[AnvilIron]

I agree. Use of cover, strategies, planning, positioning are all very important. PC wargaming can teach these things at an academic level. I do believe though, that every PC wargamer should spend a few hours in hot buggy foxhole, sleep a cold night on the ground and cover a minimum of ten miles in full gear with a degree of thirst and a growly stomach before they consider their gaming experience to be wholly valid. Psychological and physical degradation from both internal and environmental stressors cannot be simulated at a game console. If a combatant (or survivor) does not have an understanding (meaning experience) of how and at what point they begin to lose mental acuity and endurance, planning has little value. Learning to recognize your own stress indicators and knowing how you personally need to respond to those stresses is vital.

For instance, I know that under extreme physical stress, my blood sugar level can drop dramatically, but I don’t have any day-to-day blood sugar issues. I know this from doing through-hiking with a medium pack across three or four contiguous days. As a response, I keep half a dozen four-ounce tubes of cake frosting in my pack and at least one in an available pocket. At the first sign of mental or physical impairment, I consume half of a tube immediately and place the remainder under my lower lip like tobacco dip. I also begin looking for a good place to step off the trail and rest. If I didn’t know this or didn’t have a response prepared, I could pass out, go down, game over.