This topic contains 484 replies, has 35 voices, and was last updated by 
madman1960 5 years, 7 months ago.
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@warzan – Okay, everyone else has already weighed in on this. First up, THANK YOU so much for reaching out. It’s does a heart good. 😀 😀 😀
I think a Moderns “button-category” up top would be great. It would help establish a centralized “hub” where fans and enthusiasts of the genre can see content and post their work, share battle reports, etc … sort of a “stronger version” of this thread. It also helps us on Sitrep keep our work visible on the “front page” of OTT, so to speak, alleviating the pressure on you and the rest of the team when our podcasts or Ops Center videos are cycled further down the news feed.
I agree with @grimwolfuk that we’re focusing on post-1945 operations. As discussed in Ops Center Episode 01 – this has less to do with technology than “context.” What makes modern war “modern” isn’t the toys or the tech, it’s the world in which it takes place – it has to be covert, it has to be limited, it has to be non-kinetic, it hast to take a whole range of factors into account from the atomic weapons to the internet and everything in between.
From a gaming perspective this is huge. It means “historical accuracy” is a lot easier since so much of what this sub-genre covers is supposed to be small-scale and covert. It means victory conditions can be very “gamey” because, hey … they’re “gamey” in real life (you HAVE to rescue those hostages in the next ten minutes because that’s when the news crew shows up and we can’t have this op going public / UN cease fire takes effect / the terrorists will kill another hostage / Parliament or Congressional oversight committees are only giving us so much time, etc).
I think it’s these contextual issues that can distinguish Moderns from pre-1945 Historical, and perhaps help justify (or clarify) a new website top-level category.
OF COURSE, I defer to your judgement on the timing. If you think we should wait a while until we build up a bigger follower base, that’s up to you.
In part, the point of this thread was largely so we on the Sitrep team could (to a degree) take our fate in our own hands – build up our followers, engage with our followers, keep visible on the front page, and all without making additional demands on you or the OTT team. 😀
So we’ll keep pushing forward on the thread, and wait hopefully for news on new top-level categories / channels / etc.
Again, thanks so much for reaching out. 😀
Interesting video, @grimwolfuk on map making. Yet as the man himself says: Not the ideal tool, and very tedious. That Golan Heights / Valley of Tears map posted above took half a day as it was, and that was in a full CSS 5.5 / PS14 license (admittedly half of that was research). In MS Paint that would have taken a week. 🙁 Also, his map has no grid (hex or otherwise) – so be basically just traces his map. He doesn’t have to nudge anything to ensure it conforms to a wargame system (hexes, terrain types, elevation as measurable layers, hexsides that block LOS/LOS, hexsides that hinder / impede movement, etc.).
We can also save layers and styles / properties of layers, so it’s easy to build a portfolio of assets going forward that eventually make these maps easier to do.
Still, for folks who are running RPGs and such, or who may not have a PS / Illustrator suite, etc …
@stvitusdancern – indeed that’s a slammin’ shirt @templar007 has, and coffee mug too. If only I had an OD shirt just like it. Oh, wait … 😀
And yes, “Fields of Despair” was covered (albeit very briefly) in our 1918 Armistice Article series a little while ago. Hex & counters for the win, baby! If it’s good enough for West Point, it should be good enough for us!
Armistice Centennial: The Final Days Of The Great War Part One – The Hundred Days
More epic work, @suetoniuspaullinus – I like the black knee pads on this Marines. And @stvitusdancern might like those Jungle Spec Ops guys, I think she said South American anti-drug cartel ops are one of her favorite moderns theaters. Maybe we should do an Ops Center episode of “La Violencia” in Colombia – covering Bogata government, Cali and Medellin cartels, renegade factions like “Los Pepes,” FARC leftist guerrillas, etc.
@darthcheese – Thanks for the heads up on Wargames Illustrated. For myself, my go to magazine series is Strategy & Tactics Press, including associated publications like World at War and as (for this thread) Modern War. Every two months they take apart and explain another big slice of the Modern Warfare scene, and introduce a new wargame in every issue. Definitely a big piece of the gaming world that needs a little more focus.
https://shop.strategyandtacticspress.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=52
@limburger – when it comes to Suppressor and Magazine … sounds like you already know more than most these days. 😀
Some current favourites of mine..
Interesting video, @grimwolfuk . A few points.
1) Hey, they got the game system right. 😀 Force on Force, baby! And an amazing table!
2) I’m a little weary of the re-re-re-re-re-rehashed discussion of “do you feel comfortable playing modern wargames.” Note most the the veterans in this video do not. If others players do, no worries, but just consider that maybe this whole hobby space honestly just isn’t for them.
Again, honestly no worries, 40K or fantasy isn’t for me, for much the converse reasons. People are squeamish with modern warfare because it’s “too close” (too close to what, I’m not sure, if they weren’t there) – but as a USMC veteran myself, warfare in “fake” settings for me is just as pointless, boring, and uninteresting just for that very reason. None of it is real, the games mean nothing, teach nothing, represent nothing, have no “center of gravity,” and are just really a waste of my time.
And when people say that they’re okay with certain time periods but not others, I always raise an eyebrow. Like setting up a game that portrays human suffering and killing is okay … so long as it’s at least 100 years ago or some such. Like there’s a statute of limitations on whether war is wrong? Maybe it’s me, but you’re either a “real world” wargamer or not. Again, no worries either way. 😀 I don’t want to hit that one too hard because I personally know some people who feel exactly this way, I just don’t 100% understand it. Maybe its me.
Of course, not wanting to wargame in a specific war or conflict or battle in which you participated, comrades participated, or God forbid, you’ve lost friends or comrades, that totally changes the whole dynamic.
3) Very interested to see them using TQ d10s for their Marines and TQ d6s for their insurgents … AFTER they said that these insurgents were a cut above the others, “all the dumb ones had already died” etc. For those unfamiliar with FoF, d6 irregulars is about as “low” as you can go, basically bullet sponges. I’m not sure of the detail in their full lists, so maybe it was a balance thing, or for the ease of making the video.
4) Meanwhile, I’ve actually been mildly criticized for using TQ d10s for US Marines. That’s a pretty high number, especially since the vets just said that many of the US forces there at the time had “at most one year of combat experience.” TQ 10s are usually for hard-core, multi-tour, elite badasses. TQ12 (as high as you go) is used verrrry sparingly in FoF, Navy SEALS, SAS, seriously top-echelon guys who almost never make up the full list one either side.
5) Honestly, for Fallujah, if you want the USMC to have d10s (and I would, Lord knows I did for Hue City, My own Fallujah battles back in 2016, and Khe Sanh), I would have some of the insurgents as d8s.
6) The only thing I kind of raised an eyebrow at here was the mention of “Marine Blackhawks.”
Now I could be wrong here. Gulf War II and Fallujah were waaaay after my time, but the Marine air units involved at Fallujah (MAG 39, to include HMLA-367, 169, HMM-161, 364, 365, and 268) didn’t use Blackhawks.
Marines don’t use Blackhawks to my knowledge. UH and AH 1 variants, Sea Stallion and Super Stallion variants, and the hated V-22 Osprey (friggin’ thing has killed more Marines than Iwo Jima). Blackhawks you might find on the internet are US Army or US Navy SH-60 Seahawks.
But hey, any big table with FoF on there is a win in my book. The only reason I had so much to say on it was because I watched the whole video with keen interest.
Some pics from a 20mm Cold War game I ran nearly ten years ago with gamers from UK, Holland, Finland and Ireland… with hundreds of models on either side and five or six tables.
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