PAXsims

Conflict simulation, peacebuilding, and development

1CMBG homebrew wargame development

6 Comments Posted by on 01/09/2022

LCol Cole Petersen, Chief of Staff at 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, recently took to Twitter to discuss the process whereby 1CMBG is producing its own home-brew wargame. The thread is well worth a read!

There’s also an update:

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6 responses to “1CMBG homebrew wargame development”

  1. Tracy Johnson 01/09/2022 at 9:27 pm

    … P.S. And PanzerBlitz was once used by the U.S. Army some years back. (At least that’s the urban legend I heard.)

  2. Tracy Johnson 01/09/2022 at 9:25 pm

    @Cole, thanks for the reply. Of note looking at the unit symbols on the map these are companies and platoons. So this is compariable to PanzerBlitz/PanzerLeader in scope, just take away the hexagons. (And account for modern weapon to target effectiveness.) I’m of the old school that wargaming is an art, not a science. So you are to be congratulated. On the other side of the coin, once you add algorithms and databases, you take the leap into science, and it enters the realm of “modeling and simulation” (for which there are paid positions). This does not look like the goal here, it looks like a game were subordinates or peers can get “lessons learned” from good or poor tactics.

  3. Cole Petersen 01/09/2022 at 8:59 pm

    Hello all – in response to the posts:

    @Tracy – yes cheap, and by design. It’s been built so that it can be sent through powerpoint and the other side only has to source some dice, a stick for ranges, and (optionally) chips to put the unit markers on.

    @Jay – are you familiar with standard COA wargaming in military planning? Even less “database and algorithms” as its purely “professional judgement.” One of the staff made an probability table for each type of engagment (Inf on Tank, AT on Tank, etc) and our next step is to look at some OA to determine how well the current rules fit. That being said, the outcome isn’t actually important for decision making, as the model isn’t trying to predict outcomes, only trying to anticipate interactions in time and space.

  4. brtrain 01/09/2022 at 6:55 pm

    Excellent, this is how it ought to be done. Quick and dirty execution, get to the discussion and tactical-talk part which is the point of the exercise.

  5. Jay Roland 01/09/2022 at 12:52 pm

    If you are seriously considering this is an accurate wargame from which you can make serious decisions, how do you guarantee your database and algorithms are correct?

  6. Tracy Johnson 01/09/2022 at 9:48 am

    Looks like they’re working on a shoestring budget. Nonetheless they may be able to find nice components with Game Crafter on the cheap. Especially if it only one game or two.

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