The importance of rank

[Legbreaker]

Hmmmmm...if you fire one belt of .50-caliber in one long burst...doesn't that count as "one shot"

Ah...no, sorry. One projectile per kill is all that's allowed. Any more than that and you could find yourself up on a charge for wasting vital resources.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Ah...no, sorry. One projectile per kill is all that's allowed. Any more than that and you could find yourself up on a charge for wasting vital resources.

That's the only reason we stress "one shot, one kill" in the Australian Army, we're too damned poor to afford to give each soldier more than one mag of live ammo.
And as for tanks in the battle zone using their main gun to kill enemy snipers at long range, what the hell are you thinking! We're not going to issue main gun ammo to you for a war just in case somebody might need it.

[Legbreaker]

And as for tanks in the battle zone using their main gun to kill enemy snipers at long range, what the hell are you thinking! We're not going to issue main gun ammo to you for a war just in case somebody might need it.

For that matter we're not going to send our tanks to war at all! The poor things might get scratched!

[dragoon500ly]

Ah...no, sorry. One projectile per kill is all that's allowed. Any more than that and you could find yourself up on a charge for wasting vital resources.

Right....so its 120mm HEAT when shooting PBI!

[dragoon500ly]

LOL

I think I'll stick with my version of one shot, one kill...when the sniper fires, your nuke the site from orbit....its the only way to be sure you get him.

[helbent4]

A friend asked me to play the unit commander in a T2K PbP and I was somewhat reluctant due to the above. I solved the problem by creating a PC who is an ex-USAF pilot, grounded by a lack of aircraft/parts/fuel, and placed into an army combat command due to attrition. He knows his limitations and confers often with his senior NCOs, sometimes deferring to their experience.

I think in this situation, playing an admitted amateur, your PC should always defer to your NCOs' experienced judgement, not just sometimes. (Full disclosure: of course, I say this as someone playing an NCO in the game in question!)

I'm not being facetious, this is actually realistic.

In real life far better officers than your PC (combat-experienced infantry officers) always defer to their NCOs, if those NCOs have the experience and judgment to warrant it. The following is a real-life example of a Canadian Forces Captain and a Sergeant deferring to a well-respected Master Corporal (ranked beneath either) that I think I've posted before:


"The first time I saw him, he was quite literally presiding over a meeting between two sets of patrol leadersone captain and one sergeantduring a long and arduous hike in the deep outback of western Panjwai.

The captain and sergeant would make plans, then kind of quietly look up at Doyle. With a headshake and a grunt, he"d torpedo their idea and they"d go back to the map. This went on for half an hour or more, as gunfire and explosions rippled overhead. With his rank obscured by his gearhis battle rattleI assumed he was a warrant officer or maybe the company sergeant major, based solely on the deference and respect he received from the other soldiers, many of whom I knew to be cynics of the first order."

- From "The Life and Death of Erin Doyle"

http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2009/03/the-life-and-death-of-erin-doyle/

While the CF has come under criticism in the past for being cheap on gear and vehicles (although this is largely but not entirely rectified now) I don't believe the quality and training of officers and NCOs in the field has ever been seriously questioned. In other words, this is not the case of incompetent leadership deferring to someone marginally less-incompetent.

Tony

[Snake Eyes]

One should quite simply not be allowed to play roleplaying games without having actually served as an infantry squad leader. Kind of like how one isn't qualified to play a fantasy barbarian unless raised by genuine wolves with lots of real life broadsword swinging skills and giant scorpion slaying experience.

[helbent4]

One should quite simply not be allowed to play roleplaying games without having actually served as an infantry squad leader. Kind of like how one isn't qualified to play a fantasy barbarian unless raised by genuine wolves with lots of real life broadsword swinging skills and giant scorpion slaying experience.

Snake,

Hear hear! Well said!

Much like one shouldn't post to a board like this unless you personally programmed the code and then created the English language.

No wait, too silly!

Speaking personally, when I've played OC types, I generally let the NCOs do all the planning and run the show. I just provided a kind of strategic direction and let them go at it. It kept the other players quite involved and personally invested, too. In the end, it was up to the NCOs to run the unit without any micro-managing needed by me.

While this anecdote about Master Corporal Doyle was an interesting real-life example, I learned the ropes from a couple US Marines when I first started playing The Morrow Project. It's a lesson I truly took to heart.

Tony

[TiggerCCW UK]

One should quite simply not be allowed to play roleplaying games without having actually served as an infantry squad leader. Kind of like how one isn't qualified to play a fantasy barbarian unless raised by genuine wolves with lots of real life broadsword swinging skills and giant scorpion slaying experience.

Thats exactly why every character I play is an awesome super ninja who is deadly with every weapon system on the planet, fluent in 23 languages, a demolitions expert and unstoppable with the ladies. Stick with what you know folks

[Tegyrius]

How about a weapon firing belted 120mm sabots

Is that your submission for the AAA thread, Paul

One should quite simply not be allowed to design roleplaying games without having actually served as an infantry squad leader.

Fixed your typo!

- C.

[Abbott Shaull]

One should quite simply not be allowed to play roleplaying games without having actually served as an infantry squad leader. Kind of like how one isn't qualified to play a fantasy barbarian unless raised by genuine wolves with lots of real life broadsword swinging skills and giant scorpion slaying experience.

But that half of fun of play these games when you people who haven't served as Infantry or Combat MOS as they try to play the game or worse GM one..lol

[Panther Al]

How about a weapon firing belted 120mm sabots

You mean this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_cm_tornautomatpj$s_m/70

Granted its not belted, but it is watercooled with 25rpm.

From the page: "The 12cm/70 gun is a fully automatic, water cooled vertical sliding wedge design mounted in an armored turret which is electrically traversed under computer control..."

[Sanjuro]

When we first started playing T2k, only 2 of us in the group had ANY military experience- I had marginally more than the other guy (neither of us had much) so I ended up the only officer in our original party.
By the 3rd session or so I had to keep at least one backup weapon on my person at all times, and leave the party at night to sleep- taking the rotor arm of the FAV and a couple of claymores to discourage visitors. Fortunately, after their characters got killed, the 2 guys who were determined to turn marauder got bored with the game and moved on.
I'm admitting nothing about how their characters got killed.

[Snake Eyes]

Fixed your typo!

- C.

I was going to post some snarky retort asking just who you think you are trying to write a roleplaying game without having a Ranger tab, but then I remembered about Eddie and that argument kind of went to hell. Oops.

[Abbott Shaull]

I was going to post some snarky retort asking just who you think you are trying to write a roleplaying game without having a Ranger tab, but then I remembered about Eddie and that argument kind of went to hell. Oops.

Gee I remember surprise he has chimed in more...