Small Combat Arms Unit Leader Training Techniques: Rules of Play for Two Player/Multiplayer Infantry Mapboard Games

摘要

The objective of this project was to develop and evaluate simulation techniques for training small unit leaders which would provide maximum tactical decision making training while minimizing the unnecessary, and often wasteful, participation of lower level troops. The fundamental approach of this research effort has been to take some of the basic instructional principles underlying engagement simulation and to develop abstractions of field exercises for leadership training. Initial efforts led to the development of a mapboard game. The 'board game' initially developed was a two-sided, free-play map exercise for teaching infantry tactics to small unit leaders at the platoon level organizations. It was found, however, that for the benefits of this training to be fully realized, leaders had to have an opportunity to learn to work with their NCOs and then to practice what they had learned in the field both with and without troops. A variation of the basic game simulation was developed which would permit the unit leader team (platoon and squad leaders) to work together on the game board as they would during an actual engagement. Current Army doctrine emphasizes the importance of the integration of mechanized infantry, armor, and anti-armor elements in conducting successful tactical operations against a deployed enemy. The products of this research have been: (1) an infantry squad/platoon level game for two-player or multiplayer use; (2) an infantry squad/platoon level field opposition exercise; and (3) a combined arms platoon/company level mapboard game.