Albert Nofi

To Train the Fleet for War discusses the US Navy's interwar Fleet Problems - large-scale real-world wargames played by the majority of the US Navy every year from 1923 to 1940 - in detail, both cataloguing each individual problem and describing the overall nature and evolution of the wargames over their 17 years of existence.

In Collaboration with Jim Dunnigan:

Other collaborations

Albert A. Nofi (born January 6, 1944), is an American military historian, defense analyst, and designer of board and computer wargaming systems.

A native of Brooklyn, he attended New York City public schools, graduating from the Boys' High School (now Boys and Girls High School) in 1961.

Nofi attended Fordham University, earning a bachelor's (1965) and a master's (1967), and then received a Ph.D. in Military History from the City University of New York (1991).

From 1965 through 1995, Nofi was a teacher and later administrator in the New York City public schools.

As research director for SPI and associate editor of the military historical simulations journal Strategy and Tactics for over a decade (1969–1982), he produced numerous articles and a number of wargames.

Nofi also designed the strategic wargame Imperium Romanum set in the Roman Empire, originally published by in 1979 West End Games.

In addition to work for SPI, Nofi has authored, co-authored, or edited over 30 books on a wide variety of topics.

Among his collaborators are Dunnigan, Bela Kiraly, R. L. DiNardo, Kathleen Broome Williams, and others.

Working primarily in alternative programs, such as the Harlem Preparatory School, Park East High School, and Unity High School at the Door, he retired as an assistant principal in 1995.

During this period he also built a parallel career as an independent historian, defense analyst, and wargame designer, working primarily with James F. Dunnigan, Redmond A. Simonsen, and David C. Isby at Simulations Publications (SPI).

Since 1997, Nofi has contributed a regular column to North & South magazine.

In 1998, he became a contributing editor to StrategyPage, for which he writes a regular column.

In 1999 Nofi became a research analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), in Alexandria, Virginia, where he worked with game theorist Peter P. Perla.

Nofi was the CNA field representative to the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, in Newport, Rhode Island, from 2001 until mid-2005, before returning to CNA.

While at CNA he wrote "Recent Trends in Thinking About Warfare" and several other analytical papers.

He retired from CNA at the end of 2006.

Nofi has lectured at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library and Archives Canada, the Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site (home of the National Museum of the Pacific War), the Air War College, the Command and Staff College of the Marine Corps University, a number of other colleges and universities, and numerous Civil War Round Tables and local historical societies.

For many years an Associate Fellow of the U.S. Civil War Center, a Director of the New York Military Affairs Symposium since its formation, a member of the Society for Military History and a number of other military and historical societies, Nofi is also a founding member of the Italian American Italian Studies Association, of which he was corresponding secretary for several years.

In 2011 Nofi's book To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy's Fleet Problems, 1923-1940 (see review) was awarded the John Lyman Book Award in Navy History by the North American Society for Oceanic History and given "Honorable Mention" by The New York Chapter of the Navy League of the United States for its Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History.