Long term unit composition

[Rockwolf66]

The treads on Marauders and warcrimes recently has gotten me thinking. In TW2K the units while under the flag of whatever nation are not going to be inherently of that nation. the scrounging for warm bodies is going to eventually end up with units that are Commanded by the nation who's flag is flying over the cantonment and staffed by local conscripts.

The result will be something like the firquas of Oman. groups of local recruits lead by foreign officers. These groups would be operating out of cantonments and securing the local area.

When I played TW2K without Corporal Shitbird, we ended up with a fortified farmsted that manufactured simple SMGs and trained the local Militia. As we secured the area we armed the populance with glorified Sten guns and trained the locals well enough that we didn't have a marauder problem per say. Organized Military units on the other hand required some serious negotiations.

[Adm.Lee]

I was just reading on Afghanistan, and the local-hired "terps" (interpreters) were mentioned quite often, usually in favorable contrast to the Afghan Army soldiers. I suspect a lot of Twilight War American (and other) units would pick up local residents as interpreters, and those would become very embedded in the unit.

[Rockwolf66]

With interpreters you get a mixed bag. I reading nonfiction about vietnam most interpreters were good people but you did get the occational bad apple. I remember reading in "The Element of Suprise" by Daryl Young about an incident where their interpriter tried to get a hand into a boat by sticking up his unsafed M16. Needless to say that he ended up being the last onboard. Other Seals owe their lives to the loyalty of their interpritors.

In Somalia they were taking anyone who could speak Somali as an interpretor no matter what their loyalties might have been. Heck the Marine commanders interpretor was the son of the main warlord they were fighting and after that warlord died his son took over the clan leadership.

In Iraq and Afganistan it seems that most of the interpretors are pretty good people. I haven't heard anything really bad from my friends in the sadbox.

As I mentioned in my last post the way that the British stablized Oman was to run a hearts and mind campain and used that good will to form trained and equiped units to stablize the country. In TW2K I can see units in cantonments forming auxillery units out of the local population arming them with homemade and captured weapons

[Targan]

In Somalia they were taking anyone who could speak Somali as an interpretor no matter what their loyalties might have been. Heck the Marine commanders interpretor was the son of the main warlord they were fighting and after that warlord died his son took over the clan leadership.

It is my understanding that he wasn't just an interpreter, he was a fully trained US Marine (his warlord father had sent him to the US to be educated and the son had ended up enlisting in the USMC). I find that even more disturbing, that a trained US Marine ended up becoming a factional warlord in Somalia.

[Mahatatain]

I think that one of the interesting aspects of the classic T2k campaign in Poland is that you can include a mixture of nationalities all combined together in the same unit. It makes for interesting interaction between characters and enhances the game (in my opinion).

I therefore think that making long term unit composition a mixture of nationalities and military backgrounds (adding in Naval and Air Force personnel) can only make your unit more interesting.