The Wargaming Lab had an especially active spring period marked by a series of visits, training activities, and collaborations. These engagements provided valuable opportunities to present various games, test wargaming systems in-development, and demonstrate the potential wargaming applications in professional military education (PME).
ISM Wargaming Lab visited the Warfare Institute at the Lithuanian Armed Forces Training and Doctrine Command, where a range of strategic games were presented. Lab members demonstrated the “Multi Domain Brigade Operations“ system – a wargaming framework designed to simulate brigade-level multi-domain operations and decision-making in complex operational environments –alongside a strategic-level game on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th–16th centuries developed as part of the wargame course project at ISM last year. The visit demonstrated how wargames can serve both as an educational tool for understanding contemporary military operations and for exploring historical processes.
The Lab deepened its engagement in PME through cooperation with the Lithuanian officer training programme, integrating strategic games into the Vytautas Magnus Officer Course (VDKK). Four parallel sessions of the “Multi-Domain Brigade Operations“ were organised, around a Vilnius Airport defence scenario. For some participants, this was their first encounter with educational wargaming – yet their active engagement and the resulting strategic discussions demonstrated the method’s potential for developing decision-making, coordination, and critical thinking.
A further key activity this spring has been collaboration with the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence, through which ISM students participated in several visits and tested the in-development strategic game Energy Dominance“. During one session at ISM University, guests from École de Guerre joined the help facilitate the game alongside ISM students running multiple parallel gameplay sessions. The experience gave students a sharper understanding of energy security challenges in wartime, as well as the application of wargaming methods in analysing contemporary geopolitical crises.
