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Seasoned Vet
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| Video Game Helps Teach Armor Officer Skills | | | by Michael Peck |  For the past three years, Maj. Michael Muller has used TacOpsCAV, a militarized version of the commercial TacOps game, to teach everything from standard operating procedures and battle drills to intelligence information tracking, decision-making. Muller is a Marine Corps armor officer who teaches at the Armor Captain’s Career Course at Fort Knox. He prefers the user-friendliness of TacOpsCAV, in which he can generate training scenarios on a low-end PC, to the official JANUS ground combat simulation in the base simulation center. TacOpsCAV is a platoon-level ground combat game where players simultaneously input their orders each turn using a point-and-click interface, and the computer then resolves their orders simultaneously. Muller uses TacOpsCAV to illustrate lessons to his students. In a small scenario, he might have “five or six guys will play actual commanders, while the others play artillery observers or battalion headquarters, plus a couple to play the bad guys.” One scenario ran for three days. Players spent the first two days planning their moves. “The neat thing was that we had the planning at the same time as some of the fighting,” Muller recalled. “During the planning, the reconnaissance fight began, and based on the information they received, the players revised their plans for the main attack that followed.” Adding a low-cost touch of realism, Muller bought several handheld radios from Radio Shack for $40 apiece. “You put your commanders in separate rooms. They use the radios to convey information. Every player has some information, so you [see] how well they build their intelligence picture.” Muller credits JANUS as being somewhat more realistic than TacOpsCAV, because it flows in continuous time, versus the other game’s turn-based system. Yet Muller said this is more than outweighed by the accessibility of TacOpsCAV. Muller even used the game to settle an argument with a colleague over whether an armored cavalry squadron is more powerful than a Marine Expeditionary Unit. “Oh, the MEU won.” |
------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC ----------------------------------------------------------- 
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Seasoned Vet
 
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That's the way the tech evolves. Ender Wiggin never even knew he was fighting the real bugger war.
Go with God, but make Him walk the point.
If you load a mudfoot down with a lot of gadgets he has to watch somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone axe - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a Vernier. - Robert Heinlein
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Trooper
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Well Rickdog, it looks like the Corps knows a good thing when it sees one. http://www.ingaming.com/index.php?v=904&d=extend US Marine Corps to use TacOps The US Department of the Navy recently announced the award of a one year contract to Battlefront to convert their Game TacOps v4 into a military trainer.
The goal of “TacOpsMC” will be to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with an enhanced version of “TacOpsCav”, the current officially issued standard training device of the U.S. Army, adding new features and changes.
“TacOpsCav” is a military adaptation of the “TacOps v4” recreational computer game currently sold by www.battlefront.com. It supports multiplayer teamplay by allowing up to 19 players or spectators on up to 8 teams and an umpire to connect and fight the same battle online via TCP/IP or LAN. “TacOps v4” is available for PC and Mac.
The contact has three deliverables. The first deliverable is the existing U.S. Army “TacOpsCav” TDS recast with a USMC splash screen and USMC music. The first deliverable is due by the end of March 2003. The second and third deliverables will appear at roughly five month intervals thereafter and will be enhanced versions of “TacOpsMC” with new features and changes as specified by the USMC.
The contract statement of work indicates that “TacOpsMC” TDS is intended to train United States Marine Corps (USMC) Officers in combined arms operations. This project is being sponsored by the Marine Corps Engineer School so particular attention will be paid to training of Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 1302 Combat Engineer Officer and MOS 1371 Combat Engineer.
The contract also states that the objective of the “TacOpsMC” TDS is to develop a PC based, fast-paced, and tactically realistic computer-based simulation. The intent is for students, or the training audience, to be presented with a tactical situation for which they develop a plan. The students will then wargame their plan using the simulation, to provide feedback. The changing nature of the enemy will also force rapid decision- making. The simulation will be modeled to simulate the execution of combined arms operations at the Company and Battalion level and will cause the Engineer Officer to apply all of their critical thinking and decision- making skills while operating as a part of a simulated Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Repeated simulation play will enhance their skills as commanders and planners. The simulation can be played in a competitive free play mode to develop combat decision making skills. The simulation can also be used as part of a command post exercise scenario where planning is done prior to the simulation, then simulation data is used to provide feedback. Communications and Command and Control personnel can be trained using the command post exercise mode.
Screens and more details can be found on www.battlefront.com.
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Seasoned Vet
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I hope it has enough different opfor personas to make it unpredictable and reward aggression.
Go with God, but make Him walk the point.
If you load a mudfoot down with a lot of gadgets he has to watch somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone axe - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a Vernier. - Robert Heinlein
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Trooper
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Last Login: 8/14/2008 5:44 PM
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TacOps is kind of like Steel Panthers... The ability of the OPFOR all depends on the person running that side of the game... 
What really matters is whats over the next hill, what the other guy can do, and is it gonna rain, snow, blow and in what combination...
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