 | Dunn Kempf | | |||
Articles on the Rules
Memories of the Dunn Kempf Game by Col. Steve Kempf
source: unpublished correspondence with the author"The main reason we developed the rules from an earlier project was to have some way to "test" and "execute" the battle plans that were developed by students during the Army Command and General Staff College. The culmination of most of the courses was the development of a plan or plans to address some scenario. But other than discussions and critiques there was no method or process to really see if the plans were practical, effective, or could be improved.
Wargaming provided the rigor of actually evaluating the plan against a thinking adversary using current (for that time) weapons and tactics set on terrain dictated by the scenario. We used rules developed by the Wargames Research Group for miniatures and terrain boards because they provided more "detail" than abstract symbols on a map.
The one for one representation of weapon systems by miniatures on an appropriately scaled terrain board also reinforced details of unit organization and necessity for combined fires and operations. People could actually "see" how and why the plans worked or not and then how to improve them. Remember this was way before computer "games" or programs were detailed enough to keep people engaged.
A secondary benefit was that because we used very accurately detailed scale miniatures and terrain players were also learning vehicle and system identification and ranges. Stretch and I were asked to do the wargaming for a series of Army "defense conferences" (while we were students) that began to show that the "Active Defense" had some problems. After that the simulation just took off and the rest is history, as they say." Col. Kempf