"Intelligence & Winning" Topic

I'm a highly intelligent guy.

I used to be shy about saying that, as I don't mean to boast, but as I've gotten older, I've realized that intelligence is just one of many attributes or abilities that people have. I certainly know it doesn't make me better than anyone else in any holistic way.

I was a Merit Scholar (SAT) back in the day, had a number of scholarships, and I'm told I'm in the top 1% intelligence-wise. I've never had an academic challenge that I didn't ultimately beat. I'm equally 'right brain' and 'left brain'.

I didn't do anything to become this way – I've always been like this, and I'm unique in my family this way.

And it does me absolutely no good at the wargaming table!

Years ago, I used to regularly game with a friend who was guided by 'intuition' and depended on 'lucky dice'. He regularly beat me in games.

I have a good friend who has a damaged brain due to something pre-natal. There are areas in life where he has a lot of difficulty. We seem to be equally matched at the gaming table. (He also has a great memory.)

You may remember a great series of games that Editor Julia and I played. Julia is very sharp, and keenly competitive. But she had never played this type of game before. If you remember how the series went, I would generally beat her using a particular tactic, then in the next game she would come back and beat me with the same tactic! Then I would beat her with another tactic… you get the idea. We were evenly matched.

Do you find that intelligence and winning are independent? Does the smartest guy in your club or group win most of the games, or not?

Are miniature wargames inherently balanced? Does anybody win more than anyone else? Or is the random element too strong?

Dice are the big randomizer! Sometimes I can win with good dice rolling but many of the times I lose, the dice are against me. It doesn't matter how "intelligent" your battle plans are, as soon as you come into contact with the dice, the plans go right down the crapper.

Jim

I would win every game but I'm smart enough to let the other guys win sometimes or they might stop gaming with me. Well, maybe sometimes they beat me fair and square. Ummm, maybe I umpire most games because I don't want to lose and confirm that they are smarter than me.Oh, I'm sure the dice have much to do with me loosing games when I play.
Actually, It's a lot of fun gaming and I don't mind losing as long as we all had fun playing.

I'm not very clever. But happy.

martin

Who dares wins. I played with smart people that acted like they would have to write letters home to their little tin men. Intelligence is one of many factors.

Sometimes intelligence causes analysis to paralysis.

I've lived a long time and I've encountered a lot of people from a lot of walks of life and I believe that brain power is a very nuanced concept.

I have encountered more than a few MDs who were quite intelligent, yet as dumb as a bag of hammers.

I have encountered more than a few blue collar types who weren't super intelligent, but were way smarter than most.

I have encountered tons of people who were pretty intelligent, but too dumb to know they were too smart for their own good.

I know now that sophistication and cunning have virtually nothing to do with one another.

I know there are people who can assemble Ikea without bothering with instructions who could not explain what they were doing at gunpoint.

I know that wisdom and intelligence, and smart and common sense are all broad spectrums.

I know that evil and stupid seldom share the same space, but stupid and brutish do. Ignorance and stubbornness are kissing cousins. Meanness is an equal opportunity employer.

I know that the ability to read and understand a book is a very different thing than being able to read and understand a person.

I know that any gamer that you don't know is potentially a handful.
I know that any gamer that you do know is potentially the source of sharp surprise.
I know that all underage gamers are likely to be an annoyance.
I know that all underage gamers are likely to clean your clock.

And I know that all female gamers are to be treated like gasoline. You don't necessarily have to fear them, but you better be careful with them, because you know what can happen if they are not afforded the proper degree of respect.

I once double crossed a female gamer in a Limeys and Slimeys game. She pursued me through 3 more games over the better part of a year seeking vengeance.

And, of course, experience and treachery will overcome talent and energy every time.

Success on the table has little to do with intelligence in my experience and more to do with perception. The ability to perceive intentions and craft a response. One guy in my group is smart. Not the smartest. He is the most perceptive. When he tries seriously to win he's only lost once (I knew what he would do as soon as I saw his army and I happened to have built the literally perfect counter and the terrain was in my favor).

