NDM Article - National Guardman’s Tactics Game Doesn’t Break the Bank

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December 2005

National Guardman’s Tactics Game Doesn’t Break the Bank

By Michael Peck

Drawing from his own experiences at the Army’s National Training Center, an Ohio National Guard captain has created a $15 board game that can be used by both military trainers and civilian hobbyists.

“Warfighter 101: Movement to Contact” (http://games.bayonetgear.com/warfighter.htm) comes with a map featuring the actual terrain from the National Training Center, in Fort Irwin, Calif. The large cardboard playing pieces include the platoons and sections of an Army heavy battalion. Units are rated for primary firepower, defense value and secondary firepower (for artillery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons).

The rulebook is only four pages long, and covers various concepts such as direct and indirect fire, line of sight, and mounted and dismounted infantry. The game goes to great lengths to create the feel of a National Training Center exercise, from call signs on the pieces (Animal and Bushmaster platoons for U.S. forces, Angel and Outlaw for the enemy units), down to actual operational order forms and battle tracking charts that players are encouraged to use.

Warfighter 101 was designed by Brant Guillory, a brigade liasion officer with the Ohio Army National Guard’s 37th Armored Brigade, and a former active-duty armor officer who served with the opposing force at Fort Irwin. Though he designed it as a hobby game, Guillory believes Warfighter 101 also is suitable for military training. “How many lieutenants really have a good visualization of how their platoon fits into a battalion or brigade deliberate attack? This game system would make a great teaching tool for solving a variety of tactical problems, from constricting terrain to overwhelming enemy forces.”

While he doesn’t see paper games replacing elaborate and validated computer simulations, Guillory points out that paper games have their advantages. They’re much cheaper than a multimillion-dollar computer simulation, for one thing. “Computer sims can be great for a solitaire game, or trying to perfectly model a certain piece of equipment, but they are cumbersome and can involve a steep learning curve,” Guillory says. “It’s also hard to stop a computer sim in mid-game for a teaching point, or to ponder multiple options and courses of action, especially in real-time. A tabletop game gives the commander the ability to step in much more easily to ask questions of his subordinates during the game, and to offer sage wisdom and guidance in-stride.”

Best of all, it’s easy to set up a board game to illustrate a tactical lesson. “A company commander could sit down with his lieutenants one morning during sergeants’ time,” says Guillory, “and play through a scenario or two to spark some discussions on meeting engagements, or breach tactics, or counter-reconnaissance, without having to set up a computer system and huddle everyone around a monitor and hot-seat a game.”