War Games

Simulations meant to replicate real war scenarios. War games vary in design from simple board games like chess to modern computer simulations. Also included under this term are mock scenarios or exercises engaging real equipment with actual soldiers.

War games, no matter how simple or complex, have a common basic structure: A player or players respond to an opposing side's action. The reactions of the players during the scenarios tend to be similar to real reactions. War games are often based on the Lanchester equations, which use two variables to predict warfare: size of the forces involved and quality of these forces. As these equations have limited predictive ability when tested against real war situations, more variables have been added to the original ones to attempt to fix the problem.

War games hold the promise of enabling military officers to predict outcomes of strategies and tactics without the loss of human life. War games also help to prepare soldiers and officers for the real thing. The type of war game commonly used in military colleges evolved from the Prussian war game Kriegspiel. The basic elements, such as the colors blue and red for the opposing teams, have remained the same although the game has been continuously improved upon. Historically, the U.S. Navy has been one of the most frequent users of war games. Civilian military leaders are increasingly using war games themselves, generally focusing on political-military games. The Strategic Analysis Simulation(SAS), created in 1980, is a prime example of this type of political-military game. Before the Gulf War the game Operation Internal Look, which used computer technology, was able to predict what the war would look like and its duration, although there was some variation.

Although some war games are focused on the decision-making process of war, others provide the soldiers with battle practice. SIMNET (Simulation Network), a war game developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and heavily reliant on computer technology, became an extremely useful tool for preparing soldiers for combat. Today, war games, specifically computer war games, are used commercially as well as militarily.

War games are useful tools of analysis, but critics contend that an overreliance on their predictions can be dangerous. A great deal of trust has been placed on the outcomes of war games based on mathematical calculations despite the criticism that the games oversimplify war situations. Another significant problem is the human factor. Humans who use these games often do not want to take into account certain negative factors that might occur in real-world situations, such as miscommunication. The search continues for the ideal war game that will remove the unpredictability involved in waging war.