VANGUARD TACTICS // Stephen Box
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The decision-making framework the U.S. Army brought in from a wargaming table

In spring 2026, the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth invited me to teach their officers IDEA, a decision-making method built over years of coaching tabletop wargamers. Here is what happened, and how to bring it to your organisation.

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Guest instructor, U.S. Army SAMSInvited back for a second yearFeatured on army.mil

How this started

Four days at "America's School for War"

The short version of a story that took years of coaching to build.

Between 30 March and 2 April 2026, I stood in front of students at the U.S. Army's School of Advanced Military Studies, the institution officers call America's School for War. I was not there as a soldier, an academic, or a defense contractor. I was there as a wargaming coach, and it was my second time being asked back.

SAMS students were finishing Future Operational Environment, the capstone course meant to make graduates future-literate before they lead multi-domain formations. Course author Colonel (Ret.) Matthew Yandura brought me in to run an exploratory practicum: could a decision-making method drawn from years of competitive tabletop wargaming hold its own next to Army design methodology, the rapid decision-making process, and joint planning frameworks?

It did, twice. The method is called IDEA. Below is what SAMS said about it, the formal endorsement Colonel Yandura put in writing, what the framework actually is, and how your organisation can run the same engagement.

Letter of endorsement

Why a Colonel wrote to a defense-industry wargaming lead about a Warhammer coach

Ahead of the return visit, Colonel Yandura put his endorsement in writing to introduce me to a wargaming lead at a major defense-technology company. Here is the heart of it.

From Matthew J. Yandura, COL, USA (Ret.), Assistant Professor, Social Science, School of Advanced Military Studies

"Last year, SAMS did something no one in US PME would ever dream of: we brought in Stephen Box, the top competitive Warhammer 40,000 player in the world, to teach us how he did it.

We weren't interested in teaching our students how to play Warhammer 40K, per se. We wanted to understand Stephen's bespoke methodology for becoming the world's best at the game. We inherently understood that what Stephen had developed was analogous to the methodologies we apply to real-world military planning. His skills, competencies, and personal attributes set him apart from the other candidates. In short, he was the ideal coach-teacher-mentor for our students."

"I'm proud to announce that SAMS will be having Stephen back this year to build on the incredible experience we had with him last year. This, I believe, is the strongest endorsement I may offer of Stephen and what he means to an organisation like ours."

Matthew J. Yandura Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)
Assistant Professor, Social Science · SAMS

Excerpted from a formal letter of introduction written to a wargaming lead at a defense-technology company, ahead of Stephen's second SAMS visit.

By the numbers

What building IDEA into a SAMS programme actually looked like

Not a one-afternoon talk. A properly built engagement, developed and delivered like a real programme.

9
months developing the methodology before ever teaching it
16
officers who went through the deeper cohort programme
70+
students, faculty, and families at the Fort Leavenworth community event
2
consecutive years SAMS has invited the programme back

In their words

What SAMS faculty and students said afterwards

"I cannot imagine a time in recent history where the skills associated with future thinking are more needed than now."

Matthew J. Yandura, COL, USA (Ret.), SAMS Assistant Professor and course author

"The long-term benefit of this visit is that our students and faculty now have access to an additional framework that has been tested as part of an exploratory practicum to enable more lethal military formations."

Matthew J. Yandura, COL, USA (Ret.), SAMS Assistant Professor and course author

"I saw students take away new ways to think about problems under extreme time constraints, assess trade-offs between actions and outcomes, and make decisions that were more rapid, yet still well-informed. Mr. Box talked about maintaining composure, something hard to do when you are stressed and facing the unfamiliar, and the students demonstrated greater ability to do so using his methods."

Eric Price, Associate Professor, SAMS

"I was very surprised at the speed in which Stephen goes through his IDEA methodology and the breadth of information he rapidly ingests and acts on. My biggest takeaway will be purposefully incorporating Stephen's focus on resource trade analysis."

Maj. Carlo Vician, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer

"Creative, innovative, and thought provoking. The CGSC Foundation was proud to sponsor this visit. We need more innovative projects like this to fund for our students and the faculty, well done Matt."

Christopher Hughes, Ed.D.
Major General, U.S. Army (Retired); CEO, CGSC Foundation

"This is great... a great way to reinforce critical thinking and the lessons of history."

Christopher Kennedy
Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

"Thank you so much for your generosity and commitment to our Officers. Until next time!"

Kirk Dorr
Deputy Director, Educational Programs, CGSC

"The CGSC Foundation was honored to sponsor this innovative program for the School of Advanced Military Studies students. Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your methodology for strategy with our future military planners."

Lora Morgan
President, CGSC Foundation, Inc.

"Pretty incredible, combining hobby wargaming into the SAMS education experience. Well done, Stephen."

Ralph Gary Foshee
Retired USAF Master Air Battle Manager; U.S. Army SAMS graduate

"Military wargaming has immense value when delivered analytically."

James Moorhouse
Wargaming the Future

Source: army.mil, "Students at the School of Advanced Military Studies enhance futures thinking, operational, tactical skills alongside successful wargame coach," 10 April 2026.

On the record

The framework explained, on air, with SAMS faculty and students

On The Operational Arch, the official podcast of the School of Advanced Military Studies, hosts Spencer Bates and DJ Taylor sat me down alongside Professor Yandura to walk through why an outside expert from a non-traditional field ended up teaching operational planners how to think.

