In an effort to become the most humane memorial, it may have become the worst.

War-games cross the spectrum from very abstract to simulated reality. I remember playing Milton-Bradley classics like Battle Cry! and Hit the Beach!, which covered the civil war and Pacific theater, respectively. As I got older, Avalon Hill’s Panzer Blitz and Squad Leader piled on realistic effects (fog of war, LOS, morale and weapons malfunctions), while keeping the graphics of cardboard chits ultra-simplified. I can’t say I ever enjoyed wiping out a unit of German soldiers on the board (especially because they had been one of our closest NATO allies from before I was born), anymore than I wept for a unit of American airborne troops that had perished in melee combat. What I did enjoy was the experience of command, and learning (often from mistakes) about the kinds of decisions leaders must be ready to make when engaging an enemy force.

Later, as I completed my own FLEX (field leadership exercise) and performed many unit-based event sims, the “reality” of how many of our platoon would have been KIA or incapacitated as a result of our actions was sobering in its own way, but didn’t detract from the overall sense of accomplishment or “fun” in completing a difficult task. There was an interesting article in Ars Technica recently regarding how gaming in general is used to train our troops and operators in skills that will be employed on the battlefield or elsewhere.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/the-cia-uses-board-games-to-train-officers-and-i-got-to-play-them/

Although not directly about combat, the gaming system devised by these intelligence officers provides a useful tool in fostering the kind of teamwork-based skills and executive functioning that operatives will call upon in theater, especially because their effectiveness is so relationship-based. Failure to work together in this scenario has significant in-game consequences, and hopefully breeds lessons that persist long after the game is over.

Certainly there’s the potential for a more somber atmosphere as one considers limited options and realizes that there may not be a single “good” choice that will lead to a desirable outcome. That’s life. But in its own way, it’s still fun.