Five Wargames Every Force Design Process Needs

This webinar will discuss how to integrate wargames effectively into force design efforts. Defense wargaming for force design and development is often a hodge podge of events with no formal process or sequence to the guide the flow of institutional learning and decisions from problem definition to solutions development. The U.S. Department of Defense has demonstrated for nearly 100 years that wargames are integral to force design efforts, but it has never codified a methodology despite its use of wargames to inform large investments in capabilities. The lack of institutional standards needs to end. This webinar will discuss how to integrate wargames effectively into force design efforts, describe the proper role of these games in force design, and detail a 5-Phase construct to enable a logical flow of games that will make them more useful to force planning efforts. This webinar will expand on the article Five Wargames Every Force Design Process Needs published in War on the Rocks in March 2026. The authors will give detailed recommendations for the types of wargames and analytic methods that should be applied to each one of the 5 wargames discussed in the piece. BIOS Nathaniel Ambler, Ph.D. (systems engineering), retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2024. He is currently a senior researcher and engineer with Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation, where his work focuses on mission engineering, decision science, and wargaming in support of national security and operational decision-making. Throughout his career, he has supported complex policy, intelligence, and force design efforts across interagency and international contexts. Maegen Gandy Nix, Ph.D. (Government and Politics), is Director of the Decision Science Division at Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation. A U.S. military veteran and former intelligence officer, Dr. Nix brings 25 years of experience across the national security community and academia. She first participated in large‑scale wargaming in Korea in 2001 and has since designed and led games for the interagency, multiple combatant commands, and other advanced experiential learning environments. Travis Reese retired from the Marine Corps in 2016 and is now the director of Wargaming and Net Assessment Division for Troika Solutions in Fredericksburg, VA. Throughout his career he has supported institutional strategy development, operational planning, capability development, wargaming, and force design efforts.