How does a typical MBX unfold?
Like CPXs, MBX games start with a planning stage. This is where teams organize themselves, discuss their mission and decide how they want to allocate their forces and responsibilities. Players then begin to submit plans to the umpire. The whole process can take anywhere between 2 weeks and a month, depending on the size and scope of the game. Once the exercise begins (STARTEX) the umpire translates the player’s orders into appropriate game commands which are entered into a computer game such as TacOps or Harpoon to determine sightings and contacts. Any sightings or combat results are reported back to the teams. On the basis of the new information in the report, the players issue new orders which the umpire again processes, thus beginning a new orders cycle, or turn. While this sounds like a very segmented structure, in reality it often works out to be a fairly fluid process with a constant stream of information and orders going back and forth between the teams and the umpire fairly sea
