[WarInEur] Winning and losing in a war game

[sgminfo]

Hansen wrote:
>
> Likewise, 'losing' in a war game but learning from the mistake to write a
> more comprehensible order is not a bad thing.
Indeed, I maintain the the 'loser' in any wargame is the player who 
potentially will have the chance to gain the most. Learning from the 
game is the positive element, 'losing' is a moot point, when you emerge 
from the gaming defeat, having learned something from the experience, it 
has rendered you good service.

I am often reminded that the Japanese gamed Midway several times, and 
the results were not always good, so instead of learning from such an 
issue, the results were set aside and ignored, and the predicted 
'victory' was substituted.

 Anyone studying Nagumo's dilemma faced in the battle is forcefully 
reminded by this, that the training exercises could  have simulated such 
a situation, and that the failure to set this up in the training  
scenario, left the fleet commanders groping when what was needed was 
decision and confidence.


-|steve|-