Sandhurst Kriegsspiel - Wargaming for the Modern Infantry Officer, Training for War - Volume 1

"This is not a game; this is training for war. I must recommend it to the whole Army!"

Baron von Muffling, Chief of the Prussian General Staff, commenting on the 1824 von Reisswitz Kriegsspiel wargame rules.

Wargaming has been an important part of military training since the Prussians first used it to develop their warfighting capabilities in the 19th century. The aim of this book is the first of a series to provide off the shelf wargames that may be of immediate use in military training.

This book contains 4 ready to use wargames:

Game 1: The Sandhurst Kriegsspiel aims to allow officers to test the plan they devised in a TEWT on the actual ground using the tool of wargaming. The explanation includes an example of a platoon as well as a company level game.

Game 2: The Battlegroup Kriegsspiel is next level up game. While still a kriegsspiel, dependent on sound military judgment by the umpire (and players), it includes some hard operational research based tables to help arbitrate the combat outcomes.

Game 3: Current Ops: the Modern Infantry Battle is a more rigid kriegsspiel, with more detailed rules to govern movement, combat, suppression and ammunition expenditure. It is more similar in format to the hobby wargames, but still embeds some key military lessons within it.

Game 4: Counter IED Kriegsspiel is an excellent example of using some of the recent developments in wargaming to create an engaging game to be used as part of training around patrolling when faced by an IED threat.

The Sandhurst Kriegsspiel is published by the History of Wargaming Project, as part of the series documenting current practice in professional wargaming.