Shadows of War by Larry Bond Page A

year.”
    â€œA year? I thought we were the first to use it.”
    â€œOfficially, yes. But I had it in beta before you got here. I’ve run this scenario for a while, Zeus. In different guises. If Red plays smart, it takes over Asia. The other scenarios are much more balanced, but this one always stacks the deck.”
    â€œAnd here I thought I was a brilliant strategist.”
    â€œYou’re not bad.” Doner gave him another of his crooked smiles. “You’re good, in fact. But the deck is stacked. Not on purpose,” the colonel added hastily. “Red Dragon is as close to real life as we can get. Except for that bit you pulled about San Francisco.”
    â€œI think the Chinese would definitely try that,” said Zeus.
    â€œMaybe. But they’d never get into the harbor that easily.”
    Murphy had used civilian airplanes and cargo ships—allowed under the game rules—to sneak an advance force into the city, paving the way for a larger conventional attack. Neither side was theoretically at war yet, which made the surprise tactic even easier to pull off. It was exactly the way things might start, Murphy knew—the twenty-first-century equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
    â€œSo I’m today’s sacrificial lamb, huh?” Murphy got up. “I’ll go down quickly.”
    â€œNo, no, play hard. Play as hard as you can. Play to win. Definitely play to win.”
    â€œBut the deck is stacked, right?”
    Doner shrugged. “Play as hard as you can.”
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    Even with the most conventional strategies, Blue’s position in Asia was hopeless if war was declared in the first round. There was simply no time to get troops there, and no reliable ally to stop Red early enough to
keep it from achieving its objective. No matter what Red’s immediate tactical goals were—Taiwan, Japan, Indochina, even Australia—Blue could never rally its forces quickly enough. In fact, any response in force ran the risk of leaving it so weak that Red was positioned to launch a successful invasion of the U.S. mainland.
    â€œComplete naval blockade, Day One,” said Rosen, whom Murphy had tagged as his chief of staff, by rule his main collaborator in the day’s session. “You build up the walls on the West Coast, and hang on.”
    â€œThat loses. They get whatever they want, game over.”
    Murphy rose from the console. The simulation played out on a large 3-D map projected from a table in each game room, as well as smaller laptop devices all interconnected through a wireless network. The table was really a very large computer screen that made use of a plasma technology to create stunningly realistic graphics; a viewer watching troops move through the map display could easily believe he was sitting in an airplane.
    â€œPreemptive strike is suicide,” said Rosen. “Griffin tried that against Cody the first week I was here. Led to a nuclear exchange in Month Two.”
    Another loss, according to the rules of the scenario.
    â€œWasn’t what I was thinking.”
    â€œOur best bet is following doctrine, right down the line,” said Rosen. “Be the graceful losers. And make sure winners buy. Who are the VIPs, anyway?”
    â€œWho cares?” Zeus pulled out one of the workstation seats and sat down. The Red Team was across the hall, undoubtedly putting the finishing details on the plan. General Perry would be off with the VIPs, but his chief of staff was Major Win Christian—the valedictorian at West Point Major the year Murphy graduated. Murphy had been in the top half of his class, but nowhere near Christian.
    Which suited him just fine. Staying away from Christian had been his basic game plan his four years at the Point, after an unfortunate run-in with his fellow plebe during orientation. Christian was already a favorite of the staff because his father was a graduate and a general, and the incident had given Zeus