Hi Folks, I’m guilty of being a lazy wargamer! There I said it and that’s the first step to recovery, right?  

There have been so many times I have watched a YouTuber talk about a game I’m currently playing and they explain things that I either subconsciously knew or should have known! Often it’s down to me being too set in my old ways, or simply not applying any analytical thought.

Here is an example – I have currently been enjoying Rule the Waves 3. Starting my campaign in Italy in 1890. I played for several months and had a war with Austria, which I won but both sides took casualties in the form of ships sunk. We entered a period of peace and world tension was low. 

However, rather than continue to build ships I hesitated and delayed. My rationale was – that if I could just wait for a few more technologies to be researched then I can build far better ships and my whole fleet will be amazing. The delay turned into many months as I kept waiting – just one more technology. In the end, I researched some new guns and new armour and thought “Brilliant”! – lets lay a new ship, it will be ready in a further 10 months.

In the end that delay, waiting for technological leaps, coupled with the time it takes for the new ships to be built cost me dearly! A lot can change in two years and before I knew it, I was at war again, except now I was fighting with obsolete ships while my new shiny ‘cutting edge’ ships were still in the docks being constructed.

This taught me a valuable lesson and is part of the reason I love wargaming. It demonstrated to me that sometimes it’s better to get something off the production line and into service rather than wait for it to have all the bells and whistles.

From my understanding, and please someone correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, this is a good example of the difference between Spiral Development and Waterfall. Interestingly this also aligns with a recent change to the UK’s reforms to the delivery of kit to the armed forces. Widespread reforms to transform delivery of kit to UK’s armed forces – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Armed with my newfound knowledge and experience my ships are coming off the production line in a more regular fashion, with incremental improvement rather than technological jumps. It allows me to have a fleet without being overwhelmed by enemy mass or being technologically inferior.

Perhaps a fairly dull story for most – but the sense of satisfaction of having learnt something compelled me to share my experience. I’m sure many of us have had similar Eureka moments too.

If you did find it interesting or would like to know more, please let me know in the comments or via the medium of ‘likes’ and I will share a few other examples of Lessons From Experience.