The interview with the War College folks was great! As a semi-Pro wargame designer myself, I would love to go through a program like that! I know the Naval War College had a great tradition of wargaming and it was interesting to hear about the Rand Corporation, CIA, and other think-tank involvement in the Wargaming community. I would love to play one of those old Gymnasium floor games with their collection of models!
I have dabbled in trying to create a lighter "Modern" naval game, but have run into many challenges and not gotten too many great results so far. The closest "success" I morphed into a gothic, sci-fi naval game instead. I should try out Rory Crabb's rules to see how he overcomes some of the challenges. I played Harpoon, but that was NOT what I wanted at all.
On a different approach, I have been thinking really hard about how to implement Wargaming into my corporate career. Hearing them talk about it in an actual warfighting perspective gave me pause to think about how to build it in a corporate culture. I designed a team-play Horse and Musket game specifically for corporate usage that emphasized communication, but want to make something much more corporate focused too. Going through a program like the one they discussed would be eye opening.
I recall when I was in College, I took two classes on Naval Warfare history through the ROTC program, even though I was not part of the program. It was interesting as I had a completely different perspective than everyone else in the class as I was the only one who was NOT a member of the US Navy or Naval Reserves. The Commander teaching the class was completely baffled why I had any interest in the subject.
Great interview.
