This seems like a good topic for a /leftypol/ gaming thread since it is both autistic gaming discussion and actually has potential for a leftist development of strategy.
Maybe this would ideally be better suited for /hobby/ but as long as /games/ is more active seems sensible to just post anything related to games in any form here, like the chess thread or other tabletop.
I've recently been interested in the kind of "wargames" (broadly meaning military/political/strategic/policy simulation) that militaries, intelligence agencies, and consultant groups use to strategize and troubleshoot their plans. Personally this is interesting as far as I enjoy playing and designing strategy games. More generally, this seems like a good investment of time for leftists who are nerds who enjoy this shit anyway because it is a way to attempt to apply "gaming" to actual strategic considerations.
The best publicly available version of this I've seen that is also utilized by the aforementioned groups is Matrix Games, which is a very rules-lite and scaleable model that tries to remove constraining gameplay meta in favor of players debating what is within reason and what is not. Whether this makes for the most "fun" gameplay possible is besides the point, because the idea is to use the tabletop wargame format to explore the widest range of strategic possibilities, and establishing in-game advantages and victories based on serious discussion of what would be concievable under the given circumstances seems to be a good way to encourage thinking outside the box and considering various angles.
http://www.mapsymbs.com/wdmatrix.html#whatSome abbreviated info from the website:
<What are Matrix Games?>Matrix games are different to normal Wargames and Role-Playing games. In a these games you compare lists of statistics and peer at complicated books of rules containing someone else's idea about what things are important, before rolling a dice. It takes a long time and can be very difficult to explain to a newcomer. Instead, in a Matrix Game you simply use words to describe why something should happen, the Umpire decides how likely it is, and you roll a dice. If you can say "This happens, for the following reasons…" you can play a Matrix Game.Post too long. Click here to view the full text.