Arrangements at the Front

[Legbreaker]

NODS I was OLD army where we 'saw' the OLD mod zero 'starlight' scope, which you could detect something some time, but compared to the new stuff were a genuine POS. FB

Ah, those were the days. When soldiering was all about individual field skills and so much less about what technology you carried.
All these new fangled contraptions! Bring back muskets I say, nay, crossbows and spears! Put the sport back into warfare!

[rcaf_777]

Depends on the unit and it's current tasking really, so you were probably just unlucky. One year a reg or even reserve unit might have enough for every man or two, and the next year those sets might be allotted to another unit prepping for deployment or whatever.

not unluckly just back in "day: the Canadian Army did have alot of that stuff unless you on deployment or training for deployment, they have alot of that stuff now, I keep asking for it but my CQ keeps says Clerks are not allowed to have NODS, GL's, machneguns, hand gerandes, C-4, rocket lauchers, or any eles cool, instead I get a labtop, printer, cd burnner, paper, pens, paperclips, a coffee maker, a box of fudgie O Cookies, and enough paperwork to flatten a small village if it was dropped from a airplane

[Fusilier]

not unluckly just back in "day: the Canadian Army did have alot of that stuff unless you on deployment or training for deployment

If you read my post again, you might see that this is just what I said.

[pmulcahy11b]

Bright stars, the Milky Way, a full moon...those all go best with a fire and a warm girl to snuggle with...

[Sanjuro]

In WW1, both sides carried out trench raids, with parties numbering from a handful to as many as 500 raiders. These raids were partly to try and take prisoners and seize documents, partly to damage enemy morale, partly to keep an aggressive spirit in troops in otherwise static positions, and partly to prevent any arrangements of this sort.
Source: Brave Men: Allied Trench Raiding in the First World War- Efstathiou, Nicholas E.
Yes, it was a Kindle download!

[B.T.]

I've been thinking this over for some weeks now. And this is a quite special issue.

If we have a look at the rules book and the situation presented in it, my conclusion is: There must be some kind of arrangement! I know, that several of the board members use a different approach, but I allways understood it the way, that a lot of soldiers of both sides live in cantonment. That means, a lot of them would be placed as a kind of guard or occupation unit in some village or farm. The rear units and HQ will not allways be in contact with such a small unit, leaving those handful of soldiers pretty much alone. Allthough given a (more or less) specific task, supply will not allways be there. The unit living next to you - be it another unit of the same division, another unit from the same military "pact", or even an enemy unit - is a logical supplier for all goods, you do not have. And these other guys are in the same situation, as you are. And they face the same problems: Raids from deserters or marauders a likely the problem for both neighboring units.

Now, there are two ways, to solve the problem: Conflict or cooperation.
The cooperation approach would not work in all places, but if two isolated units from both sides, both understrength and both under attacks by marauders, could bury the hatchet for a certain time, stack their forces and kick the marauders a$$.

On a limited basis, I can even see some kind of trade, like this:
The Soviets have this old coal-mine, we have more vegetables, than we use. Off course, the normal procedure would be, sending our stuff back to our lines/HQ or something. Same goes for the Soviets. Should we try a bargain
That could be done in a way, that is not so obvious: Let our Polish civilians trade with the Soviet civilians. They just trade our goods.
In such a situation, the American and the Soviet commander would both be aware of the true facts, but they would avoid fraternisation, therefore avoiding court martial in the future (Hopefully, that is!).

I'm not saying, such incidents would be the norm, but they would certainly happen, from time to time. The background mentiones whole WarPac units converting to NATO. And lots of individuals leave their units and change sides. All these units and individuals must have some opportunity to get in contact with the enemy, other than fighting!

The whole situation in the T2k universe reminds me off several historical settings: WWI trench warfare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Day_Truce), the siege of Acco/Acre before the 3rd crusade, John-Wayne-cavalry movies and the frontier life in the "French and Indian war", intermingled with some medivial feudal system. And in several of these situations some kind of collaboration between the war parties took place.

As usual: Such incidents or arrangemants would not be the norm and would defenitely end with full hostilities. But in regions with a lot of scattered units and a relative "safe" situation something like that could happen. It all depends on the attitude of the commanders.

[James Langham]

Canon

I've been thinking this over for some weeks now. And this is a quite special issue.

If we have a look at the rules book and the situation presented in it, my conclusion is: There must be some kind of arrangement! I know, that several of the board members use a different approach, but I allways understood it the way, that a lot of soldiers of both sides live in cantonment. That means, a lot of them would be placed as a kind of guard or occupation unit in some village or farm. The rear units and HQ will not allways be in contact with such a small unit, leaving those handful of soldiers pretty much alone. Allthough given a (more or less) specific task, supply will not allways be there. The unit living next to you - be it another unit of the same division, another unit from the same military "pact", or even an enemy unit - is a logical supplier for all goods, you do not have. And these other guys are in the same situation, as you are. And they face the same problems: Raids from deserters or marauders a likely the problem for both neighboring units.

