Post by Whiterook on Jul 5, 2024 10:10:14 GMT -5
When playing a wargame with an opponent, how often have you seen what you’d believed was a well thought out strategy, disintegrate before your very eyes? Well, if you’ve played a decent amount of games, and you are anything like me personally, a good number of times, which isn’t so good!
I’ve put some thought into this as the years have gone by and one of the conclusions I’ve come too is centered on the topic of, Calculated Risk.
Over caution can spell disaster to what you would otherwise consider a well thought out plan, even when those plans are developing in play. I suppose a major reason for that is because of the relatively fast fluidity and fragility of play itself; unexpected moves and reactions by your opponent have to be interpreted and countered in a time-pressured environment and you two choices are to play it safe or throw caution to the wind… there really isn’t a lot of time for any other course of action. For me, I’ve tended to play things a little more safely, which generally translates to taking more time to make my play than my opponents typically care for. I’ve tried to counter this by being a little more “Loose Canon” and just hammer away, and I am having some success with this, but it doesn’t seem to be my default play style.
Wargamers tend to believe that one should never do anything that might entail risk or give the advantage over to the opponent at seizing the advantage; and of course, their worry that the opponent is thinking the same thing! So it begs the question: When should you take risks? It’s takes a leap of faith to throw the majority of your forces into the enemy’s maw, guns a blazing; to flank the enemy knowing his expected reaction will make your gambit a 50% chance of success; to dump your paratroopers behind enemy lines with light weapons. What is the Risk/Reward, and are you willing to be that General that throws his men into meat grinders?
I’m finding the simple answer to that last posit is, whenever the battle situation reveals the opportunity for quick action that exploits a weakness observed in your opponents’ play! It has to be something concrete like that, otherwise, you are just being reckless with throwing your troops in harms way and hoping they survive. That can include, assessing what your opponent may think of your play in reaction to his feints and attacks… Turing the tables in your figuring he will think you’ll be typically apprehensive to make certain moves, and then make the move! …but tempered with calculating the risk of doing that and what the reward would be.
How bold are you willing to play, but playing that boldness smartly. Sounds easy, right?
I’ve put some thought into this as the years have gone by and one of the conclusions I’ve come too is centered on the topic of, Calculated Risk.
Over caution can spell disaster to what you would otherwise consider a well thought out plan, even when those plans are developing in play. I suppose a major reason for that is because of the relatively fast fluidity and fragility of play itself; unexpected moves and reactions by your opponent have to be interpreted and countered in a time-pressured environment and you two choices are to play it safe or throw caution to the wind… there really isn’t a lot of time for any other course of action. For me, I’ve tended to play things a little more safely, which generally translates to taking more time to make my play than my opponents typically care for. I’ve tried to counter this by being a little more “Loose Canon” and just hammer away, and I am having some success with this, but it doesn’t seem to be my default play style.
Wargamers tend to believe that one should never do anything that might entail risk or give the advantage over to the opponent at seizing the advantage; and of course, their worry that the opponent is thinking the same thing! So it begs the question: When should you take risks? It’s takes a leap of faith to throw the majority of your forces into the enemy’s maw, guns a blazing; to flank the enemy knowing his expected reaction will make your gambit a 50% chance of success; to dump your paratroopers behind enemy lines with light weapons. What is the Risk/Reward, and are you willing to be that General that throws his men into meat grinders?
I’m finding the simple answer to that last posit is, whenever the battle situation reveals the opportunity for quick action that exploits a weakness observed in your opponents’ play! It has to be something concrete like that, otherwise, you are just being reckless with throwing your troops in harms way and hoping they survive. That can include, assessing what your opponent may think of your play in reaction to his feints and attacks… Turing the tables in your figuring he will think you’ll be typically apprehensive to make certain moves, and then make the move! …but tempered with calculating the risk of doing that and what the reward would be.
How bold are you willing to play, but playing that boldness smartly. Sounds easy, right?