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Dan: I hope the comments were helpful–I’m happy to see this being done, even if I had a few quibbles. If you want to drop me your email address (I’m rex.brynen@mcgill.ca) I’m happy to offer some ideas!
Rex,
Thank you for the feedback. The game that you saw is a truncated version of a much larger decision game that I created for the purpose of evaluating the artillery concept itself. I wanted to strike a balance where I provided enough information to get respondents going (with the understanding that they could do independent research to supplement what I provided), without the game being so long that they lost interest before putting pen to paper. It seems that I made it too short to cover required info, so thank you for your perspective.
We’re going to continue this series, with various contributors and situations. From your perspective, what should we focus on with the understanding that the purpose of the series is to anticipate the evolving character of warfare?
I wrote a bit more on this than would fit in a reply: https://brtrain.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/tactical-narratives-are-not-games/
As I thought as I was writing the blog post, and as Ellie Bartels commented later on Twitter, its also reminiscent of The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (1904): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defence_of_Duffer's_Drift
These “tactical problem” not-games have been around for a long time.
One of the older items on my bookshelf is “The Solution of Tactical Problems”, by LCOL Joseph Needham, from 1907.
Subtitled “A Logical and Easy Way of Working Out the Tactical Schemes Set at Examinations”, that is exactly what it is: a series of little vignettes placing the student who wants to enter RMA Sandhurst or some other military school in the position of a junior officer, tasked with commanding a flank guard or setting out pickets or something… the student thinks about his disposition and the author tells him the correct answer, as set forth in whatever Field Service Regulations there were for the infantry in 1906-07.
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Solution_of_Tactical_Problems.html?id=XEkenQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
I think that whole Dunkirk thing kinda depended a bit on the French First Army lasting a little longer than the Germans expected, and the valiant rearguard defence mounted by the French 12th Motorised Infantry Division. But yes, 18/25pdrs!
“…how the British Expeditionary Force should fight the Germans in 1940 using their newfangled 18/25pdr field artillery with little reference to French capabilities, no discussion of air control, and no reference to French plans.”
I thought that’s just what they did.
And, 77 years later, comes a good-looking movie (though the John Mills one is good too).