Practical Exercise 4: Wargame Design

You have completed the first three PEs, which have given you the building blocks for you to design your wargame.

Your mission now is to design the “bones” for a seminar wargame that you will conduct on day 5. Keep it simple!

Use your results from the first three PEs, especially the DCMP.

You need to create the key Constraints, Limitations, and Assumptions for your game. Your assumptions will help you further scope your game, so you focus the game on the important issues.

You may need to scope a game to only cover a portion of the DCMP—seek guidance if you have trouble scoping.

Think in terms of measurement space:

• Scenario (see hints below)
• Methods, Models, and Tools (MMTs)
• Data

You need to be creative when choosing your MMTs. Clearly you will not have the time to create or obtain, and run any complex simulation, so adjust accordingly.

To help you outline a scenario that will ensure the game’s objectives are addressed:

• Define the decision points that will determine the flow of the game
• Define the objectives or missions of:
  • All players
  • All cells
• Determine the command relationships between players, cells, and control
• For each decision point, determine the resources that each player/cell will need:
  • Information (restricted by available assets)
  • Force Structure
• Design feedback mechanisms to ensure:
  • Players understand, again restricted by available assets, the impact of their decisions
  • Stage is set for the next decision point