This page is going to walk you through Serge. We'll think through our force disposition, and lines of communication. Then we'll create a wargame to meet that, then we'll have a little game-play.

Designing a Game

So,  to start with, we're going to create a game.   Serge is all about command and control, and planning what lines of communication are in use.

Turn Cycle

The game evolves in turns. Typically the players decide their intent for the next cycle, and report it to the White Force. The White Force then resolve these intentions, by examining interactions between the forces (and potentially other pretend  forces controlled by the White Force. This result in a new State of the World - a description of how things actually stand now.

Force Structure

Let's consider a set of lines of communication, in the next diagram.

Here's an overview of what's in that diagram.  Note: the green boxes represent channels (chat-rooms).

We have White Force  (white force is the name typically given to the game umpires).  White force consists of just two players, a Game Controller and a Media rep.

We also have Blue and Red Forces.  In this case the two forces have similar players (roles): Commanding Office (CO), Logistics, and Media.

Each force has an internal chat room, for force planning.  By encouraging all communications to happen in this channel, the planning process (and decisions made) are available for subsequent analysis.

Each force also has a line of communication to their Headquarters (HQ).  These channels will typically contain the Force's intentions for the next turn, and/or a description of the State of the World from the White Force.

Lastly, for this wargame we wish to capture call Force's contributions to the Media, so we have a channel for it.

Ok, let's get going, and create this wargame.

Create Wargame

You can see there's a single wargame in there, called Monday

We're going to create a new wargame, so click on CREATE (duh...)

You could enter some game description, but that's no fun.

Have a look at the right-hand column.  We won't edit any of these, but let's discuss what they represent:

• Wargame turn time: this is how long the wargame world moves forward in each game turn. In the case above, it steps forward 12 hours.

• Real time planning allowance: how long in the real world the players have in order to plan their next turn. So, 5 minutes in this wargame.  Note: it's deliberately short in this demo wargame, just so we can see how the game moves forward. An allowance is more like one hour in a real wargame

• Time warning at: the game will warn players that they are coming to their end of the planning time. In this case, the warning will show with one minute remaining.

• Start time: this is the time in the wargame world that the game starts at. So, we could easily put the wargame back into the early 1940s for a Second World War wargame.

If you click on White, you'll see what's currently defined for the White force:

Then you can carry on and add the three roles for CO, Logs, Media. Finally click on SAVE FORCE.

Next it's time for the Red Force, give it a nice reddy-pink shade, and create its three roles , and save.

Ok, that's the forces done. You should be able to click through the three forces, and check that each has the correct roles.

Creating Channels

Now it's time for the channels.  As you'll remember, we require 5 channels.

Let's start off with the Blue HQ channel. It will be used for the Blue force to present their plans to the HQ (white cell).

Let's switch to the Channels tab.

Ok, so, click on ADD CHANNEL, and we'll get an empty channel with a mangled name. Change the name to Blue HQ

Ok, now open the Force drop-down, and select Blue.  

Next, from the Restrict access specific roles drop-down, you can select CO. This means that from the Blue Force only the CO can see this role.

Next, we need to indicate what type of message can be sent by the Blue CO.  From Templates select Daily Intentions. This is a preconfigured message.

Finally, click on the Tick icon, to store this channel membership. As you do so, a new participant row will appear.

Into this new row, indicate that the White Game Control can send State of the World messages.  Finally, do SAVE CHANNEL

Next, move on to Red HQ, it will be quite similar.

The Blue/Red Chat rooms are simpler, since we don't restrict the channels to particular roles.  Also, by leaving the Template empty, it defaults to allowing chat messages.

Blue Chat really is just this:

Make the chat room for Red Chat, too.  One gotcha - remember to Tick the end of each participation line, otherwise it won't be stored.

Lastly, add the Media channel.

Playing the Game

Now you're in the wargame. Let me walk through some features:

1. In Game: Everything in the area with the blue background is within the wargame. Everything typed in here is as the persona for your role.

