The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame

Rulebook

Christopher Paul, Ben Connable, Jonathan Welch, Nate Rosenblatt, Jim McNeive

ToolPublished Aug 24, 2021

Cover: The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame
Rulebook
Additional Downloads

Includes Player's Guide; Supplement 1; Game Aids; and more

Note: This set of wargame rules was superseded by a revised, updated edition in May 2024.

The Marine Corps Information Operations Center (MCIOC) conducts an Information Warfighter Exercise (IWX) — an event designed to provide training on operations in the information environment (IOE) — one to two times per year. MCIOC asked RAND to help develop a structured wargame for IWX with a formal adjudication process. This document contains the ruleset developed, playtested, and implemented during the 2020 IWX cycle.

The IWX wargame is an opposed event in which two teams of players compete in and through the information environment to better support their respective sides in a notional scenario. Teams represent an Information Operations Working Group (IOWG) or information-related Operational Planning Team (OPT), or its adversary force equivalent, as dictated by the scenario. During the game, each team generates a plan for OIE, and players are then called on to add details to their plan, amend that plan dynamically in response to in-game events, prepare discrete game actions as part of plan execution, and make cogent arguments in favor of their team's actions and against the actions of the opposed team. A panel of expert judges uses a structured process and a random element (dice) to adjudicate the success or failure of actions drawn from the players' plans.

The Rulebook presents the full ruleset for the IWX wargame, including a host of optional rules to allow tailoring the game to specific preferences, needs of the training audience, or scenarios. Handouts and aids for playing the game, as well a brief Player's Guide, are also available for download.

Supplement 1 — consisting of The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame: Supplement 1 — Optional Rules and Considerations for Operational-Level or Competition Games report and additional game aids — presents optional rules and considerations for conducting the IWX wargame (1) at the operational, rather than tactical, level and (2) with scenarios that focus on competition rather than conflict. These items are also available for download.

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Paul, Christopher, Ben Connable, Jonathan Welch, Nate Rosenblatt, and Jim McNeive, The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame: Rulebook. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2021. https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TLA495-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Marine Corps Information Operations Center (MCIOC) and conducted within the Navy and Marine Forces Center of the RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD).

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