The worst time to prepare for war is when you find yourself in the middle of one. Tactical Decision Games (TDGs) – also called Tactical Decision Exercises (TDEs) – are, simply, situational narratives of a tactical scenario that provide leaders the opportunity to develop a plan based on abbreviated information and in a time-constrained environment. They are tactical/situational puzzles. They require little in resources and provide huge returns for decision-making and critical-thinking. TDGs are, in my opinion, an underused tool in the institutional, organizational, and self-development domains. Let’s fix that.
“Si vis pacem, para bellum.” – Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (Translation: If you want peace, prepare for war).
Strategic and operational leadership is critical, but at a base level – the Army is a tactical force. A career in the Army, whether Officer or NCO, is spent primarily in the tactical arena. Consider this, a Tactical Battalion Commander or Command Sergeant Major at 18-20 years in service, is developing and leading a tactical force. TDGs are an invaluable tool that need to be regular practice as low as the squad-level.
Personal Note: I did not do a good enough job with TDGs as a Rifle Company Commander. This was partially an intentional step to supplement a Battalion Commander who championed TDGs as a central force of his leader development program. I focused our leader development on doctrine to support upcoming operations and leadership theory/practice to develop the character and competency of leaders. However, it was also an unintentional effect of my own lack of experience and development in TDGs.
TDGs & Their Benefits
Tactical drawing from Field Marshall Rommel’s Infantry Attacks
A TDG is a situational exercise, driven by a narrative, that provides basic mission, intent, and resources available. It allows leaders to work through their decision-making processes (TLPs, MDMP, etc.) and develop a plan. They have been used throughout history dating back to before the 1800s. Most notably, Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the Prussian General Staff, used them in the mid-to-late 1800s for contingency planning and called them “tactical assignments” (taktische Aufgaben). The most obvious benefit is that they require little in resources, can vary in complexity, and provide a low-threat environment to challenge and develop your team’s creative thinking.
Developing Vision for the Game
There is a certain vision for the game or System-1 thinking that great tacticians possess. As Clausewitz would put it, it is the commander’s coup d’œil. Some leaders are just born with it – in the sports world we revere these competitors. Like Jordan and the hoop, Babe at the bat, Unitas in the pocket, or Ray at Middle Linebacker…these leaders see the field. Even these greats invested countless hours of practice – Malcolm Gladwell’s 10k hour rule.
Hall of Fame Baseball Player, Yogi Berra, famously said, “You can’t think and hit at the same time,”. A major league fastball takes 400 milliseconds to travel from the pitchers hand to home plate. When all is said and done, accounting for the time to recognize the pitch and get the bat around, a hitter has about 125 milliseconds to decide whether or not to swing. To put this in perspective, it takes you 300-400 milliseconds just to blink. Major League hitters don’t have a special power of seeing into the future. They have trained their minds to have a vision for the game that helps them predict, choose, and act. Vision for the game is a System 1 reflex that can be honed or trained through System 2 attention to detail. That is where TDGs enter for the Tactical Leader.
TDGs Are Tactical Chalk Talk
Where to Find Them
There are some great books out there such as Mastering Tactics, Infantry Attacks, Platoon Leader, Thinking in Time, and others, that provide vignettes or historical examples and a decision-making framework. But, I was looking for where to find a repository of actual TDGs. With help from the professional military community, I was able to crowd source some great resources (Check out 3×5’s Post on TDEs). However, it was not as easy as one would hope to find examples of such a critical tool. There were some friction points and flaws in how we, as community of practice, make this resource available:
- Many of the resources are within the annals of individual Google Drives, Shared Drives, etc.
- The best/majority of resources readily available are USMC Association (MCA) Gazette TDEs, with minimal Army resources.
- It is difficult to find a single aggregate of TDG resources.
The Company Leader TDG Series
To help address this, and to admittedly add to my own self-development focus, The Company Leader created a Tactical Decision Game (TDG) Page. We intend for the page to serve two functions:
- To provide an aggregate of current Tactical Decision Game/Exercise resources available. This includes tactical vignettes and other forms of tactical decision-making material.
- To archive The Company Leader developed Tactical Decision Games. These will roll out on the first Tuesday of every month – “Tactical Tuesday.”
Our goal is to provide an indexed resource for Tactical Decision Games, add to leaders’ practical tools for developing their units, and curate new TDGs on a regular basis. If you have TDGs/TDEs of your own that you would like to submit, send them to thecompanyleader@gmail.com or through the Contact Us page. This is an invitation to join in on the journey; I am excited to see what lies ahead!