PAXsims

Conflict simulation, peacebuilding, and development

In-stride adjudication (Connections 2018 working group report)

2 Comments Posted by on 12/09/2018

Stephen Downes-Martin has pulled together a 187 page (!) report on in-stride adjudication from the papers and discussion presented at the Connections US 2018 conference. You can download it here.

In-Stride Adjudication Working Group Report 20180908.jpg

methodology ,

2 responses to “In-stride adjudication (Connections 2018 working group report)”

  1. Robert (Bob) Cordery 12/09/2018 at 2:02 pm

    I was particularly interested to read Peter Perla’s paper, especially as I have taken part in some of the Kriegsspiel games organised by Bill Leeson and Arthur Harman. I’ve also used HG Wells’ rules are written and as modified by Paul Wright.

    Paul has run numerous lawn battles using his modified rules, including the Battles of Waterloo and Austerlitz, and his rules have spawned a set of modern rules that have been written and published by Tim Gow. Little Cold Wars has seen NATO fighting off Soviet armoured assaults in Germany and – most recently – fighting between Israeli and Syrian troops along the Golan Heights. The rules use some interesting analogue mechanisms, including dropping darts at arms length onto a target to simulate anti-tank missile fire, and the use of a children’s air-powered toy rocket to simulate the firing of a FROG ground-to-ground missile.

    An inter-war variant has also been written, and in the very near future these will be used to fight a Spanish Civil War battle.

    The Fred Jane Naval War Game’s use of paper targets and strikers (these look like wooden fly sweaters with offset pins set into the head) is an interesting simulcra of the Scott ‘dotter’ that was used at the time to train gun layers in the Royal Navy. The ‘dotter’ fired a pencil down a trough towards a paper target, and the dot created by the pencil tip showed where the shell had hit.

    The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game’s estimated range system simulated the use of optical range finding as well as the tactical use of naval gunfire e.g. laddering so that shells straddled targets. The firing arrows – which players had to accurately aim at the target they were firing at – reinforced the need for accuracy and anticipating what an enemy might do. I understand that the interwar US Naval War College wargame rules and Fletcher Pratt’s rules had similarities, and that this was due to the informal gaming links between members of the USNWC and Fletcher Pratt.

  2. Stephen Downes-Martin 12/09/2018 at 10:02 am

    Don’t panic …there is a two-page executive summary!

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