
Fight Club? Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Personal Computer (PC) Wargames for Tactics Training
By Colonel Christopher Hunt, CD - March 01, 2022
Reading Time: 170 min

Caption
Wargame: Red Dragon
The pandemic has forced the Canadian Army (CA) to rapidly adapt and adopt more tools to enable remote work, administration and distributed learning. The pandemic also disrupted many courses and impacted training production over the last year-and-a-half. As the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) shifts into reconstitution, both formal and informal tools will be needed as part of enhancing training production and professional development (PD) in the CA. This article will highlight some of the computer-off-the-shelf (COTS) personal computer (PC) constructive wargames developed over the past few years that could be used to enhance tactics training and PD. I offer observations and recommendations regarding three COTS tactical wargames that can assist in the development of tactical acumen for leaders at a variety of levels. I’ve built in several hyperlinks for quick reference for reader convenience as well.
Each of three wargames: Combat Mission Shock Force 2, Wargame (Airland Battle or Red Dragon versions), and Armored Brigade has strengths and weaknesses for reinforcing different skill sets. My observations are based on dozens of hours of experience with Combat Mission Shock Force 2 and Armored Brigade over the last couple of years, and hundreds of hours with the Wargame series over the last 9 years. Beyond the base versions of each game, all include some form of mission editor, some also include map, equipment and/or unit editors, and some are ‘modible’ meaning the user community has created additional content or ‘mods’ that add or edit new units, equipment, or elements of gameplay. It is quite possible that the respective game publishers would consider additional work or licences for the CA to further refinement of the existing software to better support tactics training.
Combat Mission Shock Force 2
Combat Mission Shock Force 2 (CMSF 2) is a third-person tactical wargame in a 3-D environment that can model scenarios from section level to battle group. It is published by battlefront.com which prides itself on realism in its PC wargames. CMSF 2 is a 2018 modernized version of the earlier Combat Mission Shock Force (CMSF) that was released in 2007. CMSF was actually used to assist in tactics lessons at the US Army Command and General Staff School (See pages 28-30 in the linked Armor Magazine). Both CMSF and CMSF2 share the same background scenario. The scenario was developed in the mid-2000s and posits a terrorist group coordinating simultaneous dirty bomb attacks on western cities from safe havens in Syria. The Syrian Government is found to have colluded with the terrorists and a coalition invades Syria. The background scenario was created before the Syrian Civil War, but the tactical scenarios and campaign seem all the more relevant given events of the last few years. CMSF 2 improvements include much higher resolution graphics, additional amphibious vehicles, electronic warfare, drones, air defence, precision artillery munitions, and a wide variety of other gameplay, AI, and mission editor enhancements. While the base game focuses on Syrian and US Army units (including heavy and Stryker Brigade units), additional content can also be purchased to include USMC units, UK units, and NATO units (which includes Canadian, Dutch, and German units with circa 2010 equipment).
CMSF 2 can be played as turn-based (1 turn = 1 minute) or in real-time. Given the depth of simulation, turn-based is appropriate for most types of tactics training. CMSF has an extremely detailed 3D terrain model that includes a variety of terrain types, elevation (including impacts on line of sight), as well as multi-floor destructible buildings that can be occupied by dismounted personnel. These buildings also respond to weapon effects reasonably well. That strength in terrain modelling also leads to one of the limitations of CMSF 2: the software can only generate a terrain model for a maximum of 16 square kilometers. This can be 4km x 4km or 2km x 8km or any smaller area, even done to just a few hundred metres squared. However, the quality of the terrain modelling is excellent, and it can include large built-up areas, including whole villages and towns. This makes CMSF 2 ideal for infantry-centric scenarios up to battalion level or combined arms scenarios up to combat team that are focused on assaulting an objective or executing a block, as opposed to an advance to contact or delay over a large chunk of territory.
The gameplay is the most accurate simulation I have seen outside of the Virtual Battlefield Simulators (VBS) used by the CA, but it focuses on small unit tactics in the 3rd person instead of first person simulation of individual soldiers. The tactics modelling is excellent. For example, it is absolutely essential to win the firefight in CMSF 2 before assaulting enemy positions, and/or make generous use of indirect fire or close air support (CAS) to suppress the enemy. Close coordination of fire and manoeuvre is essential, right down to section level, with fire bases only lifting fire at the last minute for an assault to be successful. Suppression, fatigue, and other morale effects are modelled down to the individual solder level. Weapon effects and personnel and vehicle movement are modelled very accurately, including in relation to each other. Ammunition is tracked to the individual round. Resupply is not possible, but tactical scenarios portray a timeframe that is 2 hours or less, so that is reasonable. Indirect fire has accurate wait times from calls for fires. Fires arrive quicker with a Forward Observation Officer (FOO) spotter, than for an All-Arms Call For Fires (AACFF). Artillery and CAS are ‘off map’ but their effects on arrival are depicted rather spectacularly. Obstacles can be modelled, although the User Interface (UI) for conducting minefield breaches is very cumbersome and slow (although that’s realistic too). Beyond the Canadian campaign and scenarios that are included in the NATO module for purchase, quick battle missions can be created in minutes, and custom scenarios can be designed from the ground up. CMSF 2 allows single player battles against an AI opponent or 2 player head-to-head battles in turn-based or real-time modes.