  • 9:03, Professor Yandura on SAMS' mandate, since its founding in 1987, to go out into the civilian world and bring back new frameworks: "You have to be invitational. You can't just put a welcome mat out front and expect all those good ideas and people to show up."
  • 11:31, introducing the IDEA framework in full, sometimes called the Box Method.
  • 25:31, the value of purposeful failure: "A lot of the best games I've learned from are the games that I lost. I don't really learn a huge amount from the games where I absolutely destroy my opponent."
  • 45:00, closing lessons on being anti-fragile: to make a mistake, "own it, overcome it, take acceptance for it, and use that to push you on to be a better person and a better decision maker."

Two students, two days, eight hours a day

The hosts didn't just interview me, they sat through the same two-day, eight-hour-a-day training their own students get. One of them described watching a classmate named Evelyn Payne go from never having played the game to, on day two, "trusting her gut, being decisive, and constantly trying to make the better decision to affect the tabletop."

In a separate planning seminar that same week, a student working through a speculative scenario recognised the framework unprompted: "This is a transformation in contact framework... I've got this complementary framework that Steve uses to make rapid decisions in contact, in a timed environment, where he's got to make them."

Listen to the full episode, "From Warhammer to War Plans: The IDEA Framework," on Apple Podcasts.

The method

IDEA, in four moves

The same breakdown SAMS students learned, built from years of coaching decisions under a ticking clock.

I

Information

Gathering the right information under real time pressure. Not everything available, just what actually decides the next move.

D

Decision

Turning information into decisive action: naming priorities, weighing trade-offs, and committing before the window closes.

E

Execution

Allocating resources and holding composure through the variance that shows up the moment a plan meets contact.

A

Assess

Reading what actually happened, honestly, with the option to pivot rather than defend a plan that has already failed.

Why organisations bring me in

Years teaching decision-making to people who aren't gamers

IDEA didn't start at SAMS. It started on tournament tables, and it has been tested in front of some very different rooms since.

World ranking

Out of more than 24,000 competitors in the game worldwide, Stephen's team, and Stephen personally, are consistently ranked among the very best across multiple seasons and formats, according to SAMS faculty who checked before saying so on air.

Fort Leavenworth

Guest instructor at the U.S. Army's School of Advanced Military Studies, teaching the IDEA framework alongside Army design methodology and joint planning tools.

Comic Con

Guest speaker at Comic Con on wargaming as a tool for mental health, taking the same decision-under-pressure principles to a completely different audience.

University of Bath

Guest lecturer to Master's business students at the University of Bath, invited back for two years running to teach decision-making under constraint.

Vanguard Tactics

Founder and CEO of Vanguard Tactics, a coaching and education brand built over seven years as a professional wargaming coach, with a background in military doctrine that shaped IDEA long before SAMS ever saw it.

Coaching philosophy

"You want to make people feel empowered and not feel stupid. You need to meet every single person as a beginner, wherever they currently are, and understand what their next logical step is." Your people don't need to know the game to get value from the method.

The offer

Bring IDEA to your organisation

Three ways in, from a single hour on stage to the full engagement SAMS runs. Every engagement is quoted individually, based on your location and needs, direct from the person who built IDEA, not a certified reseller of it.

Start here

Keynote Talk

A focused introduction to the Box Decision Methodology, framed for your world.

1 hour · any size audience · plus travel

  • One hour on the IDEA framework, built around your industry or mission set before I arrive, not a generic talk
  • A working explanation of Information, Decision, Execution, and Assess, using the resource trade-off thinking Major Vician called his biggest takeaway
  • Live Q&A

Best for a conference slot, leadership offsite, or a first look before a bigger commitment.

Get a bespoke quote

In the middle

Single-Day Workshop

The full framework, applied, in one day.

8 hours · up to 20 people

  • Full IDEA framework instruction, the same four moves SAMS students learned
  • A live wargaming practicum against scenarios built for your context, not mine
  • Resource trade-off training exercise
  • Take-home reference material
Get a bespoke quote

The full engagement

Two-Day Programme

The same all-inclusive, two-day format SAMS runs.

2 days, 8 hours each · all-inclusive for up to 20 students

  • Pre-course material sent ahead of time, so day one starts on application, not introduction
  • Two full days of live wargaming practicums against your own scenarios
  • The composure and resiliency session used at SAMS to help people hold steady when the unfamiliar shows up
  • Take-home reference material for the whole cohort
  • One flat, all-inclusive quote for up to 20 students, no per-head surprises
Get a bespoke quote

Every quote is worked out around where you're based and what you need, so pricing isn't shown here. Email me and I'll come back with a number.

Who this is for, and one add-on worth knowing about

Military education institutions, staff colleges, officer training programmes, and any high-stakes organisation whose people need to decide faster without deciding worse. If that's not a fit, I'll tell you directly rather than take the booking anyway.

On the Two-Day Programme, there's an optional deeper cohort track available as an add-on: the same model SAMS used to take 16 officers further than the full-class instruction covered. I've also presented this work directly to the Board of Directors of the Command and General Staff College Foundation, the body that funds SAMS' outside-expert programmes, so I'm used to making the case in the room that signs off on the budget.

"Nine months of dedicated focus, planning, preparation, and deep thinking went into this. I've personally been on a journey, from feeling like an imposter to being inspired to continue."

Stephen Box, writing after the first SAMS visit

Find out if IDEA fits your organisation

I run a limited number of these engagements each year alongside my ongoing coaching work. Email me directly, tell me about your organisation, your students or staff, and the outcome you're after, and I'll tell you honestly whether an on-site IDEA engagement is the right move.

Email Stephen Box

[email protected]  ยท  Vanguard Tactics

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