#31
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love the idea of a mission for a reformed 28th - that matches closes to my timeline that was based on how my GM saw the history going forward as to MilGov going to attack NA including the lead up to Kidnapped - if the scouts find all those supplies there you know that they would be a major target - and that combined with what they would see as Civgov "stealing" supplies that are by all rights for the people of PA would make for a couple of very fun adventures
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#32
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There are aspects of Howling Wilderness that characterize a creative venture circling the drain. There’s a very strong Mad Max-ification of the North American campaign. Someone from the GDW team wrote that they were trying to address the perception among the fan base that things were getting back to normal. For whatever reason, they chose a rather severe overreaction to an unfounded perception. Chaos is better for game play than law and order, to be sure. Perhaps GDW felt that the players had to believe they were the only force between the remnants of the nation and utter ruin. I don’t know. I do agree with everyone else who has noted the change in tone from Europe and North American modules like Armies of the Night and Allegheny Uprising.
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“We’re not innovating. We’re selectively imitating.” June Bernstein, Acting President of the University of Arizona in Tucson, November 15, 1998. |
#33
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It's So Obvious, We Missed It!
Perhaps there's no mention of all of previous modules in HW because, as a writer trying to sell product, Wiseman had to assume that purchasers' gaming groups hadn't completed those module missions yet? I mean, otherwise, he's essentially ruining all those other products with spoilers (i.e. how their successful completion would influence the game world)- including, most significantly, Going Home!
It's kind of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't scenario. By failing to account for the outcomes of those modules, it seems like he's being careless or super absent-minded. By including all that stuff, he's basically screwing GDW/FFE over by giving away the major plot points of many of the previously-published, still-for-sale, adventure modules for the low, low price of a single sourcebook- HW. Why would you buy module X when you already know how it's supposed to end?!? So, the lesser of evils may have been to ignore anything covered previous canonical works. That's why the ETO units are not mentioned at all in HW. What would be really helpful to Ref's then is an official addendum to HW, with the results of earlier modules factored in- kind of like a flow-chart. For example, "If the players successfully completed module X, then Y would be affected in the following ways. If they failed to obtain [insert Macguffin], the situation will be as described."
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Author of Twilight 2000 adventure modules, Rook's Gambit and The Poisoned Chalice, the campaign sourcebook, Korean Peninsula, the gear-book, Baltic Boats, and the co-author of Tara Romaneasca, a campaign sourcebook for Romania, all available for purchase on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...--Rooks-Gambit https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...ula-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...nia-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...liate_id=61048 https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/...-waters-module |
#34
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There is only one issue with that Raellus - HW mentions that there are troops that came home on Omega that were sent as reinforcements to other US based divisions - now that doesnt cover Satellite Down and Last Submarine
Also Kidnapped is referred to in Howling Wilderness in the NA area of the module so that means those units did get home and Loren either forgot about them or didnt know what to do with them except parcel out a couple thousand men from the nearly 40,000 plus that got home |
#35
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For someone who hates the module so much, you know it really well! (Better than I do, that's for sure.)
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Author of Twilight 2000 adventure modules, Rook's Gambit and The Poisoned Chalice, the campaign sourcebook, Korean Peninsula, the gear-book, Baltic Boats, and the co-author of Tara Romaneasca, a campaign sourcebook for Romania, all available for purchase on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...--Rooks-Gambit https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...ula-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...nia-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...liate_id=61048 https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/...-waters-module |
#36
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That is why my issues with the module were so informed - for one I own it so I read it cover to cover. For another I am still looking to write more modules and as Marc Miller told me I had to consider HW as canon - thus if I am going to release modules set in the US I need to see how I can proceed with that as the basis.
Also while much of it has a lot of issues it does offer valuable information on the situation in the US during the run up to Kidnapped - and while I dont agree with what it does to the US units I have to use that as what the situation was in April of 2001 - however that doesnt mean after that date I have to see it as gospel. The rest of the year isnt set in stone as the canon releases basically died at that point. Thus I see those as more projections of what might happen not what really happened. But up to the actual canon date mentioned for the situation in the US - that I have to take as canon whether I agree with it or not - at least as a writer whose material has to be approved by Marc for publication. |
#37
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There is mention of the dwindling enclave at Norfolk in the Virginia entry in HW. When I originally ran "Going Home" I had the stragglers assigned to units which were reinforced. In my case I had them sent to join the forces invading Arkansas anyway.