The UI for CMSF 2 is complicated, and it is strongly recommended that anyone trying the game for the first time follow the tutorial campaign and the walkthrough provided in the manual. It takes 2-4 hours of gameplay to become comfortable with all the features. CMSF 2 is also more expensive than other software I will recommend, with the base game costing $US 60, the NATO module costing an additional $US 35 or the ‘big bundle’ which includes base game, USMC module, British Forces module, and NATO module, costing $US 125.
In addition to straight single person or head-to-head missions, CMSF 2 could also be used as a common low control (LOCON) for computer-assisted tactical exercises without troops (TEWT). The one-minute turns are ideal for section, platoon, and company commanders to talk about how they would react to latest developments in a turn, and give direction for the next 1-10 turns. How their direction was interpreted by subordinates, and how it played out within the simulation is also possible.
Combat Mission Shock Force 2 reviews:
https://www.jumpdashroll.com/article/combat-mission-shock-force-2-review
https://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2019/02/combat-mission-shock-force-2-by.html
https://dystopeek.fr/jouer/combat-mission-shock-force-2/
https://www.gamekult.com/jeux/combat-mission-shock-force-81955/test.html
Wargame: Red Dragon
Wargame: Red Dragon is the third in the Wargame series published by Eugen Systems out of France, and was published in 2014. Wargame: European Escalation includes land and aviation (helicopter units) and was published in 2012; and Wargame: Airland Battle added fast air and was published in 2013. Wargame: Red Dragon added naval gameplay. While land, aviation, and fast air are modelled reasonably well within the gameplay, the naval combat is not accurate or compelling, and best avoided. Wargame is an action oriented Real-time Strategy (RTS) game that is set during the Cold War period, 1975-1991. The Wargame series are also 3rd person, with visually appealing terrain and equipment models, but both distances and time are not modelled accurately. There is no hard grid system to the maps, so determining the effective range of weapon systems against the maps becomes a matter of (quickly gained) experience. Maps represent an area of approximately 20 km x 20 km. Battles are in (pausable) real-time and normally last 20 minutes (without pausing). If in single-player mode, with setup and pausing to issue orders, it normally takes about 45 minutes to play a single scenario. Each ’20 minute’ battle is meant to represent 1 day if playing a campaign. Battles are at battle group to brigade group scale, with units modelled to section/vehicle level.
The equipment database is very comprehensive with literally hundreds of different pieces of equipment and unit types, dozens of countries (including Canada), and relative capabilities are modelled well within gameplay. The gameplay is very action oriented and visually appealing and fun, but time-space realism is sacrificed. Nevertheless, the rock-paper-scissors of combined arms tactics is modelled very well, and success in the game is dependent of effective use of reconnaissance, indirect-fire and air support, and use of infantry, armour, and anti-armour to facilitate or block combined-arms manoeuvre. The gameplay rewards proper combined-arms tactics at combat team and battle group levels, and ruthlessly punishes bad tactics. It also punishes not protecting high value assets within an air defence bubble, and in multi-player mode, counter-battery fires require immediate shoot-and-scoot tactics. Wargame has a very basic resupply system modelled. Ammunition and fuel expenditures are tracked for each unit, but re-supply trucks/units will replenish all fuel and ammo types. In practice, re-supply trucks are most important for anti-armour, air defence units, and artillery units. Obstacles are not modelled, and engineers are limited in that they are treated as ‘super infantry’ in built-up areas.
