Games That Have Been Developed By Or For The Military OR Community

This is a very preliminary guide to games developed by or for the military OR community.

Computer-based

Tactical

Operational

Expeditionary Airbase Simulation (BreakAway Games, 2009)

JANUS

JTLS

(Dunnigan, update of MTM)

MTM

(Dunnigan)

SAS

(Dunnigan, Herman)

TACWAR

TAM

(Herman, derived from SAS)

Strategic

Peace Support Operations Model (PSOM) (UK Ministry of Defense, 2007)

Manual games

Tactical

Check Six (Close Simulations)

Scale: individual aircraft

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8380

Comment: Produced by Close Simulations under contract to the US Air Force. Succeeded in the civilian market by Flight Leader (Avalon Hill, 1987) (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3711).

Combat Engineer Game (US Army Engineering School)

Scale: abstract

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32400

Comment: Used as a combination teaching/trivia game for Combat Engineer trainees.

Miniatures game rules (various publishers)

Scale: individual vehicle to battalion

Comment: At this link, game John Curry describes three sets of miniature gaming rules sets used by the post-WW II Canadian, American and British armies: http://www.johncurryevents.co.uk/wargamearticles/20thcenturygames.htm. (This is part of Curry’s larger “History of Wargaming” project at http://www.johncurryevents.co.uk/)

Contact!: Used by the Canadian Army in the 1980s, inspired by a set of rules published by Wargames Research Group, a British civilian company.

Dunn-Kempf: (named after the two officers who designed it, and also known as "The Army Tactical Wargame", this game was used 1977-97. The rules were inspired equally by the classic "Kriegsspiel" umpired wargame and another set of Wargames Research Group rules. Over 500 sets, complete with miniatures, were distributed to Army posts and situations and rules were expanded and contrived to reflect the unit's training needs. The Canadian, Australian and British armies also experimented with these rules. In the 1990s this manual game was replaced by a computerized version called "Computer Assisted Airland Battle" (CAABS).

The British Army Tactical Wargame:  This game was desgned in 1956. More operational in scale (units represented squadrons and battalions), it was designed to teach officers some of the aspects of operational staff planning, especially an appreciation of the time needed to conduct coordinated operations. Also interesting in that it explored some of the issues of using tactical nuclear weapons (at a time when the US Army was experimenting with the "Pentomic" divisional organization). Boardgamegeek entry: (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36368)

Operational

Algernon

Scale: company to battalion

Comment: Developed in 2007 by OSD PA&E staff to explore COIN strategies, using a civilian wargame Algeria (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11293) as a basis. Demonstrated in the game “Ginger Junction”, conducted at the MORS workshop “Improving Cooperation Among Nations in Irregular Warfare Analysis”, 11-13 December, 2007.

FEBA (Close Simulations, 1983)

Scale: company to regiment

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8387

Comment: Produced by Close Simulations, under contract to the US Air Force. Succeeded n the civilian market by Tac Air (Avalon Hill, 1987)

(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3712).

Strategic

Other

Infochess (Aegis Research Corporation, 2007)

Scale: abstract

Comment: A variant of the classic game, designed to teach lessons in Information Operations and asymmetric warfare. See a description at  http://www.resilientcognitivesolutions.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/hfes-02-paper-infochess-final.pdf.

Logistics Command (Westinghouse, 1978)

Scale: abstract

Boardgamegeek entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8819

Comment: Designed by someone (no one seems to know who) at Westinghouse, obviously for use by military logistics officers and planners, or people planning to sell to the military. Each turn players purchase new land, air or naval units that are rated for combat effectiveness, Mean Time Between Failures and Mean Time to Repair. The game generates crises randomly that are won by the side having the largest combat-ready force at the time.

Seapowers (Center for Naval Analysis, 2008)

Scale: abstract

Comment: A card game designed by Peter Perla’s team at the Center for Naval Analysis for the Chief of Naval Operations’ Strategic Studies Group. Players take the role of one of four naval powers and must plan and execute the development of their respective fleets in the years leading up to World War One, then fight their fleets in a series of wartime missions. Demonstrated at the "Connections '09" conference, 9-12 March, 2009.

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