The most consequential decisions organizations face — strategic choices about resources, priorities, and risk — are also the decisions made with the least structured support. Wargaming and strategic planning exercises give leaders a structured environment to explore those decisions before they become operational commitments. Gotham Government Services (GGS) designs and facilitates strategic wargames and planning exercises for federal agencies and defense organizations that need rigorous, intellectually honest approaches to strategic decision-making.
What Strategic Wargaming Is — and What It Is Not
A well-designed wargame is a structured simulation of a competitive or adversarial environment in which participants make decisions and observe consequences, allowing them to test plans, surface hidden assumptions, and build judgment about complex problems. Done well, wargaming produces specific, actionable insights that improve subsequent decision-making. Done poorly, it produces an expensive group discussion with an ambiguous outcome.
GGS designs wargames with a clear focus on the questions they are meant to answer. Every design choice — scenario, player structure, adjudication rules, move sequence — flows from a precise statement of what the client needs to learn. We help clients avoid the common trap of designing a wargame that is operationally interesting but analytically inconclusive.
Strategic Planning and Wargaming Services
Wargame Design and Facilitation
GGS designs wargames at multiple levels of complexity and duration. Tabletop exercises for small planning teams can run in a single day and focus a small group on a well-defined decision problem. Operational-level wargames with multiple player teams, a control cell, and a structured adjudication process may span multiple days and involve dozens of participants. We design for the level of complexity the problem requires and the constraints the client operates under — not for the most elaborate exercise we can propose.
Our facilitators bring both subject matter credibility and facilitation discipline to every wargame. They understand military and government planning contexts well enough to play constructive roles without dominating the exercise, and they maintain the structured environment that allows meaningful insights to emerge from the simulation.
Red Team Analysis
Red teaming is the practice of deliberately challenging plans, assessments, and assumptions from an adversarial perspective in order to identify vulnerabilities and blind spots. GGS provides red team analysis as a standalone service — reviewing draft plans and strategies to surface the assumptions that are most likely to fail — and as an integrated component of wargame exercises where a dedicated red team plays the adversary role.
Effective red teams require both methodological rigor and a genuine willingness to challenge the thinking of the sponsoring organization. GGS brings both. We use structured analytic techniques — devil’s advocacy, alternative analysis, key assumptions checks — to ensure red team findings are grounded in explicit reasoning rather than contrarianism for its own sake.
Strategic Planning Facilitation
Strategic planning sessions often produce less value than their preparation costs because they lack the structure needed to turn diverse perspectives into clear, actionable decisions. GGS facilitates strategic planning sessions that are disciplined from the start: clear objectives, structured agenda, explicit decision criteria, and a documentation process that captures decisions and their rationale in a form the organization can actually use.
We design facilitation approaches that match the culture and decision-making style of the specific organization — a military headquarters planning for a campaign operates differently from a civilian agency conducting a five-year strategic review, and our facilitation approach reflects that difference.
Wargaming Curriculum and Capability Development
Organizations that rely on outside consultants for every wargame never build the internal capability to make wargaming a routine part of their planning culture. GGS develops and delivers wargaming curriculum for organizations that want to build internal wargame design and facilitation skills. We can teach your staff how to design purpose-driven wargames, facilitate adversarial exercises, and extract and synthesize insights in a way that informs subsequent planning — not just generates an after-action report that nobody reads.
Why Federal Organizations Choose GGS for Strategic Wargaming
Analytical discipline, not theater. GGS designs wargames around specific analytical questions and builds in the measurement and observation mechanisms needed to answer those questions. We treat wargaming as an analytical tool, not a team-building exercise or a showcase for elaborate scenario design.
Veteran-led with operational context. As a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, GGS brings firsthand understanding of military planning culture, operational decision-making, and the organizational dynamics that shape how wargame insights do — or do not — translate into actual planning changes. That operational credibility is essential for running wargames with senior military audiences who will not engage with facilitators they do not respect.
Integrated training and planning support. GGS combines strategic wargaming expertise with a deep workforce development and training capability. Clients who need both wargaming support and ongoing planning skills development can engage GGS for a coordinated effort that builds organizational capability rather than creating a dependency on external support.
Established contract vehicles. Federal agencies can access GGS strategic planning and wargaming services through HCaTS Small Business (GS02Q17DCR0007), GSA Multiple Award Schedule (47QRAA26D003R), or SDVOSB sole-source authority.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a wargame and a tabletop exercise?
Tabletop exercises and wargames both involve structured discussion of a scenario, but wargames typically include an adversarial element — a red team or opposing force that responds to player decisions — and a more formal adjudication process for determining outcomes. Tabletop exercises tend to be lighter-weight and are often used for rehearsal or familiarization. Wargames are better suited for testing plans against intelligent adversarial action and surfacing assumptions that pure rehearsal cannot reveal. GGS can help you determine which format fits your specific analytical need.
How many participants does a GGS wargame require?
Participant requirements depend on the design. A focused tabletop with a small leadership team can work with six to twelve players. An operational-level wargame with multiple teams, a control cell, and observers may involve thirty to sixty or more participants. GGS designs the player structure to fit the analytical requirements of the wargame — not to maximize the number of participants or the complexity of the exercise.
Can GGS conduct classified wargames?
Yes, with appropriate facility and clearance arrangements. GGS maintains personnel clearances that allow participation in classified exercises. Contact us early in your planning process to discuss specific classification requirements and facility needs.
What contract vehicles can agencies use to access GGS wargaming services?
GGS strategic planning and wargaming services are available through HCaTS Small Business (GS02Q17DCR0007), GSA MAS (47QRAA26D003R), or SDVOSB sole-source authority. Contact us to discuss which vehicle fits your acquisition timeline.