Why Some Units Aren't Mentioned

[kato13]

DeaconR 11-19-2005, 08:49 AM With the subject of the fates of bases, units, the nuclear target lists et al coming up a fair bit, I thought it would be fun to discuss this in a more general sense.


When I was planning my campaign's USA phase I was mostly thinking of how much I wanted to run it and how I had a lot of inspirational materials about it. I had had to chose between continuing to keep the players in Europe, having them move to the UK or have them end up in Iran, but as I said I had more material for the US.


Because I like to try to work with canon material so that my own additions can be concentrated on in greater detail, I had to seriously consider certain things, like where the 7th Army ended up, a question I only resolved recently, and whether or not I agreed with what was said in the various books that have anything to say about the USA in 2000-2001.


One of my players, who is a student of modern military history among other things asked a number of pertinent questions. For instance he wanted to know about the fate of people like the marines at places like Camp Lejeune, about US Army Rangers and about the SFG cadres at Fort Devens. He wondered where the vast numbers of USAF, intelligence community and support personnel had gotten to. I sort of evaded these questions but now and then it has mildly irritated me that the writers of the game just fling such questions aside and presume you'll get too caught up in the atmosphere to think about them.


First of all, I can't help but think of the fact that the war has been going on for about 4 years. During the last 3 of them nuclear attacks, destruction of economies and infrastructures has gone on.


Second, I look at how even main battlefront areas are depicted, with Poland being a prime example of units breaking down into local security operations which start to refuse higher orders.


Third, some units simply might have been devastated by disease, nukes, or other disasters.


So on this basis I have generally accepted the Order of Battle except where the game's canon itself is confused. So for instance I was not satisfied until I found someone's theoretical revised OOB for the 7th US Army, because that army was said according to the game to have been evacuated from Europe to the USA.


Now and then though I want to consider the possibility of other units not mentioned surviving because I want to flesh out my campaign. When I do this I usually have them as the following:

1. scattered stragglers.

2. out of the communications loop.

3. gone warlord

4. 'blacked out' by higher command for security and intelligence reasons.

5. Are not operational for technical or resource reasons. (for instance the fleet which carried the 7th Army home--I have stated that few are operational due to lack of fuel and other resources. In the case of the nuclear powered ones I have generally stated that few are still operational and are all on vital missions or being given upkeep)


The original game seems to have been focused on the idea of the players as stragglers, trying to find a place in a devastated world. However, the later additions to the game have allowed for players to join larger units or government organizations, and this seems to mostly work as special intelligence gathering missions or special operations missions. Because of this, I have found that the idea of having a limited few military units trying to hold together a shattered land makes my players take their responsibilities much more seriously.

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Abbott Shaull 11-22-2005, 06:49 AM I think that there are is another source of why units weren't mention. Even though in the Soviet Vehicle Guide they did mention these unit briefly. These are units who were cut off deep inside enemy territory and eventually went to partisian type operations. Which I can see happen in the Southwest and Northwest. These units were in so few reports that they were basically overlooked. Or so overtaxed by relieve mission that there was no unit cohesiveness from the start.

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pmulcahy 11-22-2005, 08:43 AM I have a simpler explanation for why some units weren't mentioned: maybe the writers at GDW just didn't know about them.

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