4 levels of warfare and how it applies to civ6

I found this article entitled "Understanding Military Strategy and the Four Levels of War" on the 4 levels of warfare that I thought would be relevant for a discussion for how civ6 could represent war.

From the article, the 4 levels of warfare are:
-Tactical

The tactical level of warfare is that level where men meet and fight from the individual level through the division. It is the realm of skirmishes, engagements, and battles.

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- Operational

Operational level planning occurs with the intent of setting missions and objectives that will bend the enemy to your will in an entire theater of operations...This level of war deals with the movements of entire corps, armies and army groups, or whole fleets at sea.

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- Strategic

This level concerns the planning and conduct of the war at the highest levels. Strategic plans aim for objectives that lead directly to, or at least significantly toward, peace. In other words, these plans seek to answer the question, "How will we win this war?"...Strategic decisions also determine the allocation of portions of national resources. Decisions about production of material and allocations of raw material and personnel occur at this level.

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- Political

Finally, as I mentioned, there is the political level of warfare. In our society, the civilian government retains control over decisions to go to war, whom to fight, and with whom to ally. Decisions at this level involve the interrelationships between allies, decisions regarding the factors of production, the national will, and societal issues

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How does this relate to civ or civ6:

- Tactical level: this part is represented by the damage modifiers and battle odds when units attack each other. Obviously, this part is simplified in civ as it should be.
- Operational level: players sometimes say that 1upt adds tactics but actually I would say it adds to the operational level since it deals with troop movements towards a goal. This is really the big part of civ games since it deals with moving your military units. 1upt makes the operational level much more interesting which is a good thing.
- Strategic level: this part is represented by what units the player puts in the build queue or what military techs the player pursues. The grand strategy of how to win the war is planned in the player's head and not really shown on the map.
- Political level: this is represented in the diplomacy when the player tries to end the war. Earlier civ games had civil unrest from war weariness which is part of the political aspect of war.

I do think that civ6 should focus on the strategic and operational levels since that is where the strategy will be. The game could have different "national strategies" that the player could pick that would add modifiers to unit strength and production. For example, national strategies could be "defensive war", "war for resources", "territorial war", "war of conquest", "holy war" and "total war".

I would also like to see a bit more on the political side. Bring back war weariness and civil unrest when you are losing a war or stuck in a protracted war.

You could extend this with a "social technology" component by making certain 'military technologies' which buff in some way the glossed components of the operational or tactical level - e.g., a technology enables the Heal instantly promotion, a technology adds formations which buffs combat strength.


I think I read someone else who suggested this, but you could have x per tile and x could be upgraded.

Very nice breakdown, I knew of the divisions but not any effective technical definitions. Civ should absolutely have components settled up on these lines.

Interesting read, and not only CiV related.