A Ridiculously Short Annotated Bibliography of Wargames-related Books

Abt, Clark. Serious Games. University Press of America, 1987.

Originally published in 1969. Sections are available for viewing on Google Books. In the early 1960s Clark Abt designed and developed the TEMPER (Technological Economic Military Political Evaluation Routine) computer simulation model for DoD, the first dynamic interdisciplinary mathematical model of long-term global Cold War conflict.

Allen, Thomas B. War games : the secret world of the creators, players, and policy makers rehearsing World War III today. McGraw-Hill, 1987.

A somewhat sensationalistic look at analytic wargames conducted by the military.

Brennan, Richard. Protecting the Homeland: Insights from Army Wargames. RAND Corporation, 2002.

An account of various wargames conducted in 2001-02 by TRADOC, inspired by the Army After Next project.

Dresher, Melvin. The Mathematics of Games of Strategy. Dover, 1981.

Dunnigan, James. Wargames Handbook, Third Edition: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames. IUniverse, 2000.

The third edition of this well-known work is apparently not much different from the second, which was published in 1997 and is available free online at http://www.hyw.com/Books/WargamesHandbook/Contents.htm.

Herman, Mark (with Frost, Mark and Kurz, Robert).  Wargaming for Leaders: Strategic Decision Making from the Battlefield to the Boardroom. McGraw-Hill, 2008. http://www.wargamingforleaders.com/

Written for a business audience but includes much background on how wargames have been used for military analysis. The three authors are all principals at Booz Allen Hamilton and have extensive backgrounds in professional and civilian wargame design.

Wilson, Andrew. The Bomb and the Computer: wargaming from ancient Chinese mapboard to atomic computer. Delacorte Press, 1969.

A dated book but an interesting look at the early history of the topic. Especially interesting chapters on the early RAND political-military games (e.g. AGILE-COIN).

Perla, Peter. The Art of Wargaming: A Guide for Professionals. Naval Institute Press, 1990.

A sound book by a well-known member of the community.

Williams, John. The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy. Dover, 1986.

Basic introduction to game theory and matrices.

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