The Asphodel Wargames are a series of one-off, real-time, near-future conflict simulations. They are modeled on profesional refereed wargames, which have been used extensively in international military affairs since the early 19th century. We are not military officers; hence, we are unable to rely on the always-nebulous criterion of 'professional judgement'. Instead, our games are refereed in a 'semi-rigid' style, using a complex assembly of charts, forms, data-tables, field manuals, and bootlegged mechanics, together comprising a five-hundred page ad-hoc system for ajudicating modern conflict at various scales.
There have been two Asphodel Wargames so far: Italy 2028 and Arctic 2030.
The Asphodel Wargames are designed for eight to sixteen players, operating in one to one time, so that one day in the real world is equivalent to roughly one day in the game. No wargame can every perfectly reproduce the astonishly complex dynamics at play on the field of battle - especially not the future field of battle, which we cannot yet hope to describe with any precision. Nonetheless, with strict time constraints and overwhelming fidelity, we hope to reproduce some of the fundamental dynamics, especially the chaos and confusion, which are uniquely well-represented in games.
We are not trying to make forecasts or predictions. Rather, we are hunting for foundational intuitions. We want to get a sense for the sort of problems which will constrain and characterize the beleaguered international system in the years to come.