Re: [GZG] Armoured utility vehicles and IEDs in SG/DS

On 7/16/08, Tom B <kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote:

> [Tomb] I particularly asked about how to represent their effects in
the
> game. I made no specification about my intended use. I don't recall
wanting
> to capture the details of the current situation nor do I suspect that
all
> uses of IEDs, in either the real world or sci-fi, will take on the
character
> of today's uses. Ultimately, an IED can make an effective way of
stopping a
> convoy for an ambush. It can make an effective way of stopping or
slowing a
> rapid reaction force responding to another situation. There are any
number
> of places where one can and will make sense in the real-world and in
sci-fi.

Depending on TTPs, possibly.  Of course, an anti-tank mine will do the
same thing in a more effective manner if you have one.

> If you've got foreign occupiers on your outrim colony world, maybe you
don't
> have fancy weapons and have to resort to some know how an an IED in
setting
> up an ambush or fixing action. Ultimately, your forces may not always
have
> the same levels of support US or even NATO forces enjoy. If a UN
mission is
> hit by an IED in the modern day and it is composed of (for instance)
South
> African troops, an ambush or fixing action may be fairly successful as
they
> may have trouble bringing to bear the firepower the US can. Similar
sorts of
> situations are perfectly within the realm of the GZGverse.

South Africans?  THey invented half the vehicles we are using for the
C-IED fight.  Bad example.  Ugandans or Malaysians would be a better
example.  :)

If you're speculating in general terms, there are a few general things
I can say.

The larger a device, the harder it is to camoflage.  An improvised
device is going to be larger than a purpose-built one that is more
effective.  The most effective IED methods require specialized
knowledge and precision machining methods.

IEDs provide deniability in a way that conventional mines shipped in
by a foreign supporters do not.

Because devices are "improvised" they vary in size from hundreds of
pounds emplaced by a faux 'road construction crew' to a soda can.  The
can be filled with anything from a variety of home made concoctions
that may or may not work, to brand new military plastic explosives.
They may or may not incorporate military ordnance or military
explosives.  They can be initiated in any one of a dozen ways (or
more) falling into three categories--victim operated, command
detonated, or timed.  Generalizing about them is about as fruitless a
pursuit as can be imagined, especially if limited to unclassified
sources or the media's description of devices.

The game has perfectly good rules for mines.  It doesn't matter for
game purposes whether the mines are built in a factory in runs of
100,000, or assembled by a religious loon in his goat shed.  You can
treat anti-armor devices as MAK, other devices as HEF, and small shit
as boobytraps from Stargrunt.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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