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#Post#: 77426--------------------------------------------------
What is "The Fog of War"
By: AhBuaya Date: July 24, 2018, 12:32 pm
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The fog of war (German: Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in
situational awareness experienced by participants in military
operations.[1] The term seeks to capture the uncertainty
regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and
adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.
Military forces try to reduce the fog of war through military
intelligence and friendly force tracking systems. The term is
also used to define uncertainty mechanics in wargames.
Contents
1 Origin
2 Military
3 Simulations and games
3.1 In video games
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
Origin
The word "fog" in reference to uncertainty in war was introduced
by the Prussian military analyst Carl von Clausewitz in his
posthumously published book, Vom Kriege (1832), which appeared
in English translation in 1873 under the title On War:
War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors
on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater
or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment
is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.
— Carl von Clausewitz[2]
It has been pointed out that von Clausewitz does not use the
exact phrase "fog of war," using multiple similar metaphors such
as "twilight" and "moonlight" to describe lack of clarity.[3] It
was not until 1896 when the exact phrase "fog of war" was used
in text, described as "the state of ignorance in which
commanders frequently find themselves as regards the real
strength and position, not only of their foes, but also of their
friends."[4]
Military
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.
(November 2014)
The fog of war is a reality in all military conflict. Precision
and certainty are unattainable goals, but modern military
doctrine suggests a trade off of precision and certainty for
speed and agility. Militaries employ command and control (C2)
systems and doctrine to partially alleviate the fog of war.
The term also applies to the experience of individual soldiers
in battle: often cited is the pure confusion of direction,
location, and perspective on a battlefield. Officers and
soldiers become separated, orders become confused and subject to
revision with poor communication. Sounds and vision are limited
from the perspective of the individual and may not be easily
resolved, resulting in a continuing uncertainty, a perceptual
"fog".
The fog of war has been decreasing as intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance technology is improving. In 2016, Chief of
Staff of the United States Army Gen. Mark A. Milley stated that
"On the future battlefield, if you stay in one place longer than
two or three hours, you will be dead..With enemy drones and
sensors constantly on the hunt for targets, there won’t even be
time for four hours’ unbroken sleep."[5]
Simulations and games
A block wargame, Richard III by Columbia Games, showing the fog
of war in play.
Abstract and military board games sometimes try to capture the
effect of the fog of war by hiding the identity of playing
pieces, by keeping them face down or turned away from the
opposing player (as in Stratego) or covered (as in Squad
Leader[6]). Other games, such as the Kriegspiel chess-variant,
playing pieces could be hidden from the players by using a
duplicate, hidden game board.[7]
Another version of fog of war emulation is used by block
wargaming where, much like Stratego, the blocks face each
player, hiding their value. However, this also allows for step
damage, where the block is rotated counter-clockwise up to four
times to simulate battle damage before the unit is
eliminated.[citation needed][clarification needed]
Solitaire games also by their nature attempt to recreate fog of
war using random dice rolls or card draws to determine
events.[8] Complex double-blind miniature wargames, including
military simulations, may make use of two identical maps or
model landscapes, one or more referees providing limited
intelligence to the opposing sides, participants in the roles of
sub-unit leaders, and the use of radio sets or
intercoms.[citation needed]
In video games
In the computer game Freeciv, completely unexplored areas are
fully black, while currently unobserved areas are covered in a
grey shroud.
