Thinking aloud - AI

Using Google’s Gemini AI, I asked it to build a scenario for a Napoleonic French attack on a farmhouse defended by Austrians.

Within a few moments, it had given me full scenario instructions and an order-of-battle. The AI then asked me if I wanted a map. Well, yes please (see above photo).

I was initially pretty much amazed at what came back. The last time I asked AI for a table top map, it produced a bizarre schematic thing, with a hedge feature that couldn’t possible exist, well certainly not on a wargame table - but, this ‘map’ just looks like someones real tabletop …. is it, or are we seeing those inevitable ongoing improvements in AI?

If a blogger posted this photo as part of their latest AAR, it would certainly garner a lot of praise for being a lovely table.

Accepting that AI doesn’t create in the way that we see creative ability, rather it draws on several sources, does a mash-up then churns out a summary of that data. Also accepting that whatever we think about AI, it cannot be judged as a thing standing still of ‘March 2026’, it is continually being developed, getting increasingly effective and it would be fair to say, that if I was to be writing this in 3 - 5 years time, the AI environment and this post content would likely be quite different.

So, what of this map and scenario? If you look into the image, you will notice in the background a  grey carpet, wood skirting, pastel coloured plaster walls, a door frame and part of a door. The setting is clearly something that we would feel comfortable with as being home - it looks real rather than the usual AI rendered image - is it real or has AI presentation capability moved up a notch?

Then look in the lower left quadrant of the table. The road looks like it is sitting on a part of the table that has something (like tea towels) under the game cloth to represent a low hill - yet the scenario instructions do not describe high ground anywhere. 

The hedge at the foot of that hill is off-set and sits awkwardly, just like it would if we were laying a rigid hedge strip down on a hill on our own tables, making the whole thing look rather real (click on image).

There isn’t any artistic smoothing effects on things like the edge of the orchard, it looks very much like a plonk down terrain feature, same with the bases of the units, yet the AI appears to have gone for smoothing effects on the road and river, where there are no obvious joins and it has artistically given us small arms fire from the farm windows.

It has also given us an awkward looking flag. Awkward because it looks painted onto a photo and also because it has the colours of the modern Austrian flag. The period state flag would have been black and yellow.

Another thing, which would be very clever, no matter which way you consider it, is the inclusion of the right units in the right place, with the right orientation and properly named, according fully with the Scenario instructions, which I was given before the map was generated.

To the left of the table are some bits of standard gaming paraphernalia such as ruler (which looks a bit strange) and dice, but we also have the round tokens that look to be representing the French colours, a bespoke and thoughtful addition, although that whole setting looks a bit contrived ….. or at least tidier than my table edge! 

Compared to AI stuff I have generated in the recent past, on first impression this looks as good as an actual table / game and I can’t make up my mind how much is self generated by the AI, so that the line between creation and copying is a blurry one.

So, as the Walrus says in the Poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ by Lewis Carroll - “The time has come to talk of many things”.

Is this a step-up in AI capability? Does the AI now have so many data points that it can now create in a way that we create from our own previous experiences? (Note at this point, I separate out this function from the ability to ‘invent’). If I created that table, it wouldn’t be because I am a brilliant innovator, it would be because that is a typical farmhouse based battlefield that I have seen numerous times in magazines, wargame shows and on battle descriptions. 

So is the AI simply operating at that level. i.e. is it actually as thoughtful as I am (and more!) with regard to such things or is it still purely reliant on copying. I ask that as an honest and open question because I actually don’t know what the true capability of AI currently is. 

I don’t want to run around like a headless chicken, amplifying scaremongering, I would actually like to know,

Is the table a technically superb bit of construction in our 2026 eyes or is it just a very close lift from someone’s actual table? - if you recognise features here that are very close to your own work, it would be lovely to have you comment here with your thoughts.

Certainly the individual terrain products of some manufacturers should be recognisable, as indeed might the figures!

Other things of note. 

Quite a few wargames associate an orchard next to a farmhouse, had it been a walled orchard, I might have thought it to be Hougoumont (Waterloo) inspired. 

Each side has thoughtfully been given skirmishing Voltigeurs (French) and Grenzers (Austrian) for firing from windows and the orchard etc. 

There is an interesting tip in this regard offered by the Scenario instructions, just before it asked me whether I wanted a map, which I have copied below (click on it for a crisp view);

The inclusion of French Hussars at squadron level for an attack on a farmhouse might seem odd, but the Austrians get a reinforcement battalion (Landwehr), so they do have something outside the farm complex to engage or threaten.

When I called up the scenario, I was thinking of a Black Powder type game, but didn’t state that and what we have is a scenario that looks like it would benefit from a more skirmish level set of rules. 

Also, I wonder whether the French are strong enough for the task of taking the farmhouse, so it will be interesting to actually play this out and see if the AI has considered game balance. 

There is a rule that gives some opportunity for the French guns to cause a breach in the farm’s wall, so perhaps it has. 

Perhaps it wants or expects the French to use their Voltigeurs and artillery first and then assault with the infantry, which of course makes sense ….. and that might make the AI a better general than me :-) The scenario gives 10 turns, so there is time for this sort of preparation.

Anyway, there we are. What do you think? I feel rather compelled to set the game up and play it out just to see whether this is a ‘good’ scenario. If I do that, I will post some comments as a part II to this post.

This is not an anti or pro AI post, it is a ‘moment in time’ article that considers how developing technology is impacting on our hobby at its most basic level.

EDIT - just as an exercise, I wanted to retest the AI to see whether the above map was a new presentation style. I gave a more generic request this time of a French Force attacking an Austrian force, but specified Black Powder II rules and this is the map that it gave me I have no idea why the presentation styles are so different, perhaps because one is at the more skirmish level and the other isn’t. Regardless, as a construction, the second map is also clever (and rather attractive) when considered in association with the scenario instructions.

Edit II - a poster on the Lead Adventure Forum (where I also posted) has just noticed that the first map has two Norths!

Resources.

I have another bit of webspace called COMMANDERS that is a bit more snippet based than here. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html