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The military has a long history of using war games for training, going all the way back to Kriegspiel [1]. At least one history book [2], has been written abou

The military has a long history of using war games for training, going all the way back to Kriegspiel [1]. At least one history book [2], has been written about the topic. However it is rare that these military training games make it outside of their domain and become available to the general public. A rare exception may be the games designed by Volko Ruhnke [3], who designed games for training the CIA (though these may not be war games per se, but rather games about complex geopolitical situations). Mr. Rhunke's experience led him to become a highly successful commercial game designer. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel [2]. The Art of Wargaming: A Guide for Professionals and Hobbyists by Peter P. Perla (Author), R. Dawn Sollars (Illustrator) [3]. https://spyscape.com/article/meet-the-cia-spy-who-creates-wargames-for-spies-amateurs https://spyscape.com/article/meet-the-cia-spy-who-creates-wa...

anigbrowl 2y ago
Can't upvote this hard enough. I'm fascinated by large scale games of this kind and have a loose acquaintance with some people who run them, but it's a very tiny industry that's almost exclusively based around DC for obvious reasons.
- rareitem 2y ago
  Are they online games or real life games (e.g. board games)?
  - anigbrowl 2y ago
    I mean real life games, like the ones hosted by/for military and disaster planners. The only places I can think of on the west coast that might do that sort of stuff are the RAND corporation and the Naval Postgraduate school at Monterey.
  - JoeDaDude 2y ago
    I think it is a safe bet that they are mostly computer games by now, though there is a long history of using board games for training. That said, there was Freedom of Information Act request to uncover some of the games Mr. Rhunke developed for the CIA and they turned out to be physical board games.
- cl42 2y ago
  If you're curious, here's a 165-page Taiwan war game run across multiple scenarios and events: https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-battle-next-war-wargaming-chinese-invasion-taiwan https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-battle-next-war-wargamin...
  - anigbrowl 2y ago
    Bless you, this is exactly my kind of thing. Thanks.
pfdietz 2y ago
The Naval War College famously engaged in wargames in the interwar years. They were invaluable preparation. https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Naval-College-Wargame/dp/0244128723 https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Naval-College-Wargame/d...
livrem 2y ago
I have quite a few books on this topic. Perla's was probably the first that I read and it is good, but to anyone interested in the topic I would first recommend Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World" ("A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games"). It's a book about how D&D came to be and covers many topics, but the section on wargames is very well researched and detailed (and I enjoyed the rest of the book as well). My second recommendation is CG Lewin's "War Games and their History". It is a bit lighter on the history of military professional games, even if there is a chapter or two on that, but the chapters on non-professional wargames are amazing. The author has a personal collection of games going back to the 19th century and the book is full of photos and descriptions of obscure games that I really enjoyed reading about and that I never found in any other source. It covers games up to around 1950, so it does not get into any of the more well-known modern history of wargames (starting with Avalon Hill in the 1950's).
fbdab103 2y ago
The "Wrens" was a division of women Navy sailors who played WW2 war games to identify how German UBoats were so successful. Played many scenarios, and replayed events after attacks to understand German tactics. Would get called in to game out live events as they were happening to decide upon the next day's strategy. Arguably led to enormous increases in British naval effectiveness. One little writeup I could find on it: https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/real-life-battleships-game-ww2-german-uboats/ https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/real-li... . Little blurb from the page: The Game, as it was to become known, took over the top floor of the building, which came to look like a cross between a school gym and a child’s nursery. The floor was covered in linoleum and divided into painted sectors. On this make-believe ocean, the Wrens moved miniature convoys – model merchant ships and their battleship chaperones – according to directions given by the officers taking part in the exercise. But while the Wrens were permitted a bird’s eye view of the play area, the naval captains were allowed only occasional peeks through holes in canvas booths, arranged at the side of the playing field, positioned to recreate the limitations of visibility at sea. ...During the post-mortem that followed each game, all of the players would be treated to a bird’s eye view of the battle. The officers could at last see the tracks of the U-boats drawn on the floor in green chalk, set against the movements of their own ships drawn in white, and learn from the umpires whether or not they had managed to sink any submarines. Often, the officers would realise that they had made numerous dreadful mistakes during the Game, which might have resulted in the loss of their ships in earnest combat.
- euroderf 2y ago
  Sounds like it might've been an inspiration for Ender's Game.

