Vietnam '65 followup from Every Single Soldier is Afghanistan '11

[admin]

Last year's Vietnam '65 was a fantastic game, a wargame in which controlling the hearts and minds of the local population is just as important as which hexes your units occupy. Every Single...

http://www.pockettactics.com/news/vietn ... nistan-11/

[Js619]

This sounds pretty exciting. Vietnam '65 didn't grab me for some reason that I couldn't put a name to, but this sounds good.

And fingers crossed the carrier operations comes to iOS - that sounds like a PT'ers dream come true!

[OBollocks]

V65 was grand, I loved being set loose in a generated jungle playground with my own suite of tools to combat an insurgency. It sounds like A11 takes the idea further, which is great, but I hope it doesn't lose the lasting appeal of V65 with a limited campaign of missions that don't have the same freedom.

[whovian223]

This "Pocket Tactics" or "Wargamer" post thing is going to give me a headache...

Posted this on the Wargamer article for this game.

I wonder how deep into the political they'll get.

Will there be events such as the "blue on blue" attacks that have made working with the Afghan army so treacherous?

[OBollocks]

Will there be events such as the "blue on blue" attacks that have made working with the Afghan army so treacherous?

I hope so, though I think the term is 'green on blue' as the ANA/ANP are local allies.

[Alex Connolly]

I'll be the one doing the interview, so leave any thoughts here and I'll aim to get 'em answered.

[OBollocks]

I'll be the one doing the interview, so leave any thoughts here and I'll aim to get 'em answered.

I'd like to jump on my hobby horse and bang my drum about an incredibly complex topic for at least a couple of sentences, not that what I have to say will influence them one whit nor would it be reasonable for me to expect that.

Taliban operations are financed from the growing and harvesting of opium crops. Locate and destroy these fields to cripple the opponent's resources

While this is true, it's also how the local farmers earn their living, and seems disingenuous to pretend this issue only affects the Taliban. To repurpose a pithy quote I picked up from a book on the war on cocaine in South America into a gentler point: Local farmers can earn a decent living growing opium, and resistance to switching crops to something that certainly will not pay as well, and which may require more labour, which they will then have to transport in trucks they don't have, down roads that don't exist, to markets that don't exist, to sell to customers who don't exist, is perfectly understandable. Destroying crops is going to hurt the Taliban's finances but also relations with locals, and also, indirectly, relations with the ANP and to a lesser extent the ANA, who take bribes to do the "We didn't find any opium crops."/"We found those opium crops and burned them, honest." bit.

I do love counter-insurgency games, but they do need to remember that it's not a simple bad guys vs good guys issue. There has to be nuance, otherwise you're just back to two forces pushing each other around a conveniently empty map.

Easier questions: map sizes, combat depth and procedure, sandbox mode like V65, frequency of random events.

[whovian223]

Will there be events such as the "blue on blue" attacks that have made working with the Afghan army so treacherous?

I hope so, though I think the term is 'green on blue' as the ANA/ANP are local allies.

Ah, thanks for that correction.

Wish the forums had a +1!!!

[Alex Connolly]

I'll be the one doing the interview, so leave any thoughts here and I'll aim to get 'em answered.

I'd like to jump on my hobby horse and bang my drum about an incredibly complex topic for at least a couple of sentences, not that what I have to say will influence them one whit nor would it be reasonable for me to expect that.

Taliban operations are financed from the growing and harvesting of opium crops. Locate and destroy these fields to cripple the opponent's resources

While this is true, it's also how the local farmers earn their living, and seems disingenuous to pretend this issue only affects the Taliban. To repurpose a pithy quote I picked up from a book on the war on cocaine in South America into a gentler point: Local farmers can earn a decent living growing opium, and resistance to switching crops to something that certainly will not pay as well, and which may require more labour, which they will then have to transport in trucks they don't have, down roads that don't exist, to markets that don't exist, to sell to customers who don't exist, is perfectly understandable. Destroying crops is going to hurt the Taliban's finances but also relations with locals, and also, indirectly, relations with the ANP and to a lesser extent the ANA, who take bribes to do the "We didn't find any opium crops."/"We found those opium crops and burned them, honest." bit.

I do love counter-insurgency games, but they do need to remember that it's not a simple bad guys vs good guys issue. There has to be nuance, otherwise you're just back to two forces pushing each other around a conveniently empty map.

Easier questions: map sizes, combat depth and procedure, sandbox mode like V65, frequency of random events.

Consider the above condensed, compressed, cryovaced and asked. Cheers.

[OBollocks]

Thanks very much, man. I hope you phrase it more politely than I did. I don't expect you to force them into the interview equivalent of the Thunderdome.