The issue I had was with the entire units being evacuated, which are never mentioned again. While they did not have their heavy equipment, they nevertheless were led, organized and should have been deployed in some manner instead of the impression you get which is that they're sitting on their butts doing nothing. Perhaps that is the greatest issue people had with it. Unlike the US Army Vehicle Guide, which provides a basis for how units were orgnized and equipment stats, prices and illustrations, it feels half done, not really fleshed out and requires more work on the part of the GM. |
#38
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I agree with the fact that HW does not feel completely thought out - that it was probably rushed to market before anyone had a chance to look at it - and what gets me is that Loren and Frank Chadwick wrote Going Home - so if anyone would have had the information on what happened to those divisions sent home it would have been Loren
I could see the disorganized units that arrived that had broke up even before they got to the evac point not being much use when they got back - but a bunch of them arrived intact, under orders and still disciplined - sorry but those units dont just fall apart upon arrival if they held together thru four years of hell in Europe - not when the US still has foreign invaders on its soil and has huge areas with no security at all |
#39
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Heart v. Head
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Come on, now. If you hadn't seen your family in [up to] four years, and hadn't heard from them in nearly as long, you would stay in camp and prepare to redeploy to God-knows-where simply because your unit "arrived intact, under orders and still disciplined" and your CO ordered you to? Well, you might answer yes to that question, but I think a lot of people would answer, "Heck no. I've given my country x years of my young adulthood, risked my life, killed, and seen my buddies blown away. The least they can do is let me go see if my family is OK. If they don't, well then, screw 'em. Let somebody else take a turn at the front line. I'm leaving. Let them try to stop me." Again, I think if MilGov did try to stop large number of returning soldiers from going home, they'd have a large-scale mutiny on their hands. Or some units might declare for CivGov. Their best option is a furlough program. This would avoid a mutiny and increase the odds of retaining troops over the long-run. However, I think a significant percentage of furloughed soldiers would take advantage and not return.
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Author of Twilight 2000 adventure modules, Rook's Gambit and The Poisoned Chalice, the campaign sourcebook, Korean Peninsula, the gear-book, Baltic Boats, and the co-author of Tara Romaneasca, a campaign sourcebook for Romania, all available for purchase on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...--Rooks-Gambit https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...ula-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...nia-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...liate_id=61048 https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/...-waters-module |
#40
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And I see your point Raellus - but not to the level in the module - its very obvious there was a major oversight - desertion I can see - but the levels in HW would have to be close to 90 percent given how many soldiers are unaccounted for - and as I said I can see the disorganized units going over the hill - but that still leaves 20,000 plus men left in multiple formations - its not plausible - frankly HW has to be looked at as a deeply flawed work - not the least because of the complete and totally overlooking of what happened to the men who came home
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#41
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"It is better to be feared than loved" - Nicolo Machiavelli |
#42
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As I've mentioned many times in the past, neither government in 2000-01 has the resources to adequately supply the small forces they already had in the field. Add another 50,000 or so and you've completely smashed any logistical network they still had.
Honestly, I don't see Milgov had a choice in the matter. Sure, they held onto a few vital or highly skilled personnel, but the rest mostly likely were given a weeks rations, a set of civilian clothes and shown the door. Most would be more than happy to see the back of the military too by that point and gladly taken what was offered.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem |
#43
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#44
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With active "fronts" (if you can still call them that in 2001) in Alaska and the south west, as well as clashes with Civgov, it would seem very unlikely any unit would be sent anywhere near their prewar base, such as exists post nuke.
With the extremely limited logistics and transportation available, any troops retained would be best used as reinforcements - there's just no way even a single battalion is going to be able to be shifted half way across the continent, but it might be possible to move a few score, perhaps a couple of hundred.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem |
#45
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Last edited by CDAT; 07-02-2018 at 04:45 AM. |
#46
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The troops brought back had nothing but their personal weapons and little else. There were virtually no vehicles and even the heavy weapons such as rockets, automatic grenade launchers, machineguns and the like were handed over to the Germans as payment for the crude oil which gets the ships across the Atlantic.
Upon arrival in the US they land at New Norfolk, a port which had been nuked. Virtually all war stores had already been sent to Europe, the Middle East, Korea and Africa (not to mention desperately needed in Texas and Alaska). There's just nothing left to equip them with - any transport of note is very likely to be civilian in nature and "requisitioned" upon landing. What Milgov have come December 2000 is upwards of 50,000 hungry mouths, no practical way of moving them, almost no capacity to feed them, and even if they could be moved somehow, nothing to re-equip them with. Demobilisation, in the short term at least, is their only feasible option.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem |
#47
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Something that definitely needs to be factored into the whole issue of combat fatigue is that these are troops who have been deployed for several years. This is like WW1 and WW2, not like the 3-month or 6-month deployments that are typical of today.
