DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- The Bedrock Innovation Lab held a KingFish Agile Combat Employment board wargame exercise on Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Jan. 18, 2023.
Col. Troy Pierce, creator of KingFish ACE board wargame, designed the game to be played either on small or large scales with varying amounts of players, and to teach agile combat employment to Airmen staged in future rapid global mobility contingency scenarios.
“With all the focus on readiness within the wing and Air Force, this game is another avenue to help build the critical thinking skills for our members,” said Senior Master Sgt. Michael Sierra, 436th Logistics Readiness Squadron materiel management flight superintendent.
Playing KingFish ACE on multiple tabletops reduced the cost and time for a real wing-level exercise while still enhancing readiness and teaching ACE concepts.
"I'm familiar with the scale of Pacific logistics challenges, but I know it's an awareness gap for some Airmen,” said Maj. Nicholas Martini, 436th Airlift Wing chief innovation officer. “This game does a great job presenting that. I really liked the 'Event' cards which provide real-world scenario injects, some I've personally experienced and recognized."
The game allows players of all ranks across a variety of AFSCs the opportunity to see and participate in the decision-making process of an exercise or deployment.
"My favorite part of the game was seeing Airmen from multiple Air Force specialty codes across base get to know one another's area of expertise,” said Maj. Marcus Rosenthal, 436th Airlift Wing incoming chief innovation officer. “Building multi-capable Airmen begins with developing awareness and empathy for other career fields."
KingFish ACE speeds up the learning process on how the planning of contingency operations take place and the variables that may affect the mission.
“This table top training helped me think about how a real deployment in the future could go,” said 2nd Lt. Peyton Plummer, 436th Operations Support Squadron unit intelligence officer in charge. “I think it would be useful for my whole flight to play, especially for those, like myself, who have not yet deployed. Once you look at the logistics, you really start to see that every person's job matters and is crucial to [the] Air Force fulfilling the mission. When resources are limited, every person needs to be able to do their job and fill other roles as needed.”