Help with a plotline in a fantasy book.
I have a problem.
My main character (Cherex) needs to show tactical competance in some sort of war game live simulation.
I'm thinking of things like one group playing defenders, the other playing the attackers, one side having to defend themselves from the other.
The book is epic fantasy, the landscape is something like Greenland, they all have one magic ability (likely to be transmutation, illusion, or shapeshifting.) The MC has transmutation. He can make almost anything out of anything else. He can make air solid, turn rock into water, things like that. All are still learning to use their magic effectively. They've just got their first powers. They're all about 21/22 years old.
Cherex has, so far, been under the command of someone useless, who's pulling his group's marks down. Their chances of promotion depend on these tests.
Their people are in a 3000 year conflict with another land that generally involves terrorism, assassination, and subversion rather than armies invading.
Cherex currently intends to kill his trainee group's commander and take over their group. (A valid and legal thing to do in their culture.)
The problem is that my only experience of such war games is watching Dad's Army. (Old British WW2 comedy series,) I've not even roleplayed anything.
Can anyone suggest any scenarios that trainee magic-using warriors might be given as tests?
It's possible that just writing this question out may spark some ideas in my cranium, but I'd be glad for some pointers.
Thank you.