Re: [DS] Some questions from this weekend

John Atkinson wrote:

> > So why do you want to reduce the standard combat
> > load, if your average
> > grunts can carry that much? After all, above you
> > seem to take his
> > description of what an American fire team can carry
> > as some sort of norm... <g>
>
>Now, you're confluting two of my statements together
>and making a composite statement out of 'em.

>1)Item:  Tracking IAVRs in DSII is a bit silly.

I'm not confluting *this* part of your statement. I *am*, however,
slightly 
sceptic about the statement that a 4-man fire team carries 8 AT4s
"without 
breaking a sweat" - at least if they're supposed to carry any other
heavy 
weapons at the same time.

>The 8 per team number was given as an upper range.

You (or, more likely, the "dumb grunt" you quoted) expressed it as if it

was something done routinely.

>2)Item:  For the whole of recorded history, infantry carried 60 lbs 
>fighting load.

Source? All my sources claim a standard *marching* load of 80 lbs (not
60), 
but none of them say anything about the standard *fighting* load -
probably 
because there is no such thing. The infantry fighting load has varied 
enormously from one troop type to another over the last few millennia; I

strongly doubt that your average psiloi or levied unarmoured farmer had
a 
*fighting* load of 60 lbs, for example.

>3)Item:  Future IAVRs might not weigh as much as modern ones.	The
IAVRs 
>modelled on OU light infantry are smaller than a collapsed M72 LAW.

4) Item: Future AFVs are very likely to have PDS systems, which -
although 
DSII does not allow it - are likely to degrade incoming IAVR quite
seriously.

5) Item: The lighter an IAVR is, the poorer the accuracy. The IAVRs 
modelled on OU light infantry most likely need at least rudimentary 
manoeuvering ability in order to hit the broad side of a barn at 200
meters 
while still carrying a worthwhile warhead... can be done, but it ain't 
cheap :-/

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."