SCUDHUNT Game Overview

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Introduction
Objective
How to Play
Assets
Game Variations

The hostile state of Korona has acquired mobile ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction and they plan on destroying a US ally, Kartuna, located across the Gulf of Sabani.

You are a member of a national-level C3ISR planning staff, responsible for making decisions on the allocation of scarce information resources to locate the 3 suspected Koronan missiles. This information is valuable input to the US National Command Authority so they can make the best decision about where and when to strike. Now that you have your mission, you are ready to play SCUDHunt.

Objective

SCUDHunt is a simple game of command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C3ISR) played by distributed teams. The objective is to work with your team members to find the 3 hidden SCUD launchers on a 5 X 5 grid map representing Korona.

How to Play

You will be responsible for 1 or 2 information assets (these are discussed later in the overview). For each of the seven turns, you must place your asset(s) on the left-hand game board. If your asset is vulnerable to attack, you also have the option of skipping a turn to preserve the asset for use on future turns. To skip a turn, select the Skip Turn button.

After all team members have submitted their moves, the results of the search will be displayed. If an 'X' ( )is returned, you may have found one of the three Scud launchers. You can always trust that an X result is an actual launcher unless that X result came from COMINT or Manned Air search. A '?' means that there was evidence of suspicious activity within that square of the grid but it could not be determined if the evidence indicated definite presence of the launchers. If you get a green '0' ( ), it indicates the asset had nothing to report. Depending on the reliability of your asset, an '?' ( ) or '0' may not be accurate. Other results include the skull and crossbones ( ) symbol that indicates your asset was either killed or shot down and the "thumbs up" icon ( ) that indicates your asset was extracted.

After all the results are returned and the team has had a chance to interpret them, players submit 3 or more target nominations (grid squares) based on their best estimate where the SCUDs may be located. After seven turns, the game ends and the success of the team's target nominations can be assessed.

Assets

Recon Satellite; Controlled by Space Asset Manager. Searches one column each turn.

UAV; Controlled by Air Asset Manager. The UAV can search 1-5 contiguous squares: across, down or diagonal. The UAV must enter and exit on an edge.

Manned Aircraft; Controlled by the Air Asset Manager. The manned aircraft may only fly around the edges of the game board either over bodies of water or friendly countries bordering Korona. The manned aircraft is required to "rest" between turns because of crew fatigue, refueling, etc. and thus is available every other turn.

COMINT; Controlled by the Intelligence Manager. The COMINT can search any one grid square. In the game it represents focused attention by skilled analysts, rather than any specific collection platform or capability.

HUMINT; Controlled by the Intelligence Manager. The HUMINT can search any one square. HUMINT starts in the C3 grid (which represents Koronabad, the capital of Korona) and can only move to adjacent squares. To represent the time delay associated in receiving this type of intelligence, HUMINT's asset report is delayed by one turn.

Special Operations; Controlled by the SpecOps Manager. SpecOps may search any one square. The SpecOps team can move to any adjacent square after the first turn.

Navy SEALS; Controlled by the SpecOps Manager. The Navy Seals can only be inserted into coastal grid squares. Once inserted, the SEALS can move like the SpecOps team.

Game Variations

SCUDHunt was designed to evaluate communications and understanding in distributed teams. To gain a better understanding of this, SCUDHunt will be played using different communication and visualization tools. There are 6 combinations of games that will explore 2 variables:

Modes of Communication:

Text Chat: Players communicate only through the text chat window.
Voice: Players communicate on the phone via a teleconference.
Text Chat with Control Only: Players do not communicate with one another - only with the game's controller.

Visualization:

Shared Visualization: Players see a common graphic representation of the aggregated search results for all assets for each turn.
Individual Visualization: Players must build their own representation of the game board by printing blank game boards and building their own picture of the game board based on collaboration with the other players or control.

Sunday March 23, 2003