GrogHeads Forum

Tabletop Gaming, Models, and Minis => Wargaming => Topic started by: bayonetbrant on July 24, 2013, 02:38:33 PM

Title: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: bayonetbrant on July 24, 2013, 02:38:33 PM
(dredged up from the old country archives...)


in the mid-70s, SPI published a wargame in ModQuad 2 called "Yugoslavia" with a series of hypotheticals around the city of Zagreb. 

It featured the Russians, Yugos, Americans, and a cameo by a few Italians.
Basic scenarios were Russian invasion, NATO counterattack, etc.
There was an interesting 3-player game with the Yugos trying to fend off both sides.

But there was also an interesting Yugo civil war scenario with Serbs & Croats on either side, and NATO/Russians jumping in.  This was '77, so 15 years before it actually happened in Yugoslavia.

So I'm curious what other games people might've run across that had strangely predictive scenarios, where the designers foresaw conflicts that later came to pass. 

And skip the obvious Arab-Israeli wars...
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: bayonetbrant on July 24, 2013, 02:38:58 PM
BBG link: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10610/yugoslavia
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: Staggerwing on July 24, 2013, 08:38:48 PM
I really really hope that you and Battlefront's original CMSF haven't just jinxed us with this thread... :o
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: Jack Nastyface on July 25, 2013, 10:11:43 PM
Certainly Gulf Strike comes to mind...orginally released in 1983, it predates Desert Storm by about 8 years.
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: LongBlade on July 26, 2013, 08:43:04 PM
What was that BP game about an oil well blowout?
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: btrain on August 16, 2013, 01:58:50 PM
I read the "backstory" by Jim Dunnigan for Minuteman (1977) and wince...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/219608/review-description-counter-manifest

Brian
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: bayonetbrant on September 26, 2017, 08:53:48 AM
any games out there predict the Trump presidency?  The Obama-Libya bombings?  Russian seizure of Crimea?

what am I missing?
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: mirth on September 26, 2017, 08:55:48 AM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on September 26, 2017, 08:53:48 AM
what am I missing?

better things to do with your time?
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: bayonetbrant on September 26, 2017, 09:01:11 AM
Quote from: mirth on September 26, 2017, 08:55:48 AM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on September 26, 2017, 08:53:48 AM
what am I missing?

better things to do with your time?

p'shaw...  like what, work?!
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: BanzaiCat on September 26, 2017, 11:29:50 AM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on September 26, 2017, 08:53:48 AM
any games out there predict the Trump presidency?  The Obama-Libya bombings?  Russian seizure of Crimea?

what am I missing?

Millennium Wars: Ukraine (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9487/millennium-wars-ukraine), perhaps?

I think I still have this and the other five games from the original series stowed away somewhere.


Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: btrain on November 02, 2017, 11:05:21 AM
There are lots of wargames on hypothetical conflicts, but few of them ever seem to come to pass, at least not in the way the game might have indicated.

I must at this point invoke BOMBA'S LAW of Prophylactic Peace Through Prognosticative Conflict Simulation.
It is a proven theory, basically it is:

If Ty Bomba designs a game on a war that hasn't happened yet, it will not happen.

Data points: The Fire Next Time, Moscow Burning, Oil War: Iran Strikes, Red Sky Morning, When Dragons Fight, the "Putin Strikes All Points of the Compass" series... War by TV too, I suppose, when it was originally designed.

He actually is working on something called "America Falling", where he takes the system used in that Chinese civil war game Red Dragon Falling (think he has used it in a couple of others by now)... movement allowances are 3d6 every turn, nukes galore, chrome-plated chits flying about... and adapts it to a USA that has torn itself up into antagonistic regions.
Been done before, but not by him; I mentioned Minuteman above.

Still, we must cling to BOMBA'S LAW, to ensure the continued safety and peace of the world.

Brian
Title: Re: Wargames predicting the future
Post by: bayonetbrant on November 02, 2017, 11:12:53 AM
Where does "Coatney's Law" fit into that paradigm? ;)