Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Games That Have Been Used By The Military or Military Operations Research (OR) Community

 

 

As the hobby of civilian wargaming grew in popularity during the late 1960s and 1970s, more and more professional military men and OR analysts became familiar with them. There are even stories that Henry Kissinger himself enjoyed a match of Diplomacy now and then.

 

As military wargames grew in sophistication, so also did their delicacy and expense, both in terms of time and resources. The process of gathering, evaluating, and manipulating data overshadowed the product. Program managers soon realized that in many circumstances, a “95% correct” solution that used available data and could be reached in a few hours or days with minimal expense was just as good or better than the 99+% correct solution that took months or years of expensive effort. Often, these solutions, or at any rate insights into possible solutions, could be provided by COTS games.

 

Listed below are examples of commercial games that have been used by professional military staffs or military OR analysts to explore problems.

 

Computer-based Tactical Operational Strategic Manual Simulations Tactical Operational Strategic Other Matrix games Curiosa

 

 

Computer-based

 

Tactical

Harpoon (Matrix Games)

Scale: individual ships

Comment: Computer and manual versions of Harpoon have apparently been used as official and unofficial training aids by Naval personnel for years.

 

 Point of Attack (HPS Simulations)

Scale: tactical

Web site: http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/POA2/POA2b.html

Comment: Funded by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research under a Phase II USDoD “Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)” Contract, 1999 to 2001. Updated version "Point of Attack 2" released in 2007. Free to Defense organizations and as a COTS game sold to the public, though with some data removed. Depicts combat over a wide range of circumstances and levels, from platoons and individual vehicles to company or higher sized units.   Features complete depiction of supporting artillery, air strikes, electronic warfare, engineer, chemical warfare, helicopter, naval, and psyop units, network communications, and satellites. 

 

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/POA2/POA2.htm

 

Steel Panthers (Matrix Games)

Scale: platoon

Comment: “Tanks in the Street: Lessons Learned Through Bytes not Blood” is a monograph by Major Ricky J. Nussio written in 2001 while at USACGSC, detailing his experience in modifying Steel Panthers to examine the Russian armoured assault on Grozny in 1994. Can be downloaded at http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA387359&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

 

Tacops (Battlefront, 1994)

Scale: platoon

Comment: Designed by a retired Marine, Major I. L. Holdridge, and now in its fourth version. Special versions of Tacops have been developed for and used by the Canadian and New Zealand militaries, the United States Marine Corps, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the Armor School. Tacops was also used in the “Team Trackless” project sponsored by James Dunnigan between 1998 and 2000 for civilian and military gamers to explore the use of the LAV-25. [link to Team Trackless page]

 

Operational

 

The Operational Art of War (Talonsoft, Matrix Games)

Scale: company to division

Comment:

 

Strategic

 

A Force More Powerful: the Game (BreakAway Games, 2006)

Scale: individual to large group

Comment: Released as a follow-on to a documentary series with the same name on non-violent social movements. It is the only commercially available game that examines the role and abilities of individuals and groups involved in non-violent civil disobedience. A complex and demanding game that analyzes how people organize to resist or effect change in modern societies, and are affected by their environment. Includes a scenario editor to create situations other than the ten fictional ones provided with the game. BreakAway Games has designed many other simulations for the professional military, including Expeditionary Airbase Simulation.

Websites: http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/game/index.php

http://www.afmpgame.com/

 

Manual Simulations

 

Tactical

 

Assault on Kuwait City (Gulf Games Company, 1991)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13860“

Scale: platoon to company

Comment: Game on airmobile infantry operations in and around urban areas. Played with game counters, “command cards”, and a paper mapsheet of Kuwait City with large hexes.

 

Firefight (SPI, 1974)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8833

Scale: infantry fireteam and individual vehicle

Comment: Originally produced by Simulations Publications Inc. under contract to the US Army. See also link to Team Trackless page.

 

Flight Leader (Avalon Hill, 1986)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3711)

Scale: individual aircraft

Comment: Preceded by Check Six (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8380)

 which was produced by Close Simulations under contract to the US Air Force.

 

Harpoon (Clash of Arms Games)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5928

Scale: individual ships

Comment: Computer and manual versions of Harpoon have apparently been used as official and unofficial training aids by Naval personnel for years.

 

Operational

 

Tac Air (Avalon Hill, 1987)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3712

Scale: company to regiment

Comment: Preceded by FEBA (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8387, which was produced by Close Simulations in 1983, under contract to the US Air Force.)

 

Strategic

 

Algeria (Microgame Design Group, 2000)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11293

Scale: company to division

Comment: Designed by a MORS member. Formed the basis for Algernon, a COIN game conducted at the MORS workshop “Improving Cooperation Among Nations in Irregular Warfare Analysis”, 11-13 December, 2007.

 

Arabian Nightmare: Kuwait War (3W, 1990)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2799

Scale: battalion to division

Comment: Notable because it was designed and published while the events it simulates (the First Gulf War) were actually unfolding. One of the first games to be collaboratively tested and developed using the Internet.

 

Crisis: Colombia (Engelmann Military Simulations, 1990)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10602

Scale: battalion to division

Comment: Counterinsurgency game designed by a MORS member.

 

Gulf Strike (Victory Games, 1986)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2076

Scale: battalion to division

Comment: According to James F. Dunnigan (http://www.hyw.com/Books/WargamesHandbook/9-wargam.htm#Overview) this was one of the first games officers in the Pentagon turned to when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990.

 

Other

 

Battle for Baghdad (MCS Group, 2009)

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29848

Scale: abstract.

Comment: Designed by MORS members. Demonstrated at the MORS workshop “Improving Cooperation Among Nations in Irregular Warfare Analysis”, 11-13 December, 2007, and at the Center for Army Analysis.

 

The National Security Decision-Making Game

Scale: abstract

Comment: From the game’s information website: “The National Security Decision Making (NSDM) Game is a fast-paced, challenging simulation of contemporary politics and eternal strategic principles. It is modeled after the simulations used by senior U.S. Government officials to explore geopolitical options. NSDM has been presented at the U.S. Naval War College, the U.S. Air University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Ashland University and at a wide variety of civilian venues such as Border Wars, Call to Arms, Cold Wars, DexCon, Dragon*Con, Dreamation, Fall In, Gen Con, Gen Con SoCal, HistoriCon and Origins. Each of the players in this political-economic-military seminar game occupies a role in which he or she can affect the formulation of national policy in their country. Most players find NSDM to be intellectually stimulating, vigorously competitive, and unlike any other gaming opportunity they have ever had. Players receive instruction on the NSDM Game from former game directors and controllers from the U.S. Naval War College. The game will be directed by personnel from the Department of Defense with the assistance of subject matter experts from private industry and academia.”

http://www.nsdmg.org/

 

Matrix games

A type of free-form participatory game equally suited to personal or online play. See

link to separate page on matrix games.

 

Curiosa

Air Force Project Warrior

An informal program created during the 1980s that encouraged professional development and study of warfare by USAF personnel. One byproduct of the program was acquisition of numbers of COTS games by base libraries, and after-hours wargaming programs to play them. 

 

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