The GZG Digest V1 #843

> [quoted text omitted]
This also brings up the question of how to handle, in a hidden game, the use
of Reconnaissance by Fire (An interesting little concept I never thought of
myself, I read about it in the HHandbook for Marines, and confirmed it with
a coworker who is ex-marine) - basically, you find the answer to your
question by firing INTO that clump of trees. If it runs away, fires back, or
bleeds, yes, it IS enemy infested. I brought it up with my marine friend, and
his reply was, "What's even nicer is reconnaissance by Fire by
AIR....
(he had a particular affection, apparently common in the USMC, for his
brothers-in-arms who pilot helicopter gunships).
<<<

Aggghhhh!!! Recon by fire (RBF) would only be usefull if you had a lot of ammo
or great logistics. I notice that (at least in Vietnam, maybe Owen can tell us
if it still the case) the Australian Army empshisised patrolling over RBF,
mainly because RBF lets the neemy know where _You_ are.

Case in point was the mad minute, not true RBF, granted, but firing insane
amounts of ammo out from your camp lets the enemy know exactly where your camp
was, and that you where setting up at night. A patrol, however, allowed better
recon, and hopefully the benifit of supprise.

In SG, this would be hard to work out, as a unit fired on would be suppressed
(only IMHO after a fully effective fire), so it would be _harder_ to
leave cover, not easier. And trained troops would not leave nice safe cover
just because they where fired on. So how you handle this in a game?

DS, I dont know, been a while since I read the rules.

Darryl

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I'm sure you're very right, when it comes to Vietnam-style warfare.  But

that's not what DSII is best geared for, nor was it what my friend's unit
was best suited for.  He was a member of a mechanized recon platoon -
their job was to move inland from the beachheads and establish clear routes
for the advance of the rest of a Marine force. They weren't sallying out from
a camp, to patrol and return, they were meant to be the van of an invasion.
It's hard for a group of armored vehicles to gain the same level of surprise
as a patrol in the bush.

As for well-disciplined troops, again, we're not just talking about a
patrol's small arms - the LAV-25 is armed with, IIRC, a 25 mm
autocannon,
and the supporting Cobras are armed with chain guns and rocket pods -
serious enough trouble to make even the most disciplined troops feel the

need to do SOMETHING. I'm not saying they would leave cover, but they might
sudenly abandon their motionless hiding stances do try to dig in deeper,

someone hit might lose composure and scream in agony, someone might loose
off a return shot, the point is, they would be less than super-stealthy
at that point.

Granted, I'm sure there are situations where such a tactic is not merited or
even wise. However, there must be times when it's quite useful.

Brian Bilderback

> From: dadams@parracity.nsw.gov.au

> Aggghhhh!!! Recon by fire (RBF) would only be usefull if you had a lot

> better

> dadams@parracity.nsw.gov.au wrote:

> Case in point was the mad minute, not true RBF , granted, but firing

Ummm... everyone knows where a base camp is. In most cases, the Viet
Cong has agents inside them.  90%+ of them took mortar fire on a daily
basis.