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Old 10-02-2010, 02:04 PM
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Raellus Raellus is online now
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It's a good thought, Web, and one that, AFAIK, has gone unaddressed for a long time.

Here are a few ideas right off the top of my head.

In areas with civilian populations- and especially areas with viable agricultural production capacity- occupying troops may have gone out of their way to remove minefields as a way of improving PR. One or two dead or maimed farm hands and/or cows and the civilians would have a pretty good idea of where the local minefields are. Perhaps some brave and enterprising civilians have taken to removing mines themselves, maybe selling their services and/or the recovered mines. I think that this could make for an interesting NPC encounter.

In forests- at least here in the U.S.- animals often create their own high speed trails. I have a number of rabbit trails in my backyard. Soldiers could follow newer game trails to avoid old mines or one could assume that game and/or hunters have accidently cleared most mines from older ones. As I understand it, in Europe, forests aren't filled with quite as much underbrush as they are here in the States so many game trails are not as common.

Since landmine production probably all but stopped in around mid '97, one could assume that the fighting between '97 and 2000 helped cut down on the number and density of minefields in Poland. Minefields have either been destroyed by fighting (i.e. doing their secondary job of destroying enemy troops and vehicles) or removed by combat engineers. Also, very few new minefields would have been laid after supplies of mines ran out.

That said, there are undoubtedly still quite a few minefields or minefield fragments out there and PCs should be made to remember that if they are too nonchalant about the threat.
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