There are different kinds of intelligence…you can be book smart, emotional intelligence, and more. The problem with wargames and war in general is that you can read all the books you want (and I do because I love military history), you can memorize the principles of war, but in the end, there is a certain unmeasurable quality that you can't learn.

At the same time, there are so many interrelated variables. You can't control them all, and you certainly cannot measure all the variables and how they interact at any give time.

Not to mention you are competing against a live opponent who is ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST YOU. And he can be erratic or even act in an unexpected manner. I think in wargaming and in the real world, people forget this. You are not the only one playing the game.

In combat, that's why even good commanders can lose. In wargames we have dice that represent the variables.

For a good understanding of the many, many variables you're dealing with in combat AND in wargaming, I'd recommend reading "Strategy for Chaos" by Colin S. Gray, particularly the introduction and chapter one.

All this is why a person's intelligence is only a single dependent variable among dozens and dozens of others that shift continuously in relation to each other.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie "Harvey" is when Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) reflects on his life: "Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be," – she always called me Elwood – "In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

I've found this to be true in gaming as well as in life (although, sadly, in my old age I find it easier to be pleasant at the gaming table than in, say, committee meetings…).

During World War II, the US gave all its new inductees an IQ test. The Army Air Forces got a disproportionate share of the high IQ types to use as pilot trainees.
They were very disappointed to find that these people destroyed an unfortunate number of valuable government aircraft, flying them into mountains in Kansas, for example.
Further research indicated that the prime characteristic for pilots is not high IQ (though that is nice, too), it is a good sense of spatial relationships.
When I have worked with USAF pilots, I have noticed that they are quite good at identifying the shortest route and tend to have maps in their head, to a degree that other, quite intelligent people I've known, simply don't.

Grelber

Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is actually a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Nathan B Forrest beat a lot of folks who were smarter than him (learnin' wise anyway)

Many war games are optimized to eliminate skill so that it evens the game up at the expense of being interesting.

Also intelligence is not well defined, an expert intellectual often (but not always) lacks a grasp of the practical. A genius is one who has the intelligence and the practical skills to harness that intelligence. It also depends on your "gifts". With 130 pages plus of basic rules, language is probably more useful than anything else, you will be regurgitating long passages of English rather than moving troops. With simpler rules you may need more spacial awareness as you will be doing more moving of troops. ;-).

I find that reading the rules, scenario briefings and victory conditions helps a fair bit in winning. Amazing how many people don't.

So, some basic literacy and a bit of effort goes a long way.

This has been an interesting thread to read. I'm not sure how much intelligence one needs to win a game. Some, I am sure, but the luck factor of the dice, a card draw, or other random factors in a game will level the playing field.

Your going on a driving vacation. You look at the gas tank and knowledge tells you the gas tank is low. Wisdom tells you to get it filled.

Congratulations chaps.

I have enjoyed reading all the posts.

Special thanks to HMS Exeter for detailed characterisation.

I agree with Grelber re: the importance of spatial awareness. You can't fly a helicopter without it!

UshCha puts it in a wargaming perspective very well.

Sometimes the dice are with me. but I try to give them lots of chances to get it right. Relying on one die roll is not fair to me or them. Do more of the right stuff.

I think my style is more intuitive than mathematical. In H&M games I often see where the "hole" in the enemy lines will be before it appears. However, getting to exploit it is another skill entirely.

Have fun.

In the gaming environment, the skill 'social
intelligence' (or perhaps some other name for
the same attribute) is highly necessary…

If we all played by the same rules, and had the same level of experience, there would be an answer for that question other than "it depends."

And yes I DO want "it depends" as an answer when the inevitable poll follows this.

Not true. I was an enlisted man, non-college educated, more successful in retirement than working, and I routinely top my 2 very educated former officer friends.