Re: Odd FT Idea

On 2 Jul 98, at 9:55, Thomas Barclay wrote:
>  In SG you could have very 
> > small squads of highly trained troops operating in liason with your
main
> > force
> It might be interesting to see *Papal Gaurd* units appear on the 
> board.... (Good Motivation - God and the Pope are on their side). 
Hmmm. Fair enough.

> > requirements in terms of battle competence for the Swiss Guard are
> > actually pretty high, to the point where they are facing a bit of a
> > recruiting crisis. Why does the phrase 'Vatican Commandoes' pop into
my
> > head? Is that a game I've played?
> I could see a recruiting crisis. But what do you mean 'battle 
> competence' - so far as I know (which ain't far in this regard), the
Papal
> Gaurd hasn't been involved in any overt (who knows covert? Remember
the
> movie Hudson Hawk where the Vatican had its own covert ops branch?)
> conflict for a long, long time? What are these requirements you speak
of?
I remember vaguely an article in one of the sunday supplements on them a
couple of 
months back. Basically, there are two sets of criteria - first you have
to be a practicing 
catholic and meet certain physical criteria - height etc. Apparently
they have no 
problems in that regard. The problem is there are also a set of tests to
do with basic 
miltary training - being able to put such a %age of shots in a circle of
a given diameter 
at a given distance, operate certain forms of weapon to a satisfactory
degree. That's 
where they have problems - few of your decently trained soldier wants to
stand around all 
day wearing daft pyjamas. The article explained that they take their
'core job' - basically, 
they are supposed to be the Pope's bodyguards - very seriously indeed
and thus only 
want people who are up to that part of the job, as well as the standing
round in pyjamas 
bit. The point being, don't dismiss the Swiss Guard just because they
wear old 
fashioned uniforms. The bloke inside it may be an ex paratrooper, FFL or
marine. 

In some of the cyberpunk stuff I've mentioned (sorry, can't think of
references) similar 
things apply - the best of the Swiss Guard are a covert ops squad for a
more (um) 'pro-
active' catholic church, along with it's ability to call upon some major
Euro army backup 
if necessary.
			TTFN
				Jon
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