Wargaming & Scenario Planning
What are they?
A Wargame
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Wargames can range in complexity and sophistication, but at their foundation, they are exercises that allow people to strategize for a scenario before it occurs in real life. A wargame will have several 'turns', forcing participants to strategize beyond just an initial reaction phase.
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In military circles, defence plans and operations might be simulated using a map, with pieces representing assets, civilian infrastructure, adverse conditions, and enemy forces. Importantly in a wargame, the enemy/adverse conditions will actually work against the participants, civilians will act freely, and these factors will need to be contended with.
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Wargames can also be utilised at the 'high strategic' and political level of government decision making. Working through a political approach to international development, energy strategy, trade negotiations, crisis response, and election campaigns are just a few applications.
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KSG delivers wargame events for military and government, but also brings them to the private sector. Banks, oil & gas, hedge funds, technology companies, and international manufacturers all need to wargame their responses to difficult scenarios, and red team existing strategy. Wargaming allows the company to examine how external forces might react to that response, which in turn requires another response altogether. This is particularly useful when assessing threats to supply chains, value chains, mergers & acquisition, changes in government, changes in policy, and market entry.
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The benefit of wargaming is that it allows people to plan, consider, assess, and think many 'turns' into the future. Whereas a simple meeting discussion might only permit exploring 'one turn ahead'.
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All of our wargames utilize AI to augment the strategic value acquired.
A Scenario Planning Exercise
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The core purpose of a scenario planning exercise is not so different from a wargame. The major difference is that a wargame tends to have several phases, by which the actions that people take in the wargame have consequences later on. A scenario plan tends to avoid walking people through several phases, and focuses on detailed strategies and response options to a given situation, as well as purely generating a shared understanding for the problem set facing the organization.
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Scenario planning is designed to unlock the strategic mind! A KSG facilitator has a range of methods to constructively explore problems, build responses, and set in motion a strategy.
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You may also have heard this described as scenario testing, or in military and government, the preferred term is a table-top exercise (TTX).
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An exercise of this nature will often uncover vulnerabilities that an entity might become exposed to in certain situations, and it allows that entity to put mitigations in place before that event ever happens.
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KSG can advise you on which approach best suits your needs, and will often deploy a range of both wargaming and scenario planning approaches.
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All of our scenario planning exercises utilize AI to augment the strategic value acquired.
Knightsbridge Horizon
AI Wargaming & Simulation Platform
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Knightsbridge Horizon is an AI-enabled wargaming and simulation platform designed to help organisations explore complex geopolitical and strategic scenarios, test assumptions, and make better-informed decisions. The platform focuses primarily on grand-strategic, political-military, economic, financial markets, macro and diplomatic challenges, while also supporting operational-level wargaming and simulation where required.
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Horizon enables clients to use advanced AI systems to support the design, execution, and analysis of wargames and simulations, modelling the behaviour of states, institutions, adversaries, allies, and other relevant actors in detail. Through carefully curated source material and actor-specific instructions, Horizon can educate and ground its AI systems to create highly accurate and realistic representations of individual threat actors and other strategic players.
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Combined with scenario-specific information and frontier AI capabilities, Horizon can assess competing objectives, develop strategies and courses of action, anticipate possible reactions, look several steps ahead, and examine how events may unfold across multiple stages of a scenario.
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Horizon is designed to combine the scale and analytical breadth of AI with human judgement. Human participants can remain in the loop at any stage of a simulation or wargame by:
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Taking control of particular actors during the wargame
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Altering any and all design facets
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Introducing decisions or new information
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Challenging AI-generated assumptions, and directing the evolution of the scenario.
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This allows Horizon to support both fully AI-driven simulation and traditional human-led wargaming augmented by AI. The result is a flexible environment in which organisations can explore a far wider range of possibilities, identify second- and third-order consequences, test strategies against intelligent and adaptive actors, and generate deeper insight to support strategic decision-making.
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Horizon is currently supporting organisations across multiple sectors:
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Government and defence: Exploring long-term political grand strategy, geopolitical crises, conflict, economics, diplomacy, deterrence, escalation, policy options, and military strategy.
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Finance: Simulating geopolitical and macroeconomic shocks, assess market and portfolio implications, and stress-test investment strategies.
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Energy and Extractive: Exploring conflict, sanctions, supply disruption, energy security, and geopolitical risks to operations and investment.
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Technology: Examining geopolitical and regulatory risk, supply-chain disruption, market access, technological competition, and emerging technologies.
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To discuss Horizon, arrange a demonstration, or learn more about our other AI augmentation tools, please get in touch.
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Wargame Examples
Wargaming Strategic Solutions to China’s Dominance in Rare Earths and Critical Minerals (2026-2036)
As a sample of our work, the below link is the analytical product of a KSG wargame exploring solutions to China's rare earth and critical minerals dominance.
The wargame was reported on in The Diplomat, providing a briefer overview of the wargame's significance and findings.
Wargaming the Effects of a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan on a Hedge Fund's Portfolio
As a sample of our work, the below link is the analytical product of a KSG wargame exploring a Hedge Fund strategy vis-à-vis a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The wargame was reported on in Business Insider, providing a briefer overview of the wargame's significance and findings.
Please get in touch via Contact@Knightsbridgesg.com, or use the form below.