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Wargaming in the Classroom: An Odyssey

I stumbled across this old post while fishing around the internet for… wait, what was I looking for? I forget. Nonetheless, I’ll share my find for two reasons.

First of all, the author’s realization that wargaming (or simply strategy gaming when it comes to historical events off the battlefield) would aid in learning – particularly at the graduate level* – is obvious to me. Having learned about many a historical context through games, I have no doubt this would aid in the classroom. Particularly when the right games are chosen.

The second reason follows from my realization that the “the professor” is James Lacey, the author of the Moment of Battle. I began this book back in 2019 (still years after this article was written, for what that’s worth) and have, at least thus far, not yet finished it. But my personal failure is neither here nor there.

As a nod to my index post on his previous work, here I’ll list the games he uses in his course offerings:

Polis: Fight for the Hegemony – The Peloponnesian War
For the People – The American Civil War
Paths of Glory – First World War**
Triumph & Tragedy – Second World War***
Diplomacy – Just because

*Judging from the context, I’d say he is teaching history to non-history majors, which creates a particular niche where gaming as a learning aid might thrive. The student needs to be serious enough and invested enough that spending dozens of hours learning about history through a game could be followed by reading that would allow them to compare reality with simulation. As part of an actual Masters in History curriculum, it might be a little too gimmicky.

**Lacey notes he has a game of his own design to cover the July 1914 crisis which led the great powers into war.

***Similarly to the First World War, he augments the commercial game ith a self-creation that covers the 1943 Casablanca Conference.