Cano Alea Virumque
I have commented in previous blots of how big organizations are somehow inherently less trustworthy these days. A good example of this is the Yankee Army and their taxonomy of success: an abject, crushing failure is announced to be a “qualified success”, while an actual success is an “unqualified success”. The idea is evidently abstracted from the sizing of laundry detergent where a large box is small and an jumbo stupendous box is large.
In a sense then it is no surprise that simulation is a big thing in the Yankee Army, since it is so open to proper adjustment. I cannot count the number of studies where battles were concluded with the virtual annihilation of the opponent and only flesh wounds on the part of the good guys. As great as these may seem to Congress Critters unaware of anything other than politics, such fights are notoriously rare, something on order 1.E-4 to 1.E-6 of battles. I call the interested reader’s attention to the chapter in POW on Conclusive Battles.
The new extreme of this is exposed in the latest Yankee Army recruiting War Game (people in the loop simulation) “Future Force Company Commander”.[Link] This paragon is brought to us by the same folks who are developing the Yankee Army’s combat panacea, the “Armored Combat System” which is evidently the centerpiece of the game.
Sadly, the game is deficient in many ways. It blankly assumes there is no friction and no responsive enemy – sort of like playing chess where one player gets a five pound sledge hammer and freedom to use it. Critics are already decrying the warped environment so I shan’t belabor that, just wonder whether this is a result of insecurity over the decision to buy the Armored Combat System so matter what, or insecurity over continued recruitment success, or both?
But then I recall that when Jim Dunnigan [Link] delivered the first table top training game, Firefight, to the Yankee Army back in the ’60’s. They didn’t have enough money to fulfill their contract with him so they signed over the commercial rights to the game to him.
