PAXsims

Conflict simulation, peacebuilding, and development

Invicta: How did war become a game?

1 Comment Posted by on 29/06/2019

A recent video posted to YouTube by Invicta provides an excellent 15 minute overview of the birth of modern wargaming. It’s well worth watching—I’ll certainly be using it in class.

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One response to “Invicta: How did war become a game?”

  1. Peter Perla 30/06/2019 at 9:19 am

    Hi Rex,

    I tried posting the comment below on the YouTube site but it’s not clear if it went. It sounds like a pedantic point but it’s one of those things I’m convinced has had a pernicious effect, possibly contributing to the 3:1 fallacy which continues to plague analysis to this day.

    Very well done short summary. But I must disagree with one point, and this point is an important one because the misunderstanding of the kriegsspiel odds system has infected hobby wargaming for decades. The odds of success using the dice were, indeed, determined by force ratios but not the way described here. A force ratio of 2:1 did NOT produce a 2:1 chance of success. In fact, such a large force ratio gave odds of success of 3:1 or 4:1. To get 2:1 odds required only a ratio of 1.25:1 to 1.5:1. I have no evidence of my suspicion that sloppy reading of the Reisswitz rules produced the practice of translating the simple force ratios to chances of success. Part of the evidence is that even in such a well done presentation the error persists! That aside, great stuff. Good introduction to the topic.

    Take care

    Peter Perla, author, The Art of Wargaming.

    Sent from my iPad

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