Youtube channel: 40th ID Urban Warfare Center

The videos shot of the lectures during the recent Urban Operations Planners Course have been posted to the 40th Infantry Division Urban Warfare Center’s Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF2zf038pwkv6N0mQfcskMw/videos

• Non US Approaches
• Information Warfare
• Civil Affairs in Urban Operations
• Protection in Urban Operations
• Sustainment in Urban Operations
• Intelligence in Urban Operations
• Movement & Maneuver
• Fires & Electronic Warfare in Urban Operations
• C2 in Urban Operations
• Subterranean Equipment /Tools
• Subterranean Doctrinal Overview
• Identify Threat Capabilities and Urban Tactics
• Divisional Operational Approaches
• The Liberation of Manila 1945
• Joint Special Operations in Urban Environment (a long, entertaining talk by the very clever “Duc” Duclos)
• Civil Military Integration in the Urban Operations Environment
• Civilian Harm Mitigation (CHM) Practical Tools (one of two presentations by Ms. Sahr Muhammedally, an amazing person who has been at the centre of many major urban engagements and campaigns trying to prevent undue harm to civilians. This was a constant theme during the course.)
• IPB in Urban (LTC Higgins, NYARNG)
• Tools to Visualize the Urban Environment (goshwow presentation by technical folks from ESRI)
• Urban Science: Trends in Urbanization Now and Into the Future (presented by the very smart Stuart Lyle of the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory)
• Urban 101 (another introductory lecture by COL John Spencer)
• Historical Trends (presented by MAJ Jayson Geroux of 1 RCR)
• Why is Urban So Hard (presented by BG Wooldridge and COL Spencer, this was really the keynote of the course)
• Law of War & Rules of Engagement (also by Ms. Sahr Muhammedally)

2022-02 Urban Operations Planner Course

(photo: Jayson Geroux)

I’ve spent the last week attending the second serial of the Urban Operations Planners Course, run by the 40th Infantry Division (California Army National Guard) and held at Joint Force Training Base Los Alamitos. And what an interesting week it was!

A solid week of really great lectures and exercises on urban warfare, featuring people like COL John Spencer of the Modern War Institute’s Urban Warfare Project, Stuart Lyle of the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Dr. Jacob Stoil of the School of Advanced Military Studies, and MAJ Jayson Geroux of the Royal Canadian Regiment. I met a lot of really interesting students as well – most were Americans but there were also  students from the Australian, British, Chilean, Dutch, and German armies.

Unfortunately soon after I arrived at the Base I developed a bad summer cold that also turned into laryngitis… fortunately my voice recovered just in time, for the last day was a “learn by doing” exercise featuring group play of the Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel or QUICK, designed by yours truly… I’ve been working on it since last December.

It landed very very well; the 40 students seemed really engaged by it. Also, about 20 remote students played online at the same time, using a VASSAL module produced by Curt Pangracs at the Command General and Staff College.

(Of course people got to use their Military Pointing Skills!)

This was the first time I had the opportunity to teach a game, any game, to a large group of people, many of whom were non-gamers. Fortunately I had a set of great facilitators including faculty from the Joint Special Operations University, Stuart Lyle and students and instructors of the course. It never would have worked without them!

The QUICK now joins the range of free print-and-play games I offer on this website; it’s available to everyone – files are on this separate page: The QUICK Page

However, be aware that I will soon be making some small changes and revisions to the game rules and charts due to feedback and comments from the students.

Me and BGEN Robert Wooldridge, Deputy Commander of 40ID, sponsor of the course and avid wargamer himself.

Review: A Distant Plain

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a review of A Distant Plain – I got my early designer’s copy of the game almost exactly nine years ago – but here is a good short review by someone meeting it for the first time, and their thoughts on playing a game on this subject.

https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blog/first-impressions-a-distant-plain