I don't believe you can adequately calculate the effects of combat fatigue on people who have been deployed continuously (also with the knowledge that their homeland wasn't spared from the war), in a global war that's lasted nearly half a decade when the only comparison you have is deployments that don't even last a year. |
#48
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Second, statistically speaking, 1000 is a very small sample size. Did you know each one of those 1000 vets personally? Did you conduct a longitudinal study (over time) on all 1000 of those vets? Are you a trained counselor or psychologist? If you can honestly answer yes to all three questions, then your observations may have scientific merit. With all due respect, your personal experience is not conclusive evidence of an media-orchestrated exaggeration in the impact of Combat Fatigue/PTSD in long-serving combat vets. Quote:
__________________
Author of Twilight 2000 adventure modules, Rook's Gambit and The Poisoned Chalice, the campaign sourcebook, Korean Peninsula, the gear-book, Baltic Boats, and the co-author of Tara Romaneasca, a campaign sourcebook for Romania, all available for purchase on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...--Rooks-Gambit https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...ula-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...nia-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...liate_id=61048 https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/...-waters-module Last edited by Raellus; 07-02-2018 at 11:54 AM. |
#49
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Author of Twilight 2000 adventure modules, Rook's Gambit and The Poisoned Chalice, the campaign sourcebook, Korean Peninsula, the gear-book, Baltic Boats, and the co-author of Tara Romaneasca, a campaign sourcebook for Romania, all available for purchase on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...--Rooks-Gambit https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...ula-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...nia-Sourcebook https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...liate_id=61048 https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/...-waters-module |
#50
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#51
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#52
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And with that I am out, it is your game play how you want, I may be the outlier, or I may not. It is a game lets all just have fun and enjoy it. |
#53
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EDIT: Rereading what CDAT had added to the thread, I do actually agree with some points he made. I do believe the media has grossly exaggerated the accounts of combat fatigue and I also know from some personal contact that some people claiming to suffer PTSD have been attention seekers at best or at worst, some of them have been scammers seeking to get the sympathy (and sometimes the medication) that comes with acknowledgement of suffering.
ORIGINAL POST: I don't think anyone said the majority of troops would be suffering combat fatigue. It seemed to me that people were saying that it was a serious consideration to take into account and should not be readily dismissed as a minor concern. People who have constantly been at war (and this is world-wide, total war with the use of nuclear weapons), for several years are going to be under a lot more stress than those people who are fighting in the current conflicts we see in the real world at the moment. I really don't believe a comparison can be made between the two. Plus in the real world, modern Western militaries have access to psychological and other counseling services that helps mitigate the problem, this obviously would not exist in the Twilight War. Last edited by StainlessSteelCynic; 07-02-2018 at 09:41 PM. Reason: adding more |
#54
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It's worth bearing in mind also that a very large proportion of the 50,000 are reinforcements and conscripts. How many are career military and had been there from the beginning? Combat losses surely took a heavy toll on the professional soldiers. How many of those would even want to stay in the military if given the chance to get out?
Pretty sure though the conscripts would jump at the chance to be demobilised, even many of the National Guard would be happy to get out of uniform - how many would have joined a few years earlier expecting to only ever be called up for civil defence / disaster relief operations? Of the few who were kept in uniform and sent on to other units or stayed as local security, it would seem very likely the majority (if not all) were career soldiers. It is almost certain any technical specialists, SF operators and so on would have been kept on though regardless of their status as conscripts or volunteers - those skills are hard to come by and wouldn't be easily given up by Milgov. By 2001 the war is basically over. Nobody anywhere is in a position to conduct more than local patrolling with perhaps a small scale and limited offensive to secure their currently occupied area or obtain badly needed resources. Many may be wondering what's the point in fighting any more?
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem |
#55
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#56
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Lets talk about the elephant in the room. Did Munson kill the President and have advance knowledge of the attack?
President Tanner was killed, not by the strike on Washington, but by an accident during takeoff of the NEACP aircraft. The mystery of precisely what went wrong with one of the most rigorously inspected, carefully maintained aircraft in the nation has never been solved- the FAA never properly investigated the accident. Because an inbound missile had been detected, Vice President Pemberton elected to try to make it to the Special Facility at Mount Weather. Upon being informed of the President's death and told that no retaliatory action had been taken, Vice President Pemberton was forced to delay her departure and remain at a secure communications facility (the radios on the evacuation helicopter have never been considered reliable for this purpose). From the bomb shelter under the east wing of the White House (built during President Truman's tenure, and never intended to withstand a direct hit), Vice President Pemberton, after identifying herself, issued a proclamation of the existence of a state of war (only Congress has the power to declare war, and that body was not in session), and ordered retaliatory strikes on the USSR. She was killed a few minutes later when the missile detonated. For a time, the United States had no official "National Command Authority." Speaker of the House Munson, next in line, was skiing in northern California. He had slipped out of his vacation home and not left word of his destination
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************************************* Each day I encounter stupid people I keep wondering... is today when I get my first assault charge?? |
#57
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem Last edited by Legbreaker; 04-29-2021 at 05:56 AM. |
#58
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