Essay Sample on Strategic War-Gaming: Simulating Warfare on a Realistic Map

Introduction

War-gaming is a kind of a strategic game that involves a simulation of warfare in a realistic manner, which differs from the abstract games such as chess and others. War-gaming might be done o tables, video games, and board games. In this type of activity, the wargamers usually use an ideal map to represent the various battlefields, terrains, and features such as hill, rivers, forests, among other physical elements on the field (Army, U. S, 2012). The plan also provides them with a grid reference system placed over it to manage the movements and positions of the games' pieces, where each represents a military formation to include infantry brigade or even artillery battery. Many war games emulate particular historical wars and can either cover the entire conflict, campaigns, battles and even low-grade confrontations. Most of the war games mimic the land attacks; however, others simulate the air and naval combat. The current wargaming was started in Prussia in the 19th century, and the Prussian army embraced it to train their officers (Lewin, 2012). Wargaming is an imminent tool in the training of soldiers, researching by military people and also for entertaining themselves.

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One of the hardest tasks is making a corporate planning event for the staff to take a course of action analysis or the war game. Practicing makes things perfect. Military operations require vigorous training. Nevertheless, the practice might not be sufficient to better the skills of the soldiers. Perhaps, they need experience in a battlefield which wargaming provides them with, although in simulation. The unfocused practice may not help the soldiers to acquire the skill that most of the military commanders, XOs, and S-3s require from their men (Army, U. S 2012). For instance, the unfocused practice could be the XO or S-3 fast reviewing some points with the staff. There are lots of resources that talk about systems, processes, and doctrinal principles on how to prepare and carry out war-game. Typically these sources concentrate on the generalities provided by the doctrines or particular areas with recommended solutions. The doctrinal generalizations usually state about, "Do this" or "Do that" without giving the reader with guidelines on how to do that what needs to be done (Army, U. S, 2012). It is, however, integral to note that there is military wargaming that prepares the military for an actual war on a battlefield. At the same time, the other type is recreational wargaming, which is used by people or the military for leisure.

Models of War Gaming

The word model can have two meanings when it comes to wargaming, where one of the senses describes the characteristics, abilities, and temperaments of the issues that war game aims at simulating to include the size of the troop, weapons to be used, vehicles as well as terrain (Cojocar 2011). The second meaning of the term model in the context of wargaming is derived from the purpose of wargaming and is based on recreational wargaming, which involves the physical aspect, for instance, the vehicles, terrain, and sculpture of the army. The recreational wargaming model entirely serves a recreational purpose during leisure time and has minimal or no consequence at all on simulation (Cojocar 2011). Military war games, therefore, do not require physical models as they are not instrumental to the operations of the military, and the rate at which the military war games usually play makes the physical models inapplicable.

Focused Practice

Wargaming provides an individual with training that leads to the Military Decision Making Process, which gives better information about the doctrinal guidelines. It includes both pieces of training the officers on systems as well as the processes a unit applies by grouping them into smaller groups and teaching them how to do things that they are needed to do (Cojocar 2011). When staff comprehends what they are supposed to deliver, they are therefore able to concentrate on the critical activities of getting to such a point. War-gaming allows the military men to collect the tools that will assist them in delivering, allows the officer to prepare for wargaming and also enables preliminary analysis which allows the soldiers to discuss accurately on what they need to do when in an actual battleground which places them at a better position to discharge their duties successfully (Department of the Army 2012). Wargaming is instrumental in training and equipping military personnel with the necessary skill.

Benefits of War Gaming

According to Department of the Army (2012) wargaming allows the military people to modify and refine their course of action to be able to include identification of sequels and branches that turn out to be an order or get ready for a military mission at any time. It is achieved by engaging the mind of the soldiers to think and become creative, which assists them in innovating techniques that they can apply in a battlefield to help them in the event of an actual war critically. A course of action can be determined by wargaming where the soldiers may identify issues while on a war game table and put them into considerations which would, in turn, assist them in an actual war (Cojocar 2011). Additionally, the soldiers could be having a course of action before a war game, which might end up being changed following a war game, which is essential for them to achieve the best results in the war ground.

Secondly, a war game provides the soldiers an opportunity to identify vital features and battlefield terrain and design ways on how to use them. It, therefore, means when they finally get to an actual war with similar terrain, they stand a better position to tackle it easily as they had previously experienced them in a simulative war game (Cojocar 2011). A war game allows the players a chance to analyze a mission, and it is during this time that they can identify terrains and other physical features and creatively tailor ways of taking advantage of them or how to overcome the challenges that they might cause while in war (Department of the Army 2012).

