptions and incomplete data, just as military leaders do in actual conflict. This not only tests their analytical skills and adaptability but also exposes them to the risks and consequences of misjudgement, fostering a deeper understanding of operational complexity. In real warfare, deception exploits this limited intelligence and is used to mislead opponents, mask intentions, and create opportunities.

This books is packed full of practical examples of how wargamers can include limited intelligence, and opportunities for deception, into their games. A wide range of game mechanisms simulating ‘the fog of war’ are discussed; from hidden scenarios, to uncertainty about the enemy order of battle. Uncertainty, also makes hobby games more interesting as it increases the challenge where players are compelled to develop robust strategies for gathering information, interpreting ambiguous signals, and managing the unknown.

This book is published by the History of Wargaming as part of its ongoing work to document innovation in wargaming methods and practise.

The book is available for purchase via Amazon or the Kindle

MORS (Military Operations Research Society) courses are now running face to face in Europe

 

MORS runs a large number of professional wargaming courses virtually in America. They are now running face to face courses in the UK. The first one is in February and is in Salisbury, UK. 

 Link to MORS webstie

Overview:

This introductory wargaming course is designed to enhance analyst capability and knowledge in multiple aspects of professional games, including research, design, development, execution, analysis, and reporting. Through a combination of lectures, European and NATO examples, and practical exercises, participants will learn the theory behind wargames before diving into research design and execution. Building on Peter Perla’s theory of the “Architect, Artist, and Analyst” model for game designers, the course includes material that covers each style of wargame design. The course culminates in a practicum where participants will be given the opportunity to develop and execute their own game.

Objectives:

Our expert instructors will guide participants through the key aspects of wargaming and aid them in creating their own game on the final day of the course. Along the way, participants will learn about the following:

• Defining a wargame
• A brief history of wargames
• Building blocks of game design
• Adjudication
• Strategic gaming
• Wargame graphics
• Game analysis

Royal Navy Wargaming 1929 to 1945 and the Western Approaches Tactical Unit

 

John Curry and Alvaro Radigales

 

The technique of wargaming was just another item in the mental toolbox of Royal Navy officers of the early to mid-twentieth century. When they put their ship in harms way, a captain would have an idea of the probabilities of success and failure based on the operational analysis encapsulated in the wargaming rules. They would have practised the doctrine of the Royal Navy, summarised in the Fighting Instructions, in fleet exercises and on the wargames table.

In the period covered by this book, 1929-1945, the Royal Navy used a number of naval wargames for education, training and operational analysis. This meant when the demand for training escort commanders was drastically increased in the face of the U-Boat threat, wargames were inevitably seen as part of the answer. This book includes the rules for the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), and places the game in the wider context of a wargaming culture.

There is a wealth of material in the archives about the wargames of this period. This selection for this book includes:

The 1929 Royal Navy Rules.

The Atlantic Trade Defence Wargame run by the Admiralty in 1938.

The WATU rules and combat tables for 1944/45.

Find, Fix and Strike- a training game for operation officers on aircraft carriers.

Supporting this volume is an appendix with extracts of the doctrine for the Royal Navy, The Fighting Instructions (1939).

Also included is all the material found to date on naval weapon effectiveness in the national archives for this period.

This book is a source book for the Royal Navy’s understanding of ‘big gun’ naval warfare.

This book is published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of its research into the development of wargaming.