The route from Prussian military headquarters to Gary Gygax’s basement

Military exercises where the commanders and staff are real but the troops are simulated are called command post exercises.[1] The US military's approach seems to be less like gaming and more like doing it for real. Five day 24-hour training exercises, using the same people and gear the real command post uses, with 1:1 real time. Somewhere in the back are umpires using computers to track what's happening. The objective is not so much to learn tactics as to see who and what breaks. Screwing up can set back real-world careers.

There are people pushing for more paper war-gaming, but they're in the minority.[2] "Train like you fight" is an Army mantra. But the U.S. Army War College is trying.[3] There's a lot of heavy thinking going on around how to defend Taiwan.

[1] https://www.army.mil/article/192566/increasing_proficiency_w...

[2] https://www.lineofdeparture.army.mil/Journals/Protection/Pro...

[3] https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/back-to-the-basi...