A computer's ability to effectively hide information from a
player is seen as a distinct advantage over board games when
simulating war.[9] Fog of war in strategy video games refers to
enemy units, and often terrain, being hidden from the player;
this is lifted once the area is explored, but the information is
often fully or partially re-hidden whenever the player does not
have a unit in that area.[10]
The earliest use of fog of war was in the 1977 game Empire by
Walter Bright.[11] Another early use of fog of war was the 1978
game Tanktics designed by Chris Crawford, which was criticized
for its unreliable and "confusing" fog of war system.[12]
Crawford in 1982 suggested "limit[ing] the amount of information
available to the human player" to compensate for the computer's
lack of intelligence.[13] In a 1988 Computer Gaming World
article Dave Arneson called fog of war "one of the biggest
'plus' factors in computer simulations", while Crawford
concluded, using Tanktics as an example, that video game fog of
war systems became less "fun" the more realistic they were,
leading the medium to instead use simplified systems.[14]
Two large Blizzard franchises, Warcraft and StarCraft, use a fog
of war which only reveals terrain features and enemy units
through a player's reconnaissance. Without a unit actively
observing, previously revealed areas of the map are subject to a
shroud through which only terrain is visible, but changes in
enemy units or bases are not.[15] This is also common in both
turn-based and real-time strategy games, such as the Total War
series, Age of Empires series, Red Alert series, Advance Wars
series, Fire Emblem series and Sid Meier's Civilization
series.[citation needed]
Fog of war gives players an incentive to uncover a game's world.
A compulsion to reveal obscured parts of a map has been
described to give a sense of exploring the unknown.[16] Crawford
said that "reasonable" uses of fog of war, such as needing to
send out scouts, "not only seem natural, but ... add to the
realism and excitement of the game"[13] Merchant Prince displays
over unexplored territory what Computer Gaming World described
as a "renaissance-style map of dubious accuracy".[17] In some
strategy games that make use of fog of war, enemy AI can get
access to complete visibility of the map, which a player may
associate with cheating when discovered.[18] A designer may use
fog of war to keep a game that has become impossible to win
enjoyable, by hiding this fact from the player.
#Post#: 77427--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: Duckman31998 Date: July 24, 2018, 12:43 pm
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Good god Ken, you bored today?
#Post#: 77428--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: Guderian9139 Date: July 24, 2018, 1:21 pm
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Love the fog of war. In fact, I always add a layer of liquid
fog meself :drunkdance:
#Post#: 77429--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: AhBuaya Date: July 24, 2018, 1:30 pm
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No, but Joe is now +2 in deletions! :rolf:
[quote author=lll Duckman lll link=topic=4861.msg77427#msg77427
date=1532454184]
Good god Ken, you bored today?
[/quote]
#Post#: 77430--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: JaxPopPop Date: July 24, 2018, 2:06 pm
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Ii need two Fuzzy Navels to clear up all the fog. Seems it would
be simpler to define the term as uncovering and coping with
unknown unknowns. :drunkdance: :old:
#Post#: 77436--------------------------------------------------
What is "The Fog of War"
By: James0243 Date: July 25, 2018, 7:25 pm
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Last Sentence 9th word should be changed to
exposed by lifting their satchel in an upward and to the left
movement. This is effectively know as lifting the fog of war
and creating what is termed a blitzkrieg.
The second sentence can remain, the rest is irrelevant.
#Post#: 77437--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: Guderian9139 Date: July 25, 2018, 8:21 pm
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Oh, can I have some of what James is having?
#Post#: 77438--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: James0243 Date: July 26, 2018, 3:09 am
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The key ingredient is moose sweat, mixed with some proprietary
ingredients, brewed and aged to a deep golden hue and bottled at
16% vol alcohol.
#Post#: 77440--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: Maddog STS Date: July 26, 2018, 10:40 am
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[quote author=James0243 link=topic=4861.msg77438#msg77438
date=1532592577]
The key ingredient is moose sweat, mixed with some proprietary
ingredients, brewed and aged to a deep golden hue and bottled at
16% vol alcohol.
[/quote]
And, we know where you get your moose sweat :puke:
#Post#: 77442--------------------------------------------------
Re: What is "The Fog of War"
By: guest683 Date: July 26, 2018, 11:36 am
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[quote author=Maddog STS link=topic=4861.msg77440#msg77440
date=1532619628]
[quote author=James0243 link=topic=4861.msg77438#msg77438
date=1532592577]
The key ingredient is moose sweat, mixed with some proprietary
ingredients, brewed and aged to a deep golden hue and bottled at
16% vol alcohol.
[/quote]
And, we know where you get your moose sweat :puke:
[/quote]
Is it from SweatyMooseGoodness.com?
I hear it’s high in calories and number 1 cause of bad breathe
these days
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