![]() ![]() Similarly, Harpoon, a tactical miniatures wargame series, was originally used as a training tool for naval officers during the Cold War. With its memorable 1/285 scale miniatures and emphasis on small-unit tactics, Dunn Kempf enabled soldiers to familiarize themselves with enemy capabilities, execute varying battle plans and learn through competition and iteration. From 1977 to 1997, the Dunn Kempf wargame was widely used as a teaching tool and explored potential combined arms warfare in Europe against a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. Most notably, “Strategos” stressed accessibility across echelons and was later disseminated to company-sized units. In 1880 American Army officer Charles Totten published “ Strategos,” a series of tactical wargames with varying scenarios and levels of complexity. The enduring popularity of Kriegsspiel centers on its ability to provide players a means to garner experience, explore difficult challenges and hone decision-making skills under stress. When observing a Kriegsspiel demonstration in 1824, General Karl von Muffling, Chief of the Prussian General Staff, famously exclaimed, “This is not a game, this is a war exercise! I must recommend it to the whole army!” Subsequently, a copy of the wargame was supplied to each regiment in the Prussian army, which spurred the formation of Kriegsspiel –centric clubs. As an educational tool, wargaming fosters critical thinking and innovation, but most of all, it helps prepare tactical leaders for future challenges.įrom its inception in the early 19 th century, the Prussian Kriegsspiel, the progenitor of modern wargaming, was designed to educate and train Prussian officers for future wars. Wargames provide a dynamic environment to explore and examine a variety of challenges and concepts along the strategic, operational and tactical levels. The use of wargames to teach both tactics and strategic thinking lies at the heart of professional wargaming. Success depends on senior leadership support in the form of institutional funding and enduring partnerships with wargaming organizations. Thus, to systemically reap the dividends of educational wargaming, the Joint Force should aim to reestablish the tradition of educational wargaming within tactical units. The rare employment of educational wargaming within tactical units is episodic and limited in scope. At the tactical edge, wargaming is generally limited to the military planning process and course of action analysis. ![]() The majority of educational wargaming is confined to the classroom, far removed from frontline units. In contrast, educational wargaming remains generally underdeveloped and underutilized in the operational force. Army War College and the Marine Corps War College are admirably expanding game-based learning in their curricula. The majority of educational wargaming is confined to the classroom, far removed from frontline units.Įducational wargaming is increasingly prevalent in the pedagogical toolkit but remains concentrated at the higher levels of Professional Military Education (PME). This article was written by Sebastian Bae and Paul Kearney. ![]() EDITOR’S NOTE: The current temporary theme we are using only credits a single author. ![]()
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