[Lucky Jim]

These screenshots are from the popular 'ARMED ASSAULT 2' PC game
You can set up a scenario in just 5 minutes that contains NO enemy and therefore no combat at all, which means you can use it as a training tool to develop your spatial orientation, environment awareness, mapreading and navigation skills to your hearts content.

Our Humvee is the blue square-

And our view from the driving seat.We'll head straight down the road to hit town-

Okay we stopped the Hummer (background) and have got out to explore-

Let's see what's up here-

Nothing, it looks like the Mary Celeste-

Quiet out back too, i'll head for that minaret-

There's the door-

And up we go-

Nice view over town-

If we really get lost we can whistle up the map and compass to see exactly where we are, but we survivalists never get lost do we?..

PS- that whole exercise was done with just the four arrow keys to move the Hummer and guy around, a mouse click to dismount him, and a couple of key presses to bring up the map and compass, piece o' cake..

 

[Lucky Jim]

Forests are especially challenging because you have to "read" the contour lines and must try to stick to the correct compass course.
In this exercise you para-drop in the drop zone at top right, then must make your way on foot to the dam at the bottom, evading bad guys en route.
I goofed bigtime at one point by heading southeast instead of southwest (white circle) for a time before I realised my mistake.
Needless to say, stay off roads because the bad guys are bound to be patrolling them.
Like I said before, I thoroughly recommend tactical wargames like this one (Armed Assault) for developing our navigation/concealment/ evasion/mapreading skills, and it's FUN too..

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They can't kill you if they can't catch you!
Here I dish out rough justice to a mob who are looking for me, they call me "The Shadow" and I've been at large in their district for months..

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Night scenarios are fun too, especially if you've got night vision goggles and the mob hasn't..

 

[Lucky Jim]

We can also use the stars in Armed Assault to help us navigate.
North star-
"I am constant as the northern star of whose true-fix'd and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament"- Shakespeare: Julius Caesar

Orion the hunter-

 

[Lucky Jim]

FLIGHT SIMULATIONS are also a good fun way of helping develop our nav skills, it can be harder than navving on the ground, because in the air you're at the mercy of crosswinds and have to make allowances for it in your calculations.
I like these old kites without any modern nav electronics, you fly by map, compass and eyeballs alone.
Piece o' cake in good weather (This is Flight Simulator X)-

But not so easy when the weather clamps down-

You can set day/night/dusk/dawn and all types of weather, you can even play misty if you like.
There's an airfield out there somewhere-

 

[Lucky Jim]

"Which way to Vegas?"

Liberated POW's and slave labourers at end of WW2:

 

[Lucky Jim]

Navigation training in the Rockies with Flight Sim X-

Gets sticky in bad weather-

"Are we lost captain?"
"No sir we're somewhere in Canada, now kindly resume your seat"

 

[Lucky Jim]

Flight Sim X again, with the southern england add-on scenery pack:
Tiger Moth over Henley-on-Thames:

I have this paper map open on my lap to follow roads, rivers and rails etc-

 

[Watercanlady]

I would be gone for sure I cannot play those games....

 

[Lucky Jim]

I would be gone for sure I cannot play those games....

Can you waggle a joystick? There ya go, Flight Sims are as easy as that, believe me! In fact most planes are pussycats and will happily fly on their own, you hardly need touch the joystick at all..
As for ground games, they too are as simple as pie, just hold down the four arrow keys on your keyboard to run around the landscape, it's great fun.
And remember you can set them up so there's no shooting at all and you explore to your hearts content and learn mapreading and stuff..

 

[Watercanlady]

Great info.... Thanks for sharing...

 

[Lucky Jim]

Computer games are also good for learning agriculture and stuff,but I haven't found one I really like yet.
The best known is the 'Civilisation' series but it's far too complex and fiddly for me.
Others, like 'Farming Simulator' are disappointing because they're aimed primarily at kiddies who like to drive tractors and things around.
FREECOL (screenshots below) is another in the 'Civilisation' mould, it's not quite as complex but all that production-quota number-juggling and book keeping still sends me bananas.
It's a free download if anybody wants to give it a try-

FreeCol - Download