From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 01:20:21 -0500
Subject: [SG] Special Ops + Indigenous forces
Note: I apologize to anyone who might be a little bit sensitive to this particular post - it draws a bit from current news. Hopefully not in a way that is unpalatable. Onward.... I was thinking about SF + Indigenous forces (read: irregulars or militia) versus a middle of the road army. On the one hand, the middle of the road army will have a mix of regular and green units with some decent equipment, maybe some support elements like armour or arty, and they might even have a veteran unit or two as stiffeners. The indigenous forces may well have a mix of forces from green to veteran (the mix depending on how much combat experience and how many recent combat losses). The special forces may be expected to be small in number, but of veteran or even elite quality, and well led. For that matter, some of the local indigenous forces may be very well led (others may have bad leadership though). The locals most likely are a lightly armoured force, that can move fast, but has little indigenous support in the way of armour, arty, air. Now, the SF being present may introduce air or artillery assets (with the SF acting as FAO/FAC). Also, the SF themselves will be well equiped. So far, we're not talking about anything vanilla SG doesn't represent. As part of the "evening up" between the two sides, the side with the SF may have off-board EW (from nearby flying command centers or from dedicated jammer planes or air scatterable jammers). They may have tacair (GMS, autocannons, deadfall ordinance, precision munitions). They may have off-board artillery and perhaps some on-board light mortars (man portable). One of the interesting aspects is the middle of the road army may have varying levels of morale, from green troops with motivation levels that are LOW (except within a short distance of certain key motivating units - the veterans/elite/commisars). The die-hards/elite units may well have HIGH motivation. However, if these HIGH motivation troops are removed, the LOW motivation the other units feel may be manifest. While the HIGH motivation units are still in the fight (and with LOS to the LOWer motivation units), these other units probably fight as MEDIUM motivation. On the SF side, the locals may also have a quite varied set of motivation levels. The SF undoubtedly add to the motivation of their forces, and if they were killed (thus possibly taking away the off-board support!), the overall motivation of the indigenous force may well drop to LOW. As long as the SF are on the table, they may well have MEDIUM or HIGH motivation. Either side, depending on the situation, may have suicide commandos (not terribly effective, unless they appear from hiding or the scenario also entails the presence of non-combatants they can hide within). That's kind of a general discussion, but I was thinking of trying out a generic scenario with Red SF and Red Indigs vs. Blue Army. Red force would have high motivation as long as the SF squads (maybe two fireteams out of a total of 8-10 squads on the attacking Red side) and drop to LOW (and get no off board support when that happened!). The Blue force would have varying motivation levels across the force, but would have 6 squads plus 2-4 armoured vehicles, of which 2-3 fireteams would be Stiffeners. If these were destroyed, the forces morale would drop to LOW. As long as these were around, the force would have Medium motivation (the elite fireteam high). The objective for Red Force would be to use their indigenous forces and off board support to dislodge the defending Blue Force. Red would have tacair and artillery on call. Blue would have (sometimes.... random roll say 50%) artillery on call. Red only SF can call the off board support, Blue any unit can (as long as it is still fighting). Red might also be granted 2 or 3 EW chits. So Blue has defender advantages, perhaps some fighting positions, and AFVs and some arty. Red has slightly more numerous force (though lightly armoured), heavy off board support, and good morale. Remains to be seen if this will be balanced. Once I've done a few playtests, I'll write something up for stargrunt.ca. I'm already about 66% done a scenario based off of the final segment of 'Tears of the Sun' which should go up sooner or later. Tomb PS - My heart goes out to the US POWs and their families. Bunch of mechanics.... seems like they made a wrong turn or something. Prayers for their safe return and fewer accidents and fratricides in the coming days.