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Author Topic: wargaming display at Naval War College Museum  (Read 5160 times)

marcopolo

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on: March 17, 2022, 05:02:28 PM
We just updated our exhibit on wargaming at the Naval War College, and I thought some here might like to see it. Wargaming made its debut at the college in 1889 when the U.S. naval attache in London, Commander French E. Chadwick, purchased a copy of Kriegsspiel and sent it back to the NWC for study. Faculty at the college used it as the inspiration for their own naval games. I wish more than anything that I could have found an original Kriegsspiel set to place in this display, but lacking that, a copy of Command Post Games' Pub Battles had to do!

The second display shows a game currently in use by the Joint Maritime Operations department. It's called War at Sea (not the same one of Avalon Hill fame, obviously!) and focuses on air/land/sea warfare at the operational level. The units in the game are the cups of dice, so it literally uses a buckets o' dice system for resolving combat. The actual game is umpired with both sides only seeing what has been revealed to them through reconnaissance and intelligence. There wasn't quite room to show all that in our limited display area, but you get the picture. The scenario shown is Leyte Gulf, although the same system can be used to play battles up through the 1980s with some minor modifications.



bob48

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Reply #1 on: March 17, 2022, 05:12:40 PM
That looks excellent!

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thecommandtent

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Reply #2 on: March 17, 2022, 05:20:01 PM



bbmike

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Reply #3 on: March 17, 2022, 06:20:37 PM
"units in the game are the cups of dice"

Just when I thought I had seen it all in wargaming.  ;D  :bigthumb:

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Sir Slash

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Reply #4 on: March 17, 2022, 10:43:34 PM
Yeah, but do they clip the dice's corners? Great pics Marcopolo.  :applause:

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Tolstoi

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Reply #5 on: March 17, 2022, 11:40:52 PM
Excellent! Thank you for sharing these great photos. In the photo for the Wargame Intro Lightbox, the bottom picture looks like a set up of Fletcher Pratt's naval game. Very cool!



marcopolo

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Reply #6 on: March 18, 2022, 08:02:55 AM
Yeah, but do they clip the dice's corners? Great pics Marcopolo.  :applause:

No need, I used rounded dice for our display  ;D



marcopolo

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Reply #7 on: March 18, 2022, 08:05:27 AM
Excellent! Thank you for sharing these great photos. In the photo for the Wargame Intro Lightbox, the bottom picture looks like a set up of Fletcher Pratt's naval game. Very cool!

Many of the early games played at NWC do look a lot like a Fletcher Pratt game. While I haven't been able to find any proof in our archives, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that some of Pratt's rules and concepts found their way in to NWC games. It would make sense as some of the staff here knew Pratt and traveled to New York to play in his games.



bob48

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Reply #8 on: March 18, 2022, 08:06:40 AM
Yeah, but do they clip the dice's corners? Great pics Marcopolo.  :applause:

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perfischer

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Reply #9 on: March 18, 2022, 08:38:12 AM
There is a nice video presentation somewhere on YT (I couldn't find it again) about the dice system used in this system. Perhaps someone else here knows the link.



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Reply #10 on: March 18, 2022, 08:48:28 AM
That's a very cool display!

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Reply #11 on: March 18, 2022, 12:08:06 PM
That is impressive. Are those "rings" supposed to represent sensor/weapon ranges?

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marcopolo

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Reply #12 on: March 18, 2022, 01:17:41 PM
That is impressive. Are those "rings" supposed to represent sensor/weapon ranges?

Yes, each ring shows the search radius for a reconnaissance aircraft. Each yellow die represents one aircraft, and a roll of 1 results in a successful search. It's up to the players how they allocate their search assets, so they could place 6 dice in one ring to almost guarantee a successful search of a small area, or spread them between multiple rings to search a larger area but with less chance of success.



mcguire

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Reply #13 on: March 18, 2022, 03:19:11 PM
Yeah, but do they clip the dice's corners? Great pics Marcopolo.  :applause:

No need, I used rounded dice for our display  ;D

???



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