War will very often see a nation’s infrastructure destroyed, either as collateral damage or through deliberate acts of sabotage on both sides.agriculture, oil) is essential to securing the future of a fragile economy. In real life, ramping up a nation’s ability to produce raw produce (e.g. To produce more resources, Catan requires that a player invest in the building of settlements and cities.These areas parallel very closely with the four key priorities listed above: In each round of Catan, players choose to invest their resources in one of several different areas. To support a local government to re-build the nation, an occupying force must balance four competing demands on their time and resources: Analysis of the benefits and pitfalls of these strategies in a military context can prove highly educational.

There are many paths to victory and in each game players are forced to experiment with conflicting strategies dependent upon the availability of resources. In the game, players compete to build a small trading empire in a barren land, fighting off barbarian attacks whilst developing their network of infrastructure. In the absence of the availability of any bespoke products, The Settlers of Catan, and specifically the expansion pack of Cities & Knights, is an ideal candidate for educating young leaders on the nuanced balances and trade-offs required to assert control once the fighting stops. And practice can be hard to come by when war games are typically designed purely for enacting direct military conflict. The problem might perhaps stem from the fact that most military leaders are unlikely to plan for more than one major post-war scenario in their careers. Sun Tzu teaches that “There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare” and yet, in effect, that is all too often the outcome. And yet what next? All too often, despite the best of intentions, the liberating force finds themselves spread too thinly, surprised and challenged by competing demands on their time. A successful military intervention has occurred and for the local population there comes a temporary respite from a formerly oppressive regime. The story is a familiar one, and yet the setting could be anywhere. This article will introduce The Settlers of Catan – Cities and Knights Expansion (“Catan”) as a model for just such a purpose. However, rarely are wargames discussed as a tool to play out post-conflict scenarios. War gaming has been well established for centuries, from the earliest uses of chess in ancient India to the British Army’s modern equivalent Camberley Kriegsspiel. The use of wargames can give military leadership vital exposure to unusual and complex conflict scenarios.

Settlers of catan expansion pack