2. Out of Game.  Everything in the right-hand panel is outside the wargame. So, anything entered here is as yourself.  Maybe some Game Admin message to warn everybody that the Tuesday Fire Alarm test is due in 30 minutes, so don't worry if you hear it

3. My Tabs These are the channels you're in. We're logged in here as Game Control - so we're in all channels, either as a member, or as an observer

4. Game Control Panel. This shows us which turn we're in, and whether we're in a Planning Phase (where blue and red come up with their plans) or an Adjudication Phase (where white decides what's happening in the world). Since we're the Game Contoller we also have the START NEXT PHASE button.

5. My Force. Here's the indication that we're in White Force. Clicking on the circular marker pops up the Objectives for this force.

6. My Role. and... here's the indication that we're Game Control.

7. Game Admin & Insights. All players have a GAME ADMIN panel, through which they can post messages for all to hear.  Game Control also has the INSIGHTS panel, where they can view insights/observations privately submitted by players

Looking at the channels, we can see that Game Admin only has NEW MESSAGE buttons for the BLUE HQ and RED HQ channels. That matches our design for the wargame - those are the only channels that Game Admin was assigned to.  Game Admin is just an observer in the other channels.

Now, let's introduce another player.  Open another brower tab, and navigate to: https://serge-dev.herokuapp.com/serge/player

Select the Tutorial wargame, and enter as the Blue \ Media role. This role will just have two channels. Re-arrange them side-by-side like this:

Type the traditional "Hello World" (or similar) message in, and press SEND MESSAGE. The message will appear in the channel.  Notice the light-blue unread marker dot.

Now switch back to your Game Admin browser tab, and you'll see that message in your BLUE CHAT channel:

Let's stay on the. Game Control role, and consider the Game Control panel at the top right.

 On my screen it has counted up to 35 minutes and 51 seconds. This is how long the current adjudication phase has lasted. We're actually in a pre-game phase, where everyone gets to log in, practice sending a few messages, and generally prove the comms.  The players also use this time to understand their force disposition, and their tactical objectives.

 When we, as Game Control are ready for the players to start planning, we click on START NEXT PHASE.

Go on, push it...

Ok, we've advanced to a Planning phase.  The time has also started counting down. Remember we only accounted for 5 minute planning phases when we designed the wargame.

The planning phase ends with the CO of each force sending their Daily Intentions message to the White Cell.

Let's switch our Blue Media role to Blue CO.  So, switch back to the Blue Media browser tab, and reload the page.

Select our Tutorial wargame, then select CO from the Blue force, and click ENTER

When the game opens, you'll see you have BLUE HQ and BLUE CHAT channels available. You'll also see the earlier message from the Blue Media account.  Also note the unread message count in red, for the BLUE CHAT channel.

For the purposes of the tutorial, let's not rearrange the channels for this role, you'll understand why in a minute.

Message templates

Open the BLUE HQ channel, and select NEW MESSAGE in that channel.

Behold the monster that is the Daily Intentions message.  In here the BLUE CO will record what she wants her forces to do for the next cycle.  

So, let's go for it.

• Turn: Enter "1" to indicate/record that this is the planning for Turn 1.

• Overall Instructions. Enter "Travel West until you encounter the enemy.  Then deliver violence on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen"

Next we have a series of per-unit instructions:

• Unit: VICTORY

• Tasking: Draw fire

• Search Policy: All lookouts on duty

• Action on Contact: Ignore

• Any other comments: Nil

Then click on Add Row and add another row:

• Unit: COLLINGWOOD

• Tasking: Harass Outliers

• Search Policy: All lookouts on duty

• Action on Contact: Covert Trail

• Any other comments: Standby Flagship in case of damage to VICTORY

With all that entered, you'll have something like this:

Then click on SEND MESSAGE, to send it.

Back in your Game Control role, you should see the message has arrived: