National Security Decision Making Game
Saturday, May 1st, 10am-6pm
Kansas Room

The National Security Decision Making (NSDM) Game is a fast-paced, challenging simulation of contemporary politics and eternal strategic principles. This eight-hour game is modeled after simulations used by senior U.S. Government officials to explore geopolitical options. NSDM has been presented at the U. S. Naval War College, the U.S. Air University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and at a wide variety of civilian venues such as Origins, Gen-Con, Dragon*Con, Fall In , Cold Wars and Historicon.

Each of the players in this political-economic-military seminar game occupies a role in which he or she can affect the formulation of national policy in their country. Most players find NSDM to be intellectually stimulating, vigorously competitive and unlike any other gaming opportunity they have ever had.

Players will recieve instruction on the NSDM Game from former game directors and controllers from the U.S. Naval War College. The game will be directed by serving and retired personnel from the Department of Defense with the assistance of experts from private industry and academia.

Players will be assigned to individual roles within a variety of nation-states. "Real world" dynamics will inexorably draw these player-states toward cooperation in some areas and conflict in others. Meanwhile, within each state, players will inevitably find themselves aligned with some players and against others as each seeks to obtain advantages for their interest group and achieve political ascendancy.

Concurrently, the game control group will inject stimuli that challenge the players' abilities to react, such as a regional war, a massive disease outbreak, or a major earthquake or other natural catastrophe causing heavy loss of life and property.

> A player in the U.S. cell might be the president, a congressman, the national media, the Secretary of Homeland Security or a regional commander chasing terrorists.

> Players in the PRC might represent the Communist Party, internal security forces, the People's Liberation Army, entrepreneurs or Muslim Uighur separatists in Xinkiang.

> A Russian player might be the president, minister of defense, a spokesperson for nationalists, a leader of liberal elements or Duma members from various factions.

> Iranians might represent the theocracy, bureaucracy, industry or military.

> A Japanese player might be the head of the Japan Defense Agency, a member of Sumitomo"s board of Directors, a MITI bureaucrat or a member of the Diet.

> India, Pakistan, the DPRK (North Korea), various European and many Middle Eastern states are often represented by players as well.

And, unlike other war games, where one "team" of players defeats other teams, in the NSDM Game all players are individually ranked by the degree to which they gain advantage for the group they represent.

Call to Arms 2004 has something even more special for you!

As you play the NSDM Game from 10am to 6pm, on Saturday, inevitably some of the player-nations will come to blows with each other. The NSDM Game's controllers will record the specifications of the battles you start in NSDM. Then, at 6pm, we invite you to grab dinner and when youu come back to the main hall at 7pm, we'll have set up, in miniature, the wars you started earlier in the day so you can fight out the battles you began during the NSDM Game!

These aren't hypothetical games where fictitious groupings of various units are heaped together on a poor quality table to make a simplistic "shooting gallery". Actual forces using real-world TO&E's fight out the battles that were begun in the NSDM Game. Come fight in the best modern miniatures battles that HAHMGS has to offer!