Those Left Behind

[Webstral]

I don’t know why I never thought about this, but who do the characters in Escape from Kalisz leave behind? Soldiers everywhere throughout history fraternize with the locals. Surely the troops of 5th ID are no different. How many of the PCs leave behind local wives—even local children of very young ages?

[Olefin]

Most likely unless they had camp followers or were married to other soldiers there wasnt enough time for them to make real contact with the locals - they had only been in Poland a short time during the offensive.

However back in their base camp areas they would have left behind wives, children, husbands, etc.. - and most likely soldiers who were either too sick or too injured to move out with the 5th when they went on the offensive. You could see them refusing to evacuate with Omega, hoping to eventually find their loved ones and comrades - along with those who were in the other formations that got cut off during the Russian counter-offensive.

[Rainbow Six]

Seems like a reasonable supposition...whilst there is ample historical precedent for camp followers to accompany the troops on campaign I think it may be more likely that those local wives and children might have remained behind at whatever location the 5th was in cantonment in before it moved into Poland (I'm guessing that was somewhere in eastern Germany).

Another aspect of this is that given the absence of any conventional media as we now know it, it may be some time (several months at least) before they find out their menfolk aren't coming back (if indeed they ever "officially" find out). These days you get so used to being able to switch on the TV or PC and get 24 hour news coverage from all over the World that it's sometimes difficult to imagine what a world without the media would be like. One can only imagine the wives the men of the 5th left behind getting increasingly desperate as they try to find out information about the Division's fate.

On the other side of the coin many troops of all nations may have families back home who they have not heard from for some years with a mutual lack of knowledge...the troops in Europe don't know what has happened to their families and the families in the UK, the US, Canada, etc don't know what has happened to the troops.

How many troops take a local wife not knowing whether their wife back home has survived the nuclear exchange...how many wives back home do what they have to do to survive...It's an interesting human / moral angle..good thought Webstral.

[Olefin]

and actually the experiences of the characters themselves in getting out would lead them to either seek out their families or get word somehow to the 5th Divisions cantontment for them - in fact I am surprised its not part of Going Home - i.e. the logical way for the characters to escape is to go to that area to be able to pick up family members or tell those that are there what they know - i.e. they wont know the fate of the whole division but they will know the fate of a lot of people

For instance my character in the original game I played in college and his tank crew were the last survivors of his tank company - all the others were taken out in front of him (back story I came up with) - thus when I got back to Germany for Going Home you would think that communicating with the families of that company would be a priority, assuming they had any

not all soliders would have had any families there but some would for sure

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Olefin

and actually the experiences of the characters themselves in getting out would lead them to either seek out their families or get word somehow to the 5th Divisions cantontment for them - in fact I am surprised its not part of Going Home - i.e. the logical way for the characters to escape is to go to that area to be able to pick up family members or tell those that are there what they know - i.e. they wont know the fate of the whole division but they will know the fate of a lot of people

Sorry but I can't help but think of some poor bloke that fights his way across western Poland to get back to the cantonment in Germany to see his fraulein only to find when he gets there that she gave up on him months ago and has found herself a new boyfriend...

[Olefin]

would make for excellent Return to Europe type material - a bunch of husbands/wives/soldiers who didnt go on the offensive (i.e. the player characters) head out from the cantonment of the 5th to find out what happened to their loved ones and comrades and break some of them out of a god forsaken POW camp somewhere in central Poland

Damn Webstral this is a great thread idea!! Keep them coming.

[Brother in Arms]

Yeah Webstral has quite the imaginative head on his shoulders. His ideas area always affecting my perspective, and giving me better ideas.

Brother in Arms