Now, there are two ways, to solve the problem: Conflict or cooperation.
The cooperation approach would not work in all places, but if two isolated units from both sides, both understrength and both under attacks by marauders, could bury the hatchet for a certain time, stack their forces and kick the marauders a$$.

On a limited basis, I can even see some kind of trade, like this:
The Soviets have this old coal-mine, we have more vegetables, than we use. Off course, the normal procedure would be, sending our stuff back to our lines/HQ or something. Same goes for the Soviets. Should we try a bargain
That could be done in a way, that is not so obvious: Let our Polish civilians trade with the Soviet civilians. They just trade our goods.
In such a situation, the American and the Soviet commander would both be aware of the true facts, but they would avoid fraternisation, therefore avoiding court martial in the future (Hopefully, that is!).

I'm not saying, such incidents would be the norm, but they would certainly happen, from time to time. The background mentiones whole WarPac units converting to NATO. And lots of individuals leave their units and change sides. All these units and individuals must have some opportunity to get in contact with the enemy, other than fighting!

The whole situation in the T2k universe reminds me off several historical settings: WWI trench warfare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Day_Truce), the siege of Acco/Acre before the 3rd crusade, John-Wayne-cavalry movies and the frontier life in the "French and Indian war", intermingled with some medivial feudal system. And in several of these situations some kind of collaboration between the war parties took place.

As usual: Such incidents or arrangemants would not be the norm and would defenitely end with full hostilities. But in regions with a lot of scattered units and a relative "safe" situation something like that could happen. It all depends on the attitude of the commanders.

Actually this is supported by canon - in Alaska this is confirmed as happening.

Also remember comms will be harder as radios are less common. I often have encounters with lone messengers (or with an escort for more important ones). This makes this trading easier.

i like the idea of Polish intermediaries.

[Legbreaker]

i like the idea of Polish intermediaries.

Except that in canon, the vast majority of Poles stay loyal to the Pact. Best to use civilians of whatever nationality is available for the limited trade that may go on. All in all I'm sure civilian traders will be the only ones moving between the lines and only in relatively quiet areas (nobody likes getting hit by crossfire).
For appearances sake you may see "raids" taking place though on "lightly guarded" supplies. And of course one raid requires retaliation against their "lightly guarded" supply dump that just "happens" to have exactly what you need in a coincidentally equal value amount....

[Webstral]

Something very much like the above happens in the American Southwest after the outbreak of the Second Mexican Civil War and before the Constitutionales and Milgov agree to a formal ceasefire. Marauders are a problem in northern Sonora and southern Arizona in Autumn 2000. Nogales Brigade, which has joined the Constitutionales along with the rest of Second Mexican Army, contributes a battalion task force to a multinational anti-marauder mission. SAMAD contributes a battalion task force as well. The prize money, so to speak, gets split right down the middle.

[B.T.]

For appearances sake you may see "raids" taking place though on "lightly guarded" supplies. And of course one raid requires retaliation against their "lightly guarded" supply dump that just "happens" to have exactly what you need in a coincidentally equal value amount....

Now, doesn't that sound sweet

[headquarters]

good field commanders

I read mischief is a plenty among the forumites - fratrnizing Why, I never heard such outrage!

Sound like good field commanders to me.

A twist to this is of course the more advanced fraterization scam where the HQ is being fleeced directly - firstly convincing the HQ that allocating resources to the objectives in your sector is important - then the phony war with the partners in crime across the lines. All the action reports and dispatches warrant even more resources less crucial progress be lost...

send more supplies - we are being pushed back..

[Legbreaker]

That only works until HQ puts their own eyes on the situation at which point some very pointed questions get asked and charges laid.....

[B.T.]

A play

Act 1, scene 1:
The American Camp, Thunder and lightning, enter the commander and three soldiers.

Commander: Hail, brave soldiers.
Three soldiers: Hail to you, commander of the rightous fighters for fame and glory.
Commander: Do thou have any knowledge about the camp of our brethren, the former rightous fighters of the stars and stripes, where so much of our support goods seemingly are taken by the evil Reds, with no KIA, WIA or MIA
Thou should go there and investigate these foul business!

Thunder roars. All four vanish in the mist.

...

To be continued ...

[atiff]

CO: "Philips, how many stragglers did we pick up last week"

Phillips: "Four, sir."

CO: "OK, write it up as six, and then we can have two KIA's reported in the 'raid' on Sunday..."

[headquarters]

yes

That only works until HQ puts their own eyes on the situation at which point some very pointed questions get asked and charges laid.....

That is true. In peacetime this is generally around annual or quarterly reviews - in war time I guess it might "vary".

how sad it will be when the officers sent from HQ gets killed in that ambush ..

I see some great plot seeds evolving from this