Improving Decision-Making Through Games - From the Green Notebook

War games are a great way to learn about history and warfare.

The Prussians used war games in the 19th c. to prepare for conflicts. So did the WATU (the UK Western Approaches Tactical Unit), and the US Navy. These organizations had the benefit of time, space, and resources, but the same benefits are often unavailable to the officer who wants to learn in his free time.

War games are a great tool to sharpen intuitive decision making. Considering that they provide insight, learning, professional development, and entertainment, they can be applied in a very specialized way.

The civilian market offers a variety of computer and board war games that serve this purpose and is often better at simulating war than those designed by the military.

Computer-based and tabletop-based games fulfil a different purpose and can be complementary.

• Computer war games are great at simulating the command environment but weak in its tendency for micromanagement and too much detail.
• Tabletop war games are useful for studying situations in-depth and top-down. It emphasizes the human and technological aspect. The rules provide the gamer insights into war and competition from the beginning.

War games can be used to simulate tactics, operational art, and strategy. War games teach history by doing, and players come to understand why events took place by facing the same dilemmas as the decision-makers of the period.

Improved knowledge of the complexities of war will increase an understanding of history and current events.