The History of Wargaming Project

The project aims to make the largest possible collection of wargaming books and rules available to the modern reader. Ranging from second editions of wargaming classics, to professional wargaming rules used by the military and innovations in current wargaming.

History of Wargaming Project Logo
Documenting the Development of Wargaming
Recreational Wargaming Professional Gaming Serious games Military Novels Recourses Book Reviews Links Credits

Professional Wargaming

Stress of Battle cover

David Rowland's The Stress of Battle

Quantifying Human Performance in Battle for Historical Analysis and Wargaming

    8 October 2019

by David Roland. Editor: John Curry

This is one of the classic works on historical analysis of combat by David Roland as part of his work in the Ministry of defence. It was widely recognised for its pioneering research on combat.

 The book starts by summarising development of UK MoD historical analysis from studies in the 1970s. The development in the 1970s, of pulsed laser weapon simulators enabled real-time force-on-force exercises to be conducted and monitored. Analysis of these exercises, allowed advice to be given on more realistic combat modelling, and in particular human behaviour and reactions, underpinning operational effectiveness, force structures and equipment procurement studies.

 Using quantitative Historical Analysis (HA), it was possible to extend to comparisons between the levels of effectiveness between simulated and real combat and to establish basic combat degradation estimates, one weapon class at a time. The effects of suppression, surprise and shock, were also quantified. The result of this research shed new light on infantry combat, armour v anti-tank weapons and heroism on the battlefield.

 The large number of diagrams make the analysis clear and although the book is based around statistics, no in-depth maths is needed to understanding the conclusions.

 The book has been published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of ongoing efforts to document the development of professional wargaming.

The book is available from Amazon and other online stores.

Product details:
     Paperback: 229 pages
     Publisher:
The History of Wargaming Project
     ISBN:
978-0-244-20305-4
     Dimensions (cm):
15.6 wide x 23.39 tall     



Copyright John Curry (2024) About    Credits