Thirdly, wargaming allows the military men to identify various tasks and analyze them to assign each of the units accordingly. In actual war, there are multiple roles played by various military units ranging from those that are done by the senior officers and those that belong to the juniors. Having this kind of analysis and allocating each of the officers with their respective tasks ensure coordination in an actual mission. Coordination is a critical element in the military that can significantly determine the success of the army for a specific purpose. It also allows them to make decisions accordingly and as per the ranks in terms of the intensity of the decisions that are required, for instance, identifying the decisions that are made by senior officers such as brigade commanders and those that are for the subordinate officers (Cojocar 2011). Ensuring an excellent chain of command avoids the confusion that might arise at the battlefield, which may lead to losing a mission to the enemies and loss of soldiers to enemies.

The fourth role of military wargaming is that it offers the forces an opportunity to make critical decisions on some issues. It is not all about acquiring tactical and technical capacities of a specific weapon, vehicle, or mission. Hence, an excellently customized war game model does not typically describe an aspect above what the player requires to know to make sound decisions. During wargaming, the players should not be pressured with massive calculations since they might slow down the game, which will produce minimal reliable information (Department of the Army 2012). However, the players must be keen as they might be required to make decisions, a significant reason why most military organizations use war games. Decisions are critical in the military before missions to allow for choices of the troops as well as the weapons that will be used depending on the mission type and complexity.

Lastly, war games save more time, space, and money that would have otherwise been used for field exercises as only a small place for the war game board or table is needed to give the soldiers sufficient skills and expertise on their job (Department of the Army 1994). It is more comfortable and cheap to organize war games in comparison to field exercises since they do not require the mobilization of thousands of men, their weapons, and logistic systems. For instance, a naval war game, it would be expensive to organize fleets of ships to the oceans for simulation, which is never the case while wargaming since no fleet is needed. Only simple equipment is required to conduct simulated warfare through wargaming successfully. Additionally, it takes a short time to complete a war game in comparison to field simulations that might take a lot of time to complete. For example, to conduct a naval field exercise, time will be taken waiting for the fleet to assemble, which is not needed in maritime wargaming.

Wargaming has a variety of advantages as having been listed earlier. However, several limitations are associated with wargaming, which includes a lack of field experience. Wargaming can be done in small places and also inside a room which does not offer the ideal features that are available in the field. It might end up misguiding the soldiers, making them unfamiliar with the features that are physically in the area, and this might be challenging when the soldiers finally go out for missions (Cojocar 2011). It might end up confusing the soldiers when they are deployed outside to actual war, actual battlegrounds, which may lead to severe consequences.

Additionally, wargaming denies the soldiers an opportunity to interact with the external environment, climate, and weather, which is critical during warfare. Soldiers need to be familiar with different backgrounds as well as weather condition to avoid being challenged by harsh conditions when they are in a mission as when they are wargaming; they get used to the weather of a place which might not be harsh (Lewin, 2012). Once they are in different climates, they develop challenges.

Soldiers need to be flexible and vigorous in exercises such as running, lift weights, and other demanding activities. Those that are involved in indoor war gaming lack such opportunities, which are critical as per their job requirements. In comparison with field exercises, war games are a disadvantage as they lack the opportunity to engage in rigorous activities to improve their well-being and flexibility (Lewin, 2012). However, this does not entirely deny them the opportunity as those that are willing to take part in rigorous activities can get a chance to take part in those activities.

Conclusion

Wargaming is an imminent tool in the training of soldiers, researching by military people and also for entertaining themselves. Soldiers end up developing outstanding skills and creativity that is favorable in tough missions that they may be required to participate in. Wargaming should be encouraged as an instrument of training soldiers and equipping them with the necessary skills and warfare experiences. Wargaming also assists in helping the soldiers to modify and refine their course of action to suit the physical requirements in an actual mission, which facilitates the soldiers to take the most suitable course of action. Wargaming also assists in research of specific courses of action to ensure that they are practical and efficient to their soldiers whenever they think of applying them during an actual mission. Additionally, wargaming is a critical tool in saving money, time, and space as most military organizations from poor and developing nations may not have the resource to facilitate regular field exercises for their soldiers, whi...