Neglected Wars Worth Wargaming (according to Grok and other AI assistants)

GenAIs such as Grok and Gemini are already perfectly capable of coding the vitals of computer wargames… the GUIs, the LoS systems, the AIs. How long will it be before they can spot promising untapped historical themes the way a human designer can? Judging by my perfunctory research, that time may already have arrived!

When I put the following question to the likes of Gemini, Grok, Copilot, and Claude, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed by the answers that came back:

“I’d like to make a historical hex wargame for PC with a really unusual theme. Can you suggest a theme/setting that A) few if any wargames have used before, and B) has the potential to produce interesting and unfamiliar tactical or strategic situations? The setting must be drawn from documented history.”

Perhaps the energy-hungry, water-thirsty, crib-happy oracles would cough out a few conflicts I hadn’t previously heard of, but surely most of these obscurities would be obscure for good reason? Not every war has an interesting wargame lurking within it.

When Grok and Gemini – the first two assistants I quizzed – both suggested The Great Emu War as a possible theme, my skepticism seemed justified.

A 1932 ‘war’ involving thousands of harmless avians and a handful of MG-toting Australian soldiers looks, at first glance, to have little to recommend it as wargame subject-matter except novelty and absurdity. However, reading the explanations that accompanied the suggestions, I was forced to admit that perhaps an Emu War title wasn’t such a daft idea after all.

More conventional, but less persuasive were Grok’s back-up suggestions – the one-week Slovak–Hungarian ‘Little War’ of 1939, and the similarly brief Polish-Czechoslovak War of 1919. Even to someone as interested in central European history as Yours truly, both of these conflicts feel a little too short, simple, and parochial to justify standalone hexification.

When Gemini was pushed to come up with a second theme, it delivered a peach of a pitch…

The prospect of brown-water shenanigans in an unfamiliar place and time… shenanigans complicated by seasonal changes (“Hexes that are deep-water navigable channels in spring become impassable mudflats or dry land by autumn, completely stranding fleets or cutting off escape routes.”) and economic factors (“Balance cheap, highly maneuverable, densely packed traditional junk fleets which suffer heavily in low wind, against expensive, slow-to-build, but wind-independent steam gunboats”) and leavened by limited land excursions (“Combat units must embark/disembark from naval transport flotillas to capture lakeside walled cities, turning naval dominance into land-based control.”) certainly gets my inner wargamer excited. Given a choice between yet another WW2 highlights reel, and a boat-stuffed curio set on China’s largest freshwater lake, I know which I find most tempting.

Of the various proposals proffered by Microsoft’s know-it-all, several were waterlogged. If Copilot had its way grogs craving new horizons would be able to explore the canoe-powered Polynesian inter‑island conflicts of the 13th to 18th Centuries…

…the rise and fall of of the ship-reliant Majapahit Empire in late medieval Indonesia…

and the Nile-spined Nubian–Egyptian Border Wars of the Bronze Age…

Back on dry land, another of Copilot’s recommendations, the Comanche Wars, also happened to be Claude’s top tip. Boths AIs argued that a wargame dominated by equines and equine concerns, and boasting soft frontlines and subtle, complex diplomacy would force desktop generals well outside of their comfort zones.

Claude’s second North American suggestion was just as recherché and thought-provoking as its first. Territorial conquest wouldn’t be the be-all and end-all in a Beaver Wars wargame. Chances are, a player guiding the forces of the England-backed Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) would be just as focussed on population replenishment and political unification as control of the lucrative fur trade.

Two of the three African ideas put forward by the consultants came from Claude. He thought Shaka Zulu’s masterly military endeavours and the brutal, asymmetric Rif War warranted specific gameification. You’d have to be pretty perverse to disagree.

My little experiment proves, I think, that AIs, when prodded, can help open-minded devs identify conflicts barely touched during the first half-century of computer wargame design… conflicts with the potential to surprise and stretch punters raised on a diet of Shermans and Sherman.

I believe it also indicates that it won’t be that long before we’re playing wonders like Hexetera (working title) – a battle sim fount I found myself picturing during a recent stroll.

Closer to a tool/construction set than a traditional digital diversion, the AI-utilising Hexetera would have the ability to produce bespoke hex wargames on demand. Using text prompts and/or a dial- and switch-sprinkled config screen, the user could commission any hex-em-up they desire. The engine would do the necessary historical research, design work, and coding, eventually delivering a unique playable creation complete with apt art, audio, and AI, plus interactive tutorials and a manual.

Yes, the creation of one Hexetera game would probably consume roughly the same power and water as Sark does on an average day, and nothing it outputted would boast half the historicism of a Wargame Design Studio title, but the ability to magic up, say, a solid Falklands War aerial TBT, or an engaging Easter Rising skirmish sim at the drop of a hat would, I suspect, prove bally hard to resist.

Expect a Hexetera review on Tally-Ho Corner circa… 2032?