[WarInEur] Winning and losing in a war game

[Hansen]

Chuck: That's a scary statement, if you don't win it won't matter how well
you ran the logistics! 

John: Again, the question is what you are trying to achieve. When you
actually go to war, you will have inevitable foul ups. So many moving parts
are bound to have problems. A war game that lets you work through the issues
(even if you don't win the game) is much better than trying it for real.

I think there is also a benefit for failing, especially in the US military.
If you always won in the games, that doesn't set you up well to adapt in the
real world if things start to go south.

I reminded of a story about ranger training. They were doing a "war game"
where they would try to sneak up on some opposing forces (I think they were
national guard doing their monthly duty). As part of the training, each
ranger recruit was put in charge of a section/platoon in rotation to gain
experience leading small groups. They stumbled upon the national guard post
covering a bridge and the recruit leader ordered his squad to get down as
the national guard hadn't seen them yet. As he was observing the position to
plan his attack, he suddenly noticed that the guard was looking in his
direction, pointing and generally getting ready to defend against an attack.
Realizing the element of surprise had been lost he turned to figure out who
had been seen. The ranger trainer was standing there, silhouetted against
the sky on the ridge line. When the recruit leader asked the trainer why he
didn't get down when the order was given to hit the deck, he replied that
the order was for the squad to hit the deck, no orders or provision (such as
prior standing orders from the squad leader for the trainer to do what the
squad did) was made. The squad failed in their assignment. The recruit
leader got dinged in his training assessment for being the squad leader. But
he learned an important lesson about orders covering different eventualities
and not to make assumptions.

Likewise, 'losing' in a war game but learning from the mistake to write a
more comprehensible order is not a bad thing.