Sidebar: Board vs. Computer Games
Long-used by the U.S. Navy as educational and training tools, wargames are also a popular way for the civilian, as well as the serviceman, to refight battles and explore naval history.
At some point during their climb up the career ladder, naval officers usually encounter wargames. An interactive way to learn from past battles and campaigns and predict how future ones might be fought, wargaming has long been studied, refined, and taught at the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. In 1960, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz famously told a class at the school that nothing that happened in the Pacific during World War II was a surprise-except the kamikazes-because it all had been gamed at Newport before the conflict. 1
