Battle Lab: Consolidated Feedback Thread

[bayonetbrant]

Consolidated feedback thread for the Battle Lab series of columns

• Battle Lab: Headquarters in Wargames
• Battle Lab: Why Logistics Sucks
• Battle Lab: Games and Sims for Training and Learning
• Battle Lab: Games and Sims for Training and Learning, II
• Battle Lab: Civilians on Hexagonal Battlefields
• Battle Lab: Wargaming the Soft Factors
• Battle Lab: What's in Your Collection
• Battle Lab ~ Defining “Logistics” for Wargames
• Battle Lab: Do We Really Need Another ____ Game?!
• Battle Lab ~ Another “Resurgence” of Military Wargaming
• Battle Lab ~ (Counter)Recon and the Intel Fight
• Battle Lab ~ Professional Cheerleading Gone Wrong, or “Why Did CIMSEC Even Publish This?”
• Battle Lab ~ Team COIN Wargaming – A “How To” Primer
• FUTURE ITEM
• FUTURE ITEM

[bayonetbrant]

New Battle Lab column, asking whether or not we really need another game on ____ battle....

Battle Lab: Do We Really Need Another ____ Game?!

[bayonetbrant]

I need to get back to updating this column and migrating other articles I've written into this format.

I did get the "soft factors" article moved

[bayonetbrant]

new(ish) column today about what you buy / study / play


https://www.armchairdragoons.com/feature/battle-lab-whats-in-your-collection/


in fact, there just might be some similar discussion coming up on a podcast soon!

[bayonetbrant]

Battle Lab ~ Defining “Logistics” for Wargames

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/columns/logwar/

[bayonetbrant]

Battle Lab ~ (Counter)Recon and the Intel Fight
Reconnaissance is a central tool in every commander’s toolbox, and capable of dramatically swinging the outcomes of battles. While there are voluminous historical anecdotes on reconnaissance on the battlefield, one data-driven analysis has stuck with me for the past 20+ years.

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/columns/battle-lab-counterrecon/

[bayonetbrant]

Not sure why this one never got linked into this thread
Reprint from 2015


Battle Lab ~ Another “Resurgence” of Military Wargaming
The military wants to ‘get back’ to wargaming.  Are they serious this time? ~

There’s been a recent trend in the media covering some developments in the military that I hope or at least slightly heartening. I’ve started to see multiple articles here and there on well-respected online sites about the reinvigoration of wargaming in the military.


https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/columns/battle-lab-another-resurgence-of-military-wargaming/

[bayonetbrant]

Battle Lab ~ Professional Cheerleading Gone Wrong, or “Why Did CIMSEC Even Publish This?”

Some weeks ago, CIMSEC published Wargaming The Future: Educating The Fleet In Multi-Dimensional Warfare.  We called it out in #TuesdayNewsday a while back, and had a few choice comments on social media, but hadn’t really dug into it until now.
However, there’s no shortage of other problems with this article.  To paraphrase a friend, it’s full of unproven assertions, bad assumptions, inappropriate sources, a lack of historical understanding, and a mistaken impression of the art of the possible

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/columns/battlelab-cimsec/

[bayonetbrant]

(never linked this one here)


Battle Lab ~ Team COIN Wargaming – A “How To” Primer
In our wargaming program at Origins, the COIN games have been a popular addition, largely because they are designed for 4 players, so we can get more gamers around the table than with something like Ft Sumter.  One year, we actually had to get out a GM’s personal copy of Liberty or Death to start a third full 4-player table, because there were so many interested gamers that wanted to join the fun.

However, there’s a set of modifications that we made to the COIN games – specifically A Distant Plain – that went beyond the traditional 4-player experience. By crafting each faction as a team, and moving much of the interpersonal diplomacy, horse-trading, backstabbing, etc away from the board itself, we’ve evolved the basic 4-player game into a more free-wheeling and dynamic environment that dramatically reduces the opportunity for analysis paralysis, amps up the possibility… nay, ‘likelihood’ of confusion and fog of war, and keeps the game moving to where everyone stays involved at all times.

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/columns/team-coin-wargaming-a-how-to-primer/