Combat Movement

I have seen a lot of discussion about "Combat Movement", I'm not sure if
anyone has said this but here is my take on the matter:

Normal movement is walking, watching where you are putting your feet, trying
to remain silent, ect. Normal movement also has the advantage of being a
normal "Activation Length" in terms of game time. If you spend five minutes
*walking* the Ho-Chi-Minh trail, you spend the five minutes walking. A
"Combat Move" is a dead run and is noisy, you have a harder time hearing your
enemy, and they can hear you just fine. The "Turn Length" of a combat move in
game time is variable. You may only have the chance of getting a few yards
before an enemy squad notices and starts spraying fire in your direction, much
less if EVERY enemy squad notices, etc. If you activate a "Combat Move" and
roll 2" you didn't get very far (less than a minute at a five minute scale and
an "Average" move of 6") before private funk stepped on the "Noisy Twig! (TM)"
and EVERYBODY started shooting in your direction!

Let us look at "Combat Move" from the perspective of the other side. You are
walking quietly through a dense jungle looking for someone who is also trying
to be stealthy. Every rustle of the leaves and someone from your squad spins
to look, weapon at the ready. You are watching the trees, the ground, even the
sky for even the slightest sign of your opposition. Suddenly they break cover
no more than thirty meters to your right. Seargent S. hasn't even finished
saying the "O" in "Open Fire!" before assault rifles rip into the surrounding
foiliage... One hundred meters away another squad hears the chatter of machine
guns and moves out...

But what if the opposition dosen't do anything to the running squad. The view
from the running squad:

Lt. Baker just gave the order to move out, a dead run past the sentry line.
You didn't get two yards before Private Funk stepped on three "Noisy Twigs!"
(TM) in a row. You know they know where you are. Your Comm Officer relays your
cover is blown to command (during which the enemy takes his activation) and
command sends a squad to intercept a possible breakthrough attempt by the
enemy....

> djwj wrote:

> Let us look at "Combat Move" from the perspective of the other side.
You are
> walking quietly through a dense jungle looking for someone who is also
Seargent
> S. hasn't even finished saying the "O" in "Open Fire!" before assault

Well I guess I don't see normal movement as being necessarily stealthy
movement. Troops are not by nature stealthy in their movement. They are not
overtly noisy but nor are they deliberately stealthy in normal movement.
Properly executed deliberate stealthy movemnt is a conscious, tiresome and
slow act, you can't keep it up all day long no matter how hard you try. Now if
there was a reason to have stealthy movement in FMA, (Say there was hidden
movement of referred GM
type of double blind game), then that would be an _excellent_ candidate
for a movement type. Something like the employment of stealthy movement
hinders detection attempts by shifting down one die type, but it also shifts
your movement range down one die type also.

Cheers...

Funny, but the Combat move could also be justified by Djs comments; the as the
troops hear the 'rustle' they slow down; that's a 2" combat
move......

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