Wargaming has become an essential tool for the military. It is also for anyone trying to grasp the nature of warfare in the past, present and what it might become in the future.
Some of these simulations are not available to the public. Fortunately, there are games out there that can be obtained without needing a security clearance. Just in time for the holidays, here are six wargames that belong in your collection.
Command: Modern Operations: Published by Matrix Games, this wargame is probably the most successful example of one that bridges the gap between commercial and defense wargaming.
What began as a highly detailed, real-time computer game of modern naval and air warfare has become a popular training and planning tool for the U.S. military and militaries around the world. C:MO allows players to explore and experiment with tactics and technology in incredible detail, including weapons, sensors and electronic warfare.
Though more of a simulator than a competitive game like chess, C:MO is practically an (unclassified) reference source for current conflicts and the Cold War. It’s a game worth having for entertainment and education.
Panzer Campaigns: This series of computer games from Wargame Design Studio simulates World War II battles at the operational level. Battalions maneuver across historical maps as players deal with factors such as morale, supply, fortifications and command and control.
What’s also remarkable is that are so many games to choose from. There are 32 Panzer Campaigns titles and counting, ranging from the fall of France to the Battle of the Bulge.
Wargame Design Studio also publishes the Modern Campaigns games of a hypothetical Soviet invasion of NATO in the 1980s, plus other series including the American Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Revolution.
With 114 titles in the Wargame Design Studio family, there is enough playtime in this game system to last a lifetime.
Flashpoint Campaigns: If you want to understand why Russia’s army is floundering in Ukraine, then play this series from Matrix Games.
A grand-tactical, company- and platoon-level computer simulation of the Soviet invasion of NATO that never happened, Flashpoint Campaigns focuses on command and control. Give orders to your troops, and a certain amount of game time will elapse before they execute them, depending on factors such as electronic warfare and whether units are static or moving. This requires anticipating how the battlefield will look 15 minutes to an hour from now.
Just as important is that orders can only be issued at specified intervals, and those intervals are shorter for NATO than the Soviets. That means that when the battle doesn’t go as planned (when does it ever?), the NATO commander can more quickly revise their orders, while the Soviet troops are stuck executing their last set of instructions.
The COIN series: This counterinsurgency series of board games from publisher GMT Games tackles the political-military sphere of warfare, from the Roman invasion of Gaul to the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The heart of the COIN family is asymmetry: Each game in the series has multiple factions — such as the Romans, America and the Taliban — with differing capabilities to attack foes and win the support of the populace.
Although the COIN games are somewhat abstract compared to traditional firepower-focused wargames, they superbly illustrate military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s observation that war is politics by other means.
War in the East 2: It’s not easy to describe a computer game with a hardcover manual that’s 520 pages long. Fortunately, you don’t need a Ph.D. to play this wargame from Matrix Games — just the stamina to play a monster strategic wargame of the Eastern Front 1941-1945, in which German and Soviet players control hundreds of divisions and thousands of brigades, regiments and battalions.
WITE 2 particularly shines in logistics, with supplies tracked by the ton, and rail lines assessed by their capacity and whether they are single- or double-track.
The game may sound daunting — and it is to some extent — but the artificial intelligence handles much of the administrative burden. The result is a deep simulation of theater-level planning, including the importance of ensuring that adequate supplies are stockpiled before your arrival.
Terraforming Mars: From Swedish publisher FryxGames, this is not a wargame in either form or function. It’s a tabletop simulation in nation-building (or planet-building) as rival corporations seek to transform Mars into a second Earth. Players essentially have to create their economic machine from scratch, assembling resources, building infrastructure, erecting cities and planting forests.
TM offers a fascinating glimpse into the science of terraforming. But as gray-zone warfare becomes a fact of life on Earth, from cyberattacks to cutting undersea cables, it also illustrates the links that sustain a society and how those links can be disrupted.
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