A disciplined planning activity for testing a plan or course of action against time, uncertainty, and adaptation to surface decision points, information needs, and failure modes.
Defineswargaming
Wargaming is a disciplined planning activity for testing a plan (or a course of action) against time, uncertainty, and adaptation. Its purpose is not prediction; its purpose is to surface what must be decided, what must be known, and what will break [usmc2020mcwp5_10].
A common pattern is an action–reaction–counteraction loop:
References
[usarmy2014fm6]Department of the Army.
(2014).
Commander and Staff Organization and Operations.
Field Manual 6-0 (5 May 2014; Change 1, 26 Mar 2015).
[usmc2020mcwp5_10]United States Marine Corps.
(2020).
Marine Corps Planning Process.
MCWP 5-10 (10 Aug 2020; Change 1, 30 Jan 2026).
@misc{emsenn2026-wargaming,
author = {emsenn},
title = {Wargaming},
year = {2026},
note = {A disciplined planning activity for testing a plan or course of action against time, uncertainty, and adaptation to surface decision points, information needs, and failure modes.},
url = {https://emsenn.net/library/militarism/domains/military-command/terms/wargaming/},
publisher = {emsenn.net},
license = {CC BY-SA 4.0}
}