What are some alternative words/phrases for Wargame/Wargaming?

I am pursuing a doctoral research and because of lack of data in my specific domain, I want to use war-gaming as a methodology. However my advisor won't be very comfortable with the military connotations of the word "Wargame". "Simulation" is too computer-ish and doesn't wholly capture what I want to do.

What are my other options?

Example sentence: Because of lack of data, the methodology used in this study was to wargame crises scenarios along with......

Solution 1:

One possibility, since you mentioned simulation was "too computer-ish", is role-playing.

Another is to drop "war" and call it gaming. As a noun and intransitive verb, I think this meets the criteria. I would not use it as a transitive verb, as this generally means using knowledge of a system to take advantage of a person or situation.