Professional Development Wargaming Session

📚 What an educational wargaming session! It was an honor to see IADS: The Game used as a professional development tool with an intelligence community audience. We’re so appreciative to have been invited, and excited to attend the next iteration!

🎲 After all the board games were set up, participants started to file in. Each of the facilitators (including us) were assigned participants who were meant to consider the wargame they were assigned through the lens of their profession and field of expertise. The session began with some academics; in this instance, it was brief historical review of naval combat during the US Civil War.  I'm humbled to admit I had no idea the Civil War had a naval warfare component at all (or that "damn the torpedoes" was referring to sea mines!) 

Our games were amazing! Though they did bust the 1v1 estimated playtime of IADS: The Game, 10-20 minutes. With deep consideration put into each phase of the game, the various 3v3 matches we played all had exciting and interesting interactions. Noting that our game's playtime is usually fast compared to most wargames, we made good use of our two tables by assigning late arrivals and in-between-game participants to learn IADS and to play a quick VUL. I really enjoyed this new teamwork dynamic, with both of us running separate demos simultaneously; I will keep that setup in mind for the next convention or conference!  

Ultimate Force Multiplier C-C-C-COMBO!

One game that really stood out was the 4v4 VUL! With eight players total, the entire Base Game deck was dealt out! Our team drafted three of the four Upgrades available in the Base Game. We dove in strong with my teammate's recommendation of upgrading Intelligence AND Deception Tactics. Leave it to an Intelligence professional to understand the power of information superiority! It paid off as the other team wasted their un-upgraded Intelligence and had to reveal all their unit cards. The Upgraded Deception Tactics gave us the single turn time advantage we needed to get our shots in before the opposing team could detect us! Definitely going to use this force multiplier C-C-C-COMBO in the future!  

💭 The session closed with thoughtful consideration of each game. Participants described their experiences and how they saw their professions within the rulesets and interactions in the games. We loved the feedback from a couple of our players -- one complimented the scalability and how our game draws analogies to real-world military capabilities. They also commented on how the dynamics change between 3v3s and 1v1s. Another player appreciated the draft phase and noted how IADS: The Game emphasized the value of Attrition Points.

✨ All in all, it was an awesome experience! We loved how much more competitive these professional development players were than our normal board game crowds. Really excited for the next session!

- Madonna 💁🏻‍♀️