APC Development and related topics.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Don,
DELETE/USA/Mercenary Group/UNITS 725 & 726/ They have to go! Maybe being a little sensitive here but, thinking back on my understanding of history in the modern era the peak interaction of mercenaries per say was in the period of the late 40's - early mid 80's focused in Africa, SE Asia (Malaysia comes to mind.) and parts of South and Central America. Most came from Germany(s), UK, France, Belgium, Holland and the U.S. after the war. The two most notable leaders came from the UK and France if I recall correctly and had the books "The Wild Geese" and "The Dogs of War" (Later movies; Wild Geese with the late great Richard Burton in it.) based on their exploits in Africa (Congo). Point being why is the U.S. the only country after using MobHack to have them from the samples looked at above? And in checking some of the African countries they have none in them where I would expect to see them as most of the mercenary actions took place there and in some respects today more, for security and training might still to a much lesser extent still be there today and again C. & S. America for the drug cartels (As a matter of conjecture for these if not material for action/adventure movies.)? Bottom line I accidentally stumbled upon them when I first started using MobHack a couple of weeks ago and saw it as an opportunity to clear some slots here and there from other European countries as well. All these years playing and I never noticed them there before. And I"m assuming when in MobHack and your looking at a country you're seeing all units from the start of WinSPMBT until the end unlike the Encyclopedia which looks at a certain time frame within the game.

Regards,
Pat

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

Don,
DELETE/USA/Mercenary Group/UNITS 725 & 726/ They have to go! Maybe being a little sensitive here but, thinking back on my understanding of history in the modern era the peak interaction of mercenaries per say was in the period of the late 40's - early mid 80's focused in Africa, SE Asia (Malaysia comes to mind.) and parts of South and Central America. Most came from Germany(s), UK, France, Belgium, Holland and the U.S. after the war. The two most notable leaders came from the UK and France if I recall correctly and had the books "The Wild Geese" and "The Dogs of War" (Later movies; Wild Geese with the late great Richard Burton in it.) based on their exploits in Africa (Congo). Point being why is the U.S. the only country after using MobHack to have them from the samples looked at above? And in checking some of the African countries they have none in them where I would expect to see them as most of the mercenary actions took place there and in some respects today more, for security and training might still to a much lesser extent still be there today and again C. & S. America for the drug cartels (As a matter of conjecture for these if not material for action/adventure movies.)? Bottom line I accidentally stumbled upon them when I first started using MobHack a couple of weeks ago and saw it as an opportunity to clear some slots here and there from other European countries as well. All these years playing and I never noticed them there before. And I"m assuming when in MobHack and your looking at a country you're seeing all units from the start of WinSPMBT until the end unlike the Encyclopedia which looks at a certain time frame within the game.

Regards,
Pat

deleting these would save 2 slots - which is useful, given the squeeze on the USA OOb.

They were probably added in as "contractors" or somesuch. But that sort of thing could be done in the scenario editor, as they are most likely to be "scenario only" interest. (I have much the same opinion about other tertiary stuff, like (say) the military police. Again - if a scenario designer needed such, they could edit a regular infantry element. Players are rather unlikely to want them, methinks !).

If necessary - the level bomber population could be pruned (who really uses these in regular battles - and there are 20 slots used of these) - to just a representative item per era (B52 with 750lb bombs would cover it IMHO 195X-202X). The COIN Bombers (6 slots used) could go completely - just a relabelled bomber class, and only used by the human player or a scenario designer (perhaps) for an initial bombardment.

Cheers
Andy

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

Don,
DELETE/USA/Mercenary Group/UNITS 725 & 726/ They have to go! Maybe being a little sensitive here but, thinking back on my understanding of history in the modern era the peak interaction of mercenaries per say was in the period of the late 40's - early mid 80's focused in Africa, SE Asia (Malaysia comes to mind.) and parts of South and Central America. Most came from Germany(s), UK, France, Belgium, Holland and the U.S. after the war. The two most notable leaders came from the UK and France if I recall correctly and had the books "The Wild Geese" and "The Dogs of War" (Later movies; Wild Geese with the late great Richard Burton in it.) based on their exploits in Africa (Congo). Point being why is the U.S. the only country after using MobHack to have them from the samples looked at above? And in checking some of the African countries they have none in them where I would expect to see them as most of the mercenary actions took place there and in some respects today more, for security and training might still to a much lesser extent still be there today and again C. & S. America for the drug cartels (As a matter of conjecture for these if not material for action/adventure movies.)?

I just noticed this now. It seems pretty obvious to me that these "Mercenary Group" units are not representing Mike Hoare or Bob Denard style mercenary; rather they are a stand in for Blackwater and comparable security contractors.
We are talking about ex US servicemen, armed with american weapons and used for convoy/facility protection duties, VIP details and similar tasks. It makes some sense to have them in the US OOB as armament/training/morale is compatible with the US OOB, they and US troops have occasionally fought side by side and last but not least they have been employed in sizable numbers. That said they are obviously a "flavor" unit, not inherently more valuable than an additional F-4 with a different loadout or whatever; they could be easily shifted to the green OOB with some tweaking.