Jammersix

Private Snuffy is never taught any of that. In the U.S., Private Snuffy is taught one of two things: "mark center sector", which only works if 1) the center of the sector isn't occupied by friendly forces, and 2) Private Snuffy can actually see the center of the sector. If the center of the sector is occupied by friendly troops, in theory, the artillery won't deliver a spotting round. It takes quite a while (say, three minutes, maybe four) for the battery to receive Private Snuffy's call for fire, work out which sector he's asking for, work out that there are friendly forces in that sector, work out that the center of the sector can't be fired on, confirm all of it, ask the battery commander for a denial and finally deny the mission. The other way that Private Snuffy is taught is a bearing to the target and an estimation of the range. This method has to go up through platoon and company, with both those echelons verifying both Private Snuffy's position and that no friendly forces are present at the other end of Private Snuffy's bearing and range. That takes even longer, and is subject to more error at each echelon. The bottom line is that Private Snuffy (in the U.S.) doesn't spend any time working out TRPs. A range card is about as far as I would ever have gone, but range cards are estimates, unless you go out and wander around downrange. And no one I knew ever left a perimeter to walk around and draw a range card.

The ability to adjust force ratios would allow players to handicap each other. For instance, you could play everyone at 1.5 to 1, but when you played F.O., you could give him two to one.

I've been thinking it over, and you're right, FO. I wouldn't fight with someone who couldn't even break light discipline and get away with it.

I think he was trying to "bridge the gap" between officer and enlisted. It was all the rage in the early 70s. Although I've always wondered if one of those sneaky bastards in second squad invited him in, then lit the poncho on purpose.

I was taught to mask smokes under a poncho. While that may date me, it also led to one of the funniest things I've ever seen, a lieutenant dancing around trying to get a burning nylon poncho off his back.

An FO who smoked under light discipline would be torn apart (silently) by his platoon. I used to wonder what the FO was blathering on about at night in perimeters... Meeting you has been a most educational experience.

Oh. An FO. Poetry. I should have realized.

Attitude? [Jammer stuffs a finger up his nose, pulls it out and studies the results carefully.] What has attitude got to do with it? Isn't your attitude The Spirit Of The Bayonet? At all times?

I've been using a lot more artillery since you explained that modern FISTers strive to deliver first round FFOs. The idea of keeping a running plot of an up-to-date overlay ready to go makes perfect sense to me. But after throwing 30 or 35 TRPs out on a huge map, it occurs to me to ask why a grid? Surely there's a more efficient form than a rectangle. Dazzle us with your wisdom, FO, and we will lift your heavy **** for you.

I've seen infantrymen lined up for an IG's inspection that didn't look that clean.

So. How do you use your HHC people? Are they important, or are they disposable recon? In particular, the HHC Commanding Officer. You buy a U.S. Task Force. Doesn't matter what kind, armor, Stryker, Mech. You trim stuff away, and in the end, you decide you want battalion mortars off map because it's a small map, and you keep the Raven that comes with HHC. To do these things, you're forced to keep three weird little units that go with you onto the map. You have to keep the HQ, HHC, and the HQ Mortars, as well as the Admin Mortars units. Three little groups of reasonably high ranking dudes driving around in Humvees. No heavy weapons, just AT4s and M16s. It seems to me that each of these groups would be vital C3 nodes, and if the mortars of off map, killing off the Mortar HQ and the Mortar Admin, which is who really does the work, would slow mortars way, way down. The same with their boss, the CO of HHC. On the other hand, game wise, these guys are useless unless you decide that they're actually expendable recon troops and send them in first. Has anyone noticed any adverse effects from losing either CO HHC or CO Mortars? Are they really just scouts in this game?

Actually, carpenters and surveyors like math, too. Carpenters can figure hip, valley and jack rafters, stairs and doors while surveyors reduce stadia, close perimeters and zero out leveling runs. And then there's that whole scale thing, rotating to north and drawing Reports of Survey. Sailors sort of like math, there's a lot of north, true north, compass north, deviation and the whole fuel, current and course issue, but you wouldn't want your daughter to marry a sailor. Don't even get me started about the great circle. If you really want to get wrapped around the axle by math, read Bowditch. Studying Bowditch is like studying the dictionary without the fun, or reading the section of the Old Testament about who begat who. If you're strong, but you can't do math, you become an ironworker. If you don't like heights, you set chokers for loggers. So there's always the deep woods. And they like fresh, young boys.

Unless the pattern is zero or 100%. The pattern is no air-- I've faced enemy air once in a couple hundred games.

That's right, I was talking about Quick Battles, not scenarios. These settings almost never produce enemy (computer, Red) air power: Upper left: random battle type, random size, length of battle one hour, map selection automatic, random map size, random environment. Lower left: U.S. Army, Mix, No Electronic Warfare, Human, Preview Allowed, No Change in force adjustment. Upper right: 2017, June, Random Daylight, Random Weather, loose rarity factor. Lower right: Random Red force, random force mix, no electronic warfare, automatic purchase.

Are the forces the computer selects controlled by the map, or are they random? I've noticed that certain maps usually have enemy air power, while other maps never have it. The same feels like it's true for Soviet vs. Ukrainian forces and infantry vs. armored forces.

I served with M60A1s. If you gave me an M60, I'd sell it and use the money to buy a yellow dog and then shoot the dog. And I like dogs.

P.S. I keep forgetting to comment on this: just like a FO, thinks the good part about a Javelin is the optics. Although I agree, if you're going to give an FO a Javelin, for god's sake, don't give him any ammo! P.P.S. The only FO I knew in real life could do sines, cosines and tangents in his head. That was 1976, and I've never met anyone else since who could do that. They're like medics: worth the trouble of helping them keep up.

The question I had is why do officers leave the women to dance with each other?

P.S.: Infantrymen dancing: Officers dancing:

That just sounds like you saw some of the boys getting in touch with their Inner Warrior... It's nothing to worry about. We have E-3s to handle the explosives, and we enforce strict limits on how much they drink. The reason the FIST was invented was so artillery officers could keep up on patrols. For the first FIST, we took an M113, stuck a mirror inside at the front, dropped the ramp, tapped the FO on the shoulder, pointed inside and said "look! Very shiny!" "Okay, he's in, close her up and let's go." What's a yorkshire pub rat? Is it like Yorkshire Pudding? I liked Yorkshire Pudding.

The secret to dancing is twenties. Any Infantryman knows that when you start dancing and throwing twenties around, panties hit the floor.

Officers. None of them understand the Drunken Naked Boom-Boom Boogie, Waddle and Roll, and how much information can be transmitted with it across cultural, language, light, noise and sobriety barriers. A Real Infantry Sergeant can dance his way into the panties of women on any continent. On the other hand, signal a forward observer to get down, repeat the signal twice, and he'll stand up, spread his hands, palms up, and scream "what?"

Ah, I see. My mistake. But the winner will still have Bradleys.

I remember when the ballpark was just a vacant lot. Of course, if you keep telling yourself you can't do it, well, then, you can't. But someone will. You're right about one thing, though. They used to blame Apple for everything, before they just shut up and coded. And this is the same thing.

Hush, now, or I'll load the Bradleys and invade your silly ass.