anigbrowl 2y ago

Can't upvote this hard enough. I'm fascinated by large scale games of this kind and have a loose acquaintance with some people who run them, but it's a very tiny industry that's almost exclusively based around DC for obvious reasons.

rareitem 2y ago
Are they online games or real life games (e.g. board games)?
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  I mean real life games, like the ones hosted by/for military and disaster planners. The only places I can think of on the west coast that might do that sort of stuff are the RAND corporation and the Naval Postgraduate school at Monterey.
- JoeDaDude 2y ago
  I think it is a safe bet that they are mostly computer games by now, though there is a long history of using board games for training. That said, there was Freedom of Information Act request to uncover some of the games Mr. Rhunke developed for the CIA and they turned out to be physical board games.
cl42 2y ago
If you're curious, here's a 165-page Taiwan war game run across multiple scenarios and events: https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-battle-next-war-wargaming-chinese-invasion-taiwan https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-battle-next-war-wargamin...
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  Bless you, this is exactly my kind of thing. Thanks.

pfdietz 2y ago

The Naval War College famously engaged in wargames in the interwar years. They were invaluable preparation. https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Naval-College-Wargame/dp/0244128723 https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Naval-College-Wargame/d...

livrem 2y ago

I have quite a few books on this topic. Perla's was probably the first that I read and it is good, but to anyone interested in the topic I would first recommend Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World" ("A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games"). It's a book about how D&D came to be and covers many topics, but the section on wargames is very well researched and detailed (and I enjoyed the rest of the book as well). My second recommendation is CG Lewin's "War Games and their History". It is a bit lighter on the history of military professional games, even if there is a chapter or two on that, but the chapters on non-professional wargames are amazing. The author has a personal collection of games going back to the 19th century and the book is full of photos and descriptions of obscure games that I really enjoyed reading about and that I never found in any other source. It covers games up to around 1950, so it does not get into any of the more well-known modern history of wargames (starting with Avalon Hill in the 1950's).

fbdab103 2y ago

The "Wrens" was a division of women Navy sailors who played WW2 war games to identify how German UBoats were so successful. Played many scenarios, and replayed events after attacks to understand German tactics. Would get called in to game out live events as they were happening to decide upon the next day's strategy. Arguably led to enormous increases in British naval effectiveness. One little writeup I could find on it: https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/real-life-battleships-game-ww2-german-uboats/ https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/real-li... . Little blurb from the page: The Game, as it was to become known, took over the top floor of the building, which came to look like a cross between a school gym and a child’s nursery. The floor was covered in linoleum and divided into painted sectors. On this make-believe ocean, the Wrens moved miniature convoys – model merchant ships and their battleship chaperones – according to directions given by the officers taking part in the exercise. But while the Wrens were permitted a bird’s eye view of the play area, the naval captains were allowed only occasional peeks through holes in canvas booths, arranged at the side of the playing field, positioned to recreate the limitations of visibility at sea. ...During the post-mortem that followed each game, all of the players would be treated to a bird’s eye view of the battle. The officers could at last see the tracks of the U-boats drawn on the floor in green chalk, set against the movements of their own ships drawn in white, and learn from the umpires whether or not they had managed to sink any submarines. Often, the officers would realise that they had made numerous dreadful mistakes during the Game, which might have resulted in the loss of their ships in earnest combat.

euroderf 2y ago
Sounds like it might've been an inspiration for Ender's Game.