Presentations

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Here are links to scripts and slide decks for presentations I have made to various groups and classes in the past, most recent first:

• “Idiosyncrasy in Motion”: a longish talk about my 70-odd odd games and when/how/why they were designed; a look at game families, mechanics and so forth. Given online to members of Georgetown University Wargame Society, 9 December 2025.    GUWS talk 9 dec 25 slides     (slides)
• “Urban Renewal”: A short talk on recent urban warfare games I’ve been working on (QUICK, QUICK Junior, Scaleable Urban Simulation System, 91 DSSB Staff Game, EXURB, Dislocated). Given at Wargame Connections Suisse conference, Lausanne, 20 September 2025. CON Suisse urban panel sep 25 – 2 sep  (script)  CON Suisse urban slides 27 aug 25 (slides)
• “Sweeping the Grimy Corners of History”: A longer talk on games on irregular warfare, given at the University of Turin, 17 September 2025. Familiar theme of how irregular warfare games are better designed wargames generally, using A Distant Plain and the District Commander system as examples.  Turin Ruzza class sep 25 -29 aug  (script)  Turin Ruzza slides sep 25 – 23 aug   (slides)
• “Urban Warfare and Crisis Management”: A short talk on this subject for the first workshop dedicated to wargaming to be held at the Centro Alti Studi Difesa in Rome, 30 June 2025. Trends in urbanization, the city as a system of systems, urban warfare as a slow- or fast-motion disaster with progressive damage to those systems, a few illustrative games, and eight points for attention and design in making a really good game about this subject that relate to principles of disaster management. Unfortunately the Internet failed in the middle of my talk!  Urban Warfare and Crisis Mgt 24 June 25 (script) Urban War and Crisis Mgt slides 24 June 25  (slides, PDF)
• “Representations of Terrorism in Urban Irregular Warfare”: a short piece from a panel on portrayals of terrorism in games, organized by Aaron Danis for SDHistcon, 8 February 2025. Games singled out for mention: Tupamaro, EOKA, and District Commander Maracas. Terror counterterror script 7 feb 25   SDHistcon terror panel 5 feb 25 
• “Gaming Neglected Aspects of the Operational Environment”: talk at the joint TRADOC – Army Mad Scientist – GUWS GameOn conference held at Georgetown University 6-7 November 2024.  Brian Train MadSci slides 30 oct 24 (slides) Brian Train MadSci script 1 Nov 24  (script)
• “Modelling Civilians in Wargames”: short and therefore superficial talk with many examples of depictions of same. Given at Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2024 conference, Hamburg, September 2024.  Train civilians slides 17 aug 24 (slides) Modelling Civilians in Wargames 18 Aug 24 (text)
• “Analog Board Games as Citizen Journalism”: presentation to a graduate class at the University of Turin, September 2023. Analog Newsgames Turin 23 Aug 23 (text) Analog newsgames 23 Aug (slides)
• Connections-UK 2023 panel on urban warfare: presentation on urban combat games I had been working on at the time (September 2023). CONUK 2023 urban 17 aug 23 (slides) CONUK urban panel sep 23 – 21 aug (text)
• “Uptown Downtown”: online presentation at SDHistcon (18 March 2023)  on my operational level games covering modern urban combat. SDHistcon urban 11 mar 23 (text) SDHistcon urban 17 Mar 23  (slides)
• “QUICK Like a Bunny”: online presentation at Connections-Online (19 October 2022) on the development and use of the Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel as used at the 40ID Urban Operations Planner course, July 2022.  Connxns QUICK talk 18 Oct   (slides)
• “The Uses of Simple Games”: brief talk to faculty and staff of the US Army War College on the value of simple, especially abstract games, and their application at the Global ECCO website. Simple Games slides 18 feb 21Simple Games script 18 feb 21
• “Two Sides of the COIN”: presentation at the Virtual Conference of Wargamers (Wargame Developments), 5 February 2021. VCOW talk 2 feb    VCOW talk slides
• “Designers are Doing it for Themselves”: presentation to the Georgetown University Wargaming Society on self-publishing games, The Ether, 8 December 2020. guws-webinar-slides-3-oct-20 (slides, PDF)  GUWS presentation notes
• “Studies in Concrete”: presentation on three civilian wargames on urban irregular war and how they were designed, given at the Military Operations Research Society’s special event “Analysis of Urban Warfare”, MCB Quantico, 2-5 April 2019. Studies in Concrete am 26 mar (text, Word)  Studies slides am 27 mar (slides, PDF)
• “Soft Power Maps”: presentation given at Connections North 2019 (16 February 2019) on integrating political, social and economic factors in insurgency games, mainly a profile of the non-kinetic design elements in Tupamaro and A Distant Plain, as examples. Soft Power Maps 11 feb (slides, PDF)  Soft Power Maps 11 feb  (text, Word)
• “Game Design as Journalism”: updated and revised version of the PCA presentation, given at the Connections-UK annual conference, 5 September 2018.    Games journalism 29 Aug (text, Word)  Games journalism 29 aug (slides, PDF)
• “Perspectives on Counterinsurgency Gaming”: presentation at a Day 1 seminar at the Connections-US conference, July 2018. 2018 Train – Perspectives on Counterinsurgency Gaming
• “News Paper Games”: on the analog predecessors and contemporaries of digital newsgames. Presentation at Popular Culture Association national conference, 13 April 2017: NPG body 8 apr (text, Word)  News Paper Games 6 apr (slides, PDF)
• “Playing the Recent Past”: on use of tabletop wargames to explore recent conflicts. Presentation to AHVS311E course, University of Victoria, 13 October 2016: UVic AHVS311 slides,   UVic AHVS311 script
• “The Big COINflip: Board Wargames on Modern Irregular Warfare”. Presentation to Universite de Montreal Game Design students’ class, 5 May 2016: (text and slides) UdeM class 2016 26 apr, UdeM 5may
• “Bored of War”: on the poor coverage of contemporary conflict by serious games. Presentation at Popular Culture Association national conference, 24 March 2016: (text and slides) Bored of War 20 mar  bored20mar
• “How Can Civilian Wargames Contribute to the Development of Professional Wargames?” Presentation at RAND Centre for Gaming, 24 February 2016: first talk notes,  first talk slides,
• “Irregular Civilian Wargames: Lost in the COIN Field”. Presentation at RAND Centre for Gaming, 24 February 2016 and National Defense University Centre for Applied Strategic Learning, 26 February 2016: second talk notes, second talk slides
• “Wargaming Counterinsurgency”. Presentation at TableFlip conference, 4 October 2014: Tableflip Script, Ruhnke-Train Wargaming COIN (slides)
• “The Global ECCO Project”. Presentation at Connections 2014 conference, 5 August 2014: 2014 Train – In the Valley of ECCO The Global ECCO Project
• “Abstracted for your Attention”: on the value of abstract games for professional military education. Presentation at Connections-UK conference, 3 September 2013: Abstracted For Your Attention script , Abstracted For Your Attention slides (PDF of Powerpoint slides)
• “Recent Developments in Civilian Insurgency Games”. Presentation at MORS Virtual Symposium 81.1, 15 June 2013: game links page, MORS811 slides, MORS symposium 2013 script
• “Ploughing in the COIN Field: Civilian Wargames and the Search for Enlightenment”. Presentation at Naval Postgraduate School, 20 October 2011: 2011 Train – Ploughing in the COIN Field