Wargame: Red Dragon has multi-player modes that allow 2 to 20 players, i.e., up to 10 versus 10 players. This does allow Wargame to be used as a different kind of training aid than CMSF 2. For example, in the King’s Own Calgary Regiment (KOCR), we had PD sessions on combined-arms tactics with 4-5 officers, with each controlling a different sub-unit combat team within a battle group conducting an advance versus 1 player designated as OPFOR, and a senior officer as executive control/high control (EXCON/HICON) providing simspeak radio orders to sub-units and also stopping the simulation as required to discuss tactical lessons, and hot wash good and bad parts of ‘the trace’. The PD sessions were well received, easy to organize and orders of magnitude less resource intensive than VBS or joint conflict & tactical simulation (JCATS) software. They were also complemented by some casual ‘fun fights’ during evenings at pre-designated times, where officers could login to a shared server from their homes, and go head-to-head for bragging rights. Wargame is modable, and there are mods that include units up to present day, although more work would be required to generate an accurate contemporary Canadian order of battle. A reasonable proxy can be made by combining certain NATO units as a surrogate, i.e., German Leopard 2s, USMC LAV-25, etc.
The Wargame series is a few years old and so prices are very reasonable. On Steam, European Escalation is only $13 CAD, Airland Battle is $27 CAD and Red Dragon is $40 CAD.
Wargame Red Dragon Reviews:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/29/wargame-red-dragon-review
https://www.pcgamesn.com/wargame-red-dragon-review
https://www.gamekult.com/jeux/wargame-red-dragon-3050174437/test.html
Armored Brigade
Armored Brigade is a tactical war game focusing on combined arms operations set against the background of a Cold War gone hot with possible engagements dates ranging from 1965 to 1991. It offers maps up to 15km x 15km that are basically top-down topographical maps. There is a large database of units and equipment that are accurately modelled in terms of capabilities. Equipment and units use traditional NATO tactical symbols, so the gameplay experience is much closer to a JCATS type of experience, although designed for one or two players. Time and space, and equipment movement are well modelled, as is indirect fires and CAS, but once again, the graphics are not ‘pretty’ like in CMSF 2 and the Wargame series. Obstacles, weather and morale are also modelled in detail, further enhancing realistic gameplay.
Armored Brigade does have a large equipment and unit database and it can be easily edited (built-in feature). Given Armored Brigade focuses on tactical symbols, it would be easy to create contemporary units equipped with LAV 6, M777, etc. There is also a mission editor and quick battle scenario creator that allows new missions to be easily created. Armored Brigade is available on Steam for $45 CAD.
Armored Brigade reviews:
https://www.wargamer.com/armored-brigade/review
https://saveorquit.com/2019/11/16/review-armored-brigade/
https://dystopeek.fr/jouer/armored-brigade/
http://www.graal.fr/2019/10/27/armored-brigade/
Recommendation:
CADTC should investigate use of the wargames discussed here as a formal training aid for the Army Operations Course (AOC), Army Tactical Operations Course (ATOC), select other courses run by the Combat Training Centre (CTC), as well as for continuation training and PD within other formations and units. This investigation should include options for further customizing such wargames to further enhance its relevancy for CA training requirements. The potential of such wargames as informal training aids should be shared with units and formations, and provision should be made to allow it to be loaded on appropriate DWAN computers and/or through Defence 365. Formations and units should also investigate options to promote informal tactics competitions and social clubs using such wargames and other COTS software, such as a Discord/Sim-speak, to informally reinforce tactical acumen skills in combat leaders.
Summing Up
There are some great COTS PC wargames out that that could be cost effective training aids for enhancing tactics training and the tactical acumen of combat leaders in the Canadian Army. None are perfect and they all have their niches, but there is also tremendous potential if the training system can not only identify more ways to use these software tools in training, but further adapt the tools (perhaps with assistance from the original game developers) to better meet the CA’s needs.
While CADTC considers that potential, formations and units could still informally proceed with some low-level experimentation, and certainly encourage some semi-structured and casual wargaming, through organizing competitions and ‘clubs’ leveraging the multiplayer capability already built into this software to allow combat leaders to compete against each other from their homes. A grassroots initiative within the British Army, UK Fight Club, has already adopted this approach. However, they do talk about it, and are willing to share their experiences and work with Allies. It’s time for the CA to form some fight club chapters and add more tools to our training and PD toolbox.
About the Author: Col Christopher W. Hunt has served in the Canadian Army for over 28 years with time spent evenly between Regular and Reserve components. He has served in a variety of command and staff positions in both Tank and Recce squadrons, and at unit and formation level. Col Hunt served on Operation KINETIC Roto 0 in Kosovo, TF 1-06 in Afghanistan, and several domestic operations. Col Hunt commanded The King’s Own Calgary Regiment and was Deputy Commander 41 CBG. He has a Master of Arts in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. He is currently 3rd Canadian Division Headquarters Chief of Staff (Support) and the Division’s Armoured Advisor (Reserve).

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