His second book: Swan pr Slog is on my Xmas wish list. I now think all tactical rules now seem punk if they don't include this huge psychological element Sadly that includes some (if not all) of my favourites!
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Book: War Games - The Psychology of Combat
Just finished this absolutely excellent book and the ideas in it are just mad rabbits running round my head. It is an essential read from a very experienced expert in the field of Combat Psychology. The author raises the salient point that winning wars is not about killing people, it is about making the other side not wanting to fight. This is not a pacifist agenda but operational and tactical insights (see below, read this book and the 4F's [Fight, Freeze, Fuss, Flight], Weapon Pull and Weapon Push, Cohesion will become part of your lexicon):
His second book: Swan pr Slog is on my Xmas wish list. I now think all tactical rules now seem punk if they don't include this huge psychological element Sadly that includes some (if not all) of my favourites!
His second book: Swan pr Slog is on my Xmas wish list. I now think all tactical rules now seem punk if they don't include this huge psychological element Sadly that includes some (if not all) of my favourites!
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I have been researching and reading about many of the early battles of WW2 - the time of Blitzkrieg. What I never really understood before was that Blitzkrieg was all about breaking through and encircling your enemy and removing his ability (including willingness) to fight, and not about defeating all of his units individually in combat. Hence time after time we see the surrounding and surrender of hundreds of thousands of men. Makes me wonder if we should be reproducing this better on the wargames table.
That is the essence of "Sun Tzu" and the "Art of War" - to think that it has gone away in the 21st Century is crazy! If anything it needs to be cognitively better defined!
Tbh, I think tactical warfare is one of the very hardest levels of combat to game due to the psychological elements. Once you are dealing companies and battalions it becomes a numbers game and far easier to model. Many people seem to like tactical games though, as I guess they can relate to the 1:1 aspects.
Tactical games are certainly relatable in 1:1 skirmish. I would also include the Squad Leader (SL), Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), Last Hundred Yards (LHY) in tactical too, they certainly hold to single vehicle representations and have single man counters (SMC ). Trouble is morale seems to have a blanket value per unit (elite paratroopers or poor conscript with regular inbetween) and then everything else depends on how much incoming firepower they receive. Stepping up the likes of Command Decision and Spearhead "do the same" with perhaps more DRMs brought in on the inevitable morale check - because of fire! Waivering seems to be accepted as more of a Napoleonic or Ancients morale thing. Sam Mustafa's rules are more narrative but again everything is related to effective fire on a unit.
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