Support teams can actively assist war-fighters, in the real world as well as in games.
Maneuver, control, and other tactics can win a battle without engaging in actual bloodshed.
Often the source of disagreements results from undefined utilization of terms. For our discussion, I am using the following for war gaming from wiki:
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The exact definition of "wargame" varies from one writer to the next and one organization to the next. To prevent confusion, this section will establish the general definition employed by this article.
A wargame simulates an armed conflict, be it a battle, a campaign, or an entire war. Business wargames do not simulate armed conflict and thus fall outside the scope of this article.
A wargame is adversarial. There must be two opposing sides whose players react intelligently to each other's decisions.[7]
- [+] Definitely had two opposing sides
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A wargame does not involve the use of actual troops and armaments. This definition is used by the US Naval War College.[2] Some writers use the term "live wargames" to refer to games that use actual troops in the field, but this article shall instead refer to these as field exercises.
- [+] Definitely no actual troops or armaments
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Setting and scenario
A wargame must have a setting that is based on some historical era of warfare so as to establish what armaments the combatants may wield and the environment they fight in.[8]
A historical setting accurately depicts a real historical era of warfare. Among recreational wargamers, the most popular historical era is World War 2. Professional military wargamers prefer the modern era.
A fantasy setting depicts a fictional world in which the combatants wield fictional or anachronistic armaments, but it should be similar enough to some historical era of warfare such that the combatants fight in a familiar and credible way. For instance, Warhammer Age of Sigmar has wizards and dragons, but the combat is mostly based on medieval warfare (spearmen, archers, knights, etc.).
- [+] Definitely had a fantasy setting
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A wargame's scenario describes the circumstances of the specific conflict being simulated, from the layout of the terrain to the exact composition of the fighting forces to the mission objectives of the players. Historical wargamers often re-enact historical battles. Alternatively, players may construct a fictional scenario. It is easier to design a balanced scenario where either player has a fair chance of winning if it is fictionalized. Board wargames usually have a fixed scenario.
- [+] Scenario to build new gods
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This was a clear scenario goal as everyone began with the ability to create a shrine and had a relic (as opposed to the first Diaspora where shrines were potentially features of the terrain).
Level of war
A wargame's level of war determines to the scope of the scenario, the basic unit of command, and the degree to which lower level processes are abstracted.
At the tactical level, the scenario is a single battle. The basic unit of command is an individual soldier or small group of soldiers.[9] The time span of the scenario is in the order of minutes. At this level, the specific capabilities of the soldiers and their armaments are described in detail. An example of a tactical-level games is Flames of War, in which players use miniature figurines to represent individual soldiers, and move them around on a scale model of the battlefield.
- [+] Definitely not tactical scale
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At the operational level, the scenario is a military campaign, and the basic unit of command is a large group of soldiers. At this level, the outcomes of battles are usually determined by a simple computation.
- [+] Individual battles were at the operational level
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At the strategic level, the scenario is an entire war. The player addresses higher-level concerns such as economics, research, and diplomacy. The time span of the game is in the order of months or years.[10][11]
- [+] The campaign as a whole was set at the strategic level
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As has clearly been shown, Birthright is a War Game. It has features which allow for role-playing, but the primary mechanism for resolution is a domain turn which regulates domain-level actions. These actions can provide a multitude of functions, covering economic, research, diplomacy, and military battle resolution.