AI AI Oh

 I had already appreciated that this new fangled Artificial Intelligence (AI) could help me with wargaming/history research and creating illustrations. As well as assisting me at work which is obviously why I have it. 

I got AI to help me plan a battlefield walk. And I had toyed with the idea of playing solo games with an AI opponent. Then I read an article in the latest Miniature Wargames mag about using AI in wargaming. It was the author’s lack of expertise combined with his success that made me think that I need to use this powerful tool more!

For the recent Vapnartak show I put on a participation game based on the final naval battle of the Boshin War in Japan. I’d already laminated illustrations and written a “handout” for folk to photograph as is the modern way. As it could be considered an obscure conflict I decided to use AI to create more information for people to read. 

I asked the AI to adopt the persona of a military historian with an interest in the Boshin War. The AI scours the internet for everything it can find on the subject and places its new expertise at your disposal. Off we went.

AI’s attempts to create a map of the battle were farcical! It was all wrong geographically and showed movement of ships over land for pity’s sake. I tried a few different ways of prompting what I wanted, but to no avail. I gave up on that. 

Instead I asked the AI to create a summary of the naval aspect of the war. This it did very well. I added illustrations to the text it created and laminated it. With that I had a nice reference for people to read and for me to wave around as I explained the game and the war. 

The AI offered a few more ideas. Asking whether I wanted this, that or the other. I took it up on its offer to create pieces of fiction as though written as firsthand accounts by participants on both sides. These were pretty good. A couple of errors were easy to spot. It’s very true that you need to review and edit what AI creates. Again I added illustrations for interest. You could of course ask the AI to do this. 

My mate Glen and I had a game in mind and Glen came up with the general idea for a scenario. He was surprised when I said I’d get AI to write the scenario for us. 

I gave the AI the basic ideas Glen had for the scenario, along with the website address for the rules we’d be using and asked it to take on the persona of a wargamer and a Whovian! (Sorry serious wargamers!)

The scenario it came up with needed a few iterations of prompting and pointing out that what the AI had created wasn’t how the rules worked, but we got there in the end. Again I added illustrations for interest. 

And the game played well. The mishap table which was the AI’s creation, tweaked by me, rather than something in the Doctor Who Miniatures Game rules, was very entertaining as The Doctor fluffed examining a frozen Tomb Cyberman…   

Giving the Cybermen intruders time to overpower the crew and break into the med lab just as The Doctor was on the verge of success. 

Since I can point the AI at the DWMG rules on the internet, I can get it to draft future Doctor Who scenarios for us. I can even ask it to reference episodes of the tv show. 

Asking the AI to take on the persona of a wargamer and expert on any aspect of military history you choose, you can get it to create scenarios or even campaigns without reference to any particular set of rules. It’s far more than a search engine. Powerful stuff this AI and not something to cause us to hide behind the sofa…

Thanks for reading!