Tactical Decision Games or TDGs are not wargames by traditional definition but are a fantastic low cost resource to conduct decision making, education and orders development.

 

Typically participants adopt the persona of a leader with a limited amount of information that sets the scenario. This normally includes the situation, terrain, their mission and their forces. The facilitator or narrative then usually describes an event that creates a dilemma for the participant to solve in a compressed time-frame. The format for the solution is usually a standard, but short, orders format. Participants are usually required to deliver their orders verbally to other participants who will then critique. A good TDG session does not have a set outcome but rather uses the experiences, perspectives and knowledge gaps of the audience to generate learning outcomes.