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August 12, 2003
A Lesson the French Could Learn
Note: this is a post recovered from my old blog, before it died of an insufficient backup. Any comments/trackbacks on it have not been brought over, but can be seen with the original. The date is that of the original posting.
My friend Nathan is a wargamer. He particularly enjoys large and complex games, with a good range of strategic thinking necessary to win. A story he tells has to do with such a game, World in Flames. World in Flames represents the time leading up to WWII, and all of WWII, all over the world. Nathan, playing France, had been very careful in setting up his power in the Mediterranean in the mid-1930s, and when Italy started to get a little too adventurous, he moved. Positioning a large force off of Italy just South of Rome, Nathan told the Italian player - who knew his capital was going to be taken, his army cut in half, and his navy eliminated if he fought under the prevailing balance of forces - to remove his army from the border with France, and by the way give up Sicily and Naples, too. The Italian player asked what Nathan would give him for these concessions, and Nathan's answer was, "Nothing." When the Italian player - incredulous - asked, "Why not?", Nathan's answer was classic: "I don't have to."
And that is the first story I think about when I read things like Steven Den Beste's post on maneuvering at the UN. The real France could learn a lesson from Nathan's game, I think.
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