Kriegsspiel
Product brief · October 2026
27 Nov 1950 · Toktong Pass, west of the Chosin Reservoir

That day, what if you had command?

Kriegsspiel turns real battles into tactical decision games. You decide with only the ground and the intelligence the commander had that day, then set your call beside the one history made.

Start Today's TDG kriegspiel.app · English / 한국어 · runs in the browser, nothing to install
Why we built it

Military history is read with the ending known. Once you know who won, the heart of command drops out: uncertain intelligence, too little time, and decisions you cannot take back. Kriegsspiel hides the outcome and gives you only the map and the reports. Once you commit, there is no undo.

29
Real battles
Korean War 10 · Vietnam War 4
Russo-Ukrainian War 10 · Modern wars 5
5min
Per game
Three decision points in every battle
6
Head-to-head duels
7–8 phases per path, 10+ minutes
59
Battle analysis columns
Including 29 deep dives, every source cited
The decision screen

What sits on the command post table,
brought onto the screen.

kriegspiel.app/en/battle/chosin
Decision screen for Chosin: Toktong Pass. Unit symbols and target reference points on real terrain, with the player's role and the OPORD tabs on the right. 1 2 3 4 5
1

Real terrain

Hillshade from elevation data and 50 m contours. Grid and scale adjust to the map width.

2

Control measures

Phase lines, battle positions, engagement areas, target reference points, drawn like a real operations overlay.

3

Satellite view

One button switches to satellite imagery. "Read symbols" walks first-timers through the overlay.

4

Your role

The unit and billet you hold. You see only what someone in that seat could know.

5

Five-paragraph order

Situation, Mission, Execution, Sustainment, Command & Signal, in real OPORD format.

How a game runs

Read, look, decide,
then check against history.

01
Situation

Receive the order

Higher commander's intent, enemy and friendly situation. Unconfirmed enemy stays unconfirmed.

02
Terrain

Read the map

Observation and fields of fire, cover and concealment, obstacles, key terrain, avenues of approach. The evidence is on the map.

03
Decision

Commit to a course of action

One of three or four. Pick it by tapping its location on the map; once committed, it cannot be undone.

04
After-action review

Hold it up to history

The real commander's decision, what came of it, and the historical commentary, laid beside your own call.

Terrain

All 30 battlefields
on real coordinates.

Each battlefield has its own latitude, longitude and width, and the elevation data and satellite imagery are cut to fit. Not a hand-drawn sketch: the ground as it was.

  • Hillshade and contours — SRTM elevation, 50 m contours
  • Satellite imagery — Sentinel-2 cloudless composite, CC BY 4.0
  • Unit symbols and control measures — PL, OBJ, BP, EA, TRP and obstacles; friendly in black, hostile in red
Satellite imagery of Toktong Pass, west of the Chosin Reservoir Hillshade and contours of Toktong Pass, west of the Chosin Reservoir HillshadeSatellite
Toktong Pass, west of the Chosin Reservoir · 40.44°N 127.19°E · 20 km wide← drag to compare →
Duel

Your opponent decides too.

In alternate scenarios built on real battles, two players decide at the same time and turn their cards over together. No hidden dice: the pairing of the two decisions produces the result from a published adjudication table.

Blue

Defend. Hold the road, husband the reserve, buy time.

VSSimultaneous decisions every phase
Red

Attack. Find the weak point, seize the initiative, cut the road.

Phase 1/7 · Night of 21 August, before the main assault
Duel phase screen. Unit symbols and control measures on the Tabu-dong valley map; each course-of-action card carries a risk line and the expected outcome against each enemy choice
Blue winsContestedRed wins
04.55.510
Mission scorePhase average of 5.5 or more, Red wins; 4.5 or less, Blue wins.
ContestedIf remaining combat power differs by 5 or more, the side ahead wins; otherwise a draw.
InitiativeWhen tempo from earlier phases builds past ±2, the next phase's mission score moves ±1.
AttritionCombat power at 70% or below costs −1 in the next phase.

Balance, checked by the numbers

Every scenario is simulated over 100,000 games and ships only if Red's win rate lands between 45% and 55%.

Ambush52.8%
Bridgehead49.1%
Delay48.7%
Ridge defense46.4%
River crossing48.0%
Urban entry49.4%

Bars: Red win rate · Amber band: accepted range 45–55% · run 2026-10-15

Duel reveal screen. A one-line verdict, the table value and modifiers, and this phase's combat power and tempo
The reveal

Why it went the way it did, in one line.

Turn the cards and the verdict comes first: “My ‘Commit reserve to a ridge junction’ got ahead of their ‘Artillery, then successive waves’.” Every one of the 784 cells in the adjudication tables is explained by one of 24 principles.

  • Modifiers shown step by step — table 6 → initiative +1 → final 7
  • If you had decided differently — the best answer to the same enemy choice
  • Challenge a result — disputed verdicts are collected and the tables get fixed
River crossingBilohorivkaRidge defenseTabu-dong 1950Urban entryFallujah industrial district DelayRoute 5 Chuncheon–HongcheonAmbushOmachi PassBridgeheadKrynky
And more

Before and after the decision,
something to read and something to teach.

Deep-dive analysis column on Chosin: Toktong Pass

Battle analysis columns

A short analysis and a deep dive for every battle: how the ground narrowed the courses of action, what the commander knew and didn't, with every source cited.

Battle list screen

From the list to the classroom

Filter by war, echelon and era, and preview the real terrain on every card. In Instructor Mode an instructor opens a room, watches the class's decision spread live, and leads discussion with a whole-class after-action review.

Mobile

Nothing to install. Same map on your phone.

All you need is a browser. Terrain, unit symbols and orders are laid out for a phone screen, so a game fits in the gap between classes. Free battles start right away, no sign-in.

73 Easting map and control measures on a phone
Pricing

Start free,
pay only for what you need.

Free
$0
No account needed
Trying it for the first time
  • Today's TDG and the free battles
  • Battle analysis columns
  • Duels, records and leaderboards
  • Instructor Mode trial: once every 30 days, 6 people
Battle Pack
$14.99one-time
Pay once
Going deep on one war
  • Every battle from one war
  • One payment, yours to keep
  • Everything in Free
Individual PlusRecommended
$8.99/mo
Billed monthly
Training regularly
  • Every battle
  • Deep-dive analysis columns
  • Detailed command profile report
Group Beta
$39/mo
Billed monthly
One instructor and up to 30 trainees
  • Instructor Mode, always on
  • Class assignments, live decision spread
  • Class after-action review, duel classroom
  • Trainees join free

During the beta every battle and feature is open. The prices above are proposed prices being tested before full launch; payments are handled by Paddle as merchant of record.

Principles

Because this is about war,
we drew the lines first.

No scoring by casualties

Assessment is by mission accomplished and combat power preserved, nothing else. No "kills".

Harm to civilians is never an option

No course of action or outcome that harms civilians.

Duel sides are Red and Blue

Role names, not country names. A duel result is the outcome of game rules, not of a real battle.

No real names of living people

Commanders are referred to by their billet.

Fact and claim kept apart

Ongoing wars cover only facts confirmed through April 2026.

A source for every fact

Public sources are linked, and cases still being verified are marked "Beta: under fact review".