Cobalt Rocks: Wargaming Seabed Operations

Topic Description

The protection of Critical Undersea Infrastructure (CUI) is a current "hot topic" given recent events on the Baltic and other European waters. The talk covers the development of UCL's "Cobalt Rocks" CUI wargame, tracing its genesis as a tool to support student ship design at UCL and its later development to support real world capability analysis. Discussion topics include the style of play for a diverse scenario/player base, recent developments to support users beyond the university and some of the conclusions that have been drawn from games so far.

Bio

David Manley is the Professor of Naval Architecture at University College London where he has worked to develop a number of games within UCL's suite of maritime wargames. He is also the UK MOD's SME on maritime survivability, having worked in the area for 25 years. He is a hobby naval wargamer of nearly 50 years experience and has published many sets of rules, often on obscure campaigns such as the 1976 Cod War and WW1 gunboat operations on Lake Tanganyika. David has the delight of managing five cats, four horses (not his) and three alpacas (definitely his) which take up far too much time that should be spent wargaming.

Host or Publisher Georgetown University Wargaming Society