Reply To: Sitrep Podcast: Historical Gaming (and Register for Upcoming Gaming Event)!

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Interesting video, @grimwolfuk .  A few points.

1) Hey, they got the game system right. 😀  Force on Force, baby!  And an amazing table!

2) I’m a little weary of the re-re-re-re-re-rehashed discussion of “do you feel comfortable playing modern wargames.”  Note most the the veterans in this video do not.  If others players do, no worries, but just consider that maybe this whole hobby space honestly just isn’t for them.

Again, honestly no worries, 40K or fantasy isn’t for me, for much the converse reasons.  People are squeamish with modern warfare because it’s “too close” (too close to what, I’m not sure, if they weren’t there) – but as a USMC veteran myself,  warfare in “fake” settings for me is just as pointless, boring, and uninteresting just for that very reason.  None of it is real, the games mean nothing, teach nothing, represent nothing, have no “center of gravity,” and are just really a waste of my time.

And when people say that they’re okay with certain time periods but not others, I always raise an eyebrow.   Like setting up a game that portrays human suffering and killing is okay … so long as it’s at least 100 years ago or some such.  Like there’s a statute of limitations on whether war is wrong?  Maybe it’s me, but you’re either a “real world” wargamer or not.  Again, no worries either way.  😀   I don’t want to hit that one too hard because I personally know some people who feel exactly this way, I just don’t 100% understand it.  Maybe its me.

Of course, not wanting to wargame in a specific war or conflict or battle in which you participated, comrades participated, or God forbid, you’ve lost friends or comrades, that totally changes the whole dynamic.

3) Very interested to see them using TQ d10s for their Marines and TQ d6s for their insurgents … AFTER they said that these insurgents were a cut above the others, “all the dumb ones had already died” etc.  For those unfamiliar with FoF, d6 irregulars is about as “low” as you can go, basically bullet sponges.  I’m not sure of the detail in their full lists, so maybe it was a balance thing, or for the ease of making the video.

4) Meanwhile, I’ve actually been mildly criticized for using TQ d10s for US Marines.  That’s a pretty high number, especially since the vets just said that many of the US forces there at the time had “at most one year of combat experience.”   TQ 10s are usually for hard-core, multi-tour, elite badasses.  TQ12 (as high as you go) is used verrrry sparingly in FoF, Navy SEALS, SAS, seriously top-echelon guys who almost never make up the full list one either side.

5)  Honestly, for Fallujah, if you want the USMC to have d10s (and I would, Lord knows I did for Hue City, My own Fallujah battles back in 2016, and Khe Sanh), I would have some of the insurgents as d8s.

6) The only thing I kind of raised an eyebrow at here was the mention of “Marine Blackhawks.”

Now I could be wrong here.   Gulf War II and Fallujah were waaaay after my time, but the Marine air units involved at Fallujah (MAG 39, to include HMLA-367, 169, HMM-161, 364, 365, and 268) didn’t use Blackhawks.

Marines don’t use Blackhawks to my knowledge.  UH and AH 1 variants, Sea Stallion and Super Stallion variants, and the hated V-22 Osprey (friggin’ thing has killed more Marines than Iwo Jima).  Blackhawks you might find on the internet are US Army or US Navy SH-60 Seahawks.

But hey, any big table with FoF on there is a win in my book.  The only reason I had so much to say on it was because I watched the whole video with keen interest.