Unlike many of the books I have recently read The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan1 is not focused on technology. Editor Matt Pottinger instead uses The Boiling Moat as a policy clarion call. For wargame practitioners, as well as commercial hobby wargamers, the book can serve as a set of alternative futures for building scenarios.
Scenario builder
In The Boiling Moat, one will not find all the “cool toys” that can be made into Joint Capability Cards for Sebastian Bae’s Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific (The Dietz Foundation, 2023). Instead, the various chapters are in many ways frameworks for alternative futures or different scenarios that one might use for a strategic or theater campaign-level wargame.
Essentially, The Boiling Moat looks at the readiness of Taiwan, the United States, Japan, and Australia and Europe to confront the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in over Taiwan. As such, the various chapters tend to focus on the strategic preparation for a conflict in the South China Sea, be it a full scale cross-Strait invasion of Taiwan, a joint blockade, or simply firepower strikes to force Taipei’s capitulation. “Part III: America’s Job Now” with chapters on “Sink China’s Navy,” “Quarantines and Blockades,” and “Mobilizing and Equipping” are certainly also useful for game designers looking at the operational or theater campaigning-level of war.
Game on
Looking at the various commercial hobby wargames available on the market today, The Boiling Moat has applicability to each, though perhaps the forthcoming Breaking the Chains 2.0 from Compass Games is the best fit:
Wargaming The Boiling Moat
Littoral Commander
$0.00
✓ Grand Tactical
✓ Taiwan focus
✓ Cross-Strait invasion
✓ Quarantine/ Blockade
✓ Anti-Access/Area Denial
Breaking the Chains
$59.00 (Pre-order sale)
✓ Grand Tactical
✓ South China Sea focus
✓ Quarantine/Blockade
✓ Anti- Access/Area Denial
Next War: Taiwan
$59.00 (GMT P500 price)
✓ Operational
✓ Taiwan focus
✓ Cross-Strait invasion (landing phase onward)
Recommended.
- Pottinger, M. (Editor) (2024) The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan. Stanford: Hoover Institute Press. ↩︎
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