Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6978740" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Sure, Iraq was mostly short-ranged urban combat, whereas in Afghanistan <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwjogYj9qYvRAhVS-2MKHSJkCfgQFggnMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dtic.mil%2Fget-tr-doc%2Fpdf%3FAD%3DADA512331&usg=AFQjCNHA74gfai92OTRKZL-yjXHeDjMrZg&sig2=tDXnqBCIwrMFEZtLrutdeA&bvm=bv.142059868,d.cGc" target="_blank">the median engagement distance is 300 meters</a>. (" After-action reviews and comments from returning non-commissioned officers and officers reveal that about fifty percent of engagements occur past 300 meters.") The thesis of the paper is that improved training and better ammunition could push that back out to 500m or more, which would be advantageous because it deprives the enemy of the chance to catch US forces at a disadvantage by attacking from beyond the US forces' effective range.Even the bit you quoted about Iraq makes it clear that soldiers are limited by equipment and accuracy ("not enough confidence in the optical gear") as much as detection range. That's not an issue for 5E characters: a Sharpshooter is as accurate at 180m as he is at 20m.Edit: the post you quoted, especially the "recon by fire" bit, also makes it clear that from a D&D perspective, the "encounter" started for the U.S. troops long before the troops began their movement-to-contact. That post actually supports the opposite conclusion: 5E encounters should begin at long range. "[FONT=&quot]It bears recognizing also that the rules of engagement in Iraq were very restrictive and tended to suppress one of the principal uses of machine guns in previous conflicts: to conduct recon by fire. When units located a terrain feature that seemed useful for enemy defenders, they would hose it down with MG fire. If return fire came back, the battle was on (more likely, they would call for artillery and blow it away)... [/FONT][FONT=&quot]But infantry couldn't do recon by fire in Iraq, at least very much, because the potential for civilian deaths was too great. So Iraqi defenders retained the initiative of when to begin the firefight." If the PCs are deciding whether or not to conduct recon by fire on a potential hobgoblin strong point, then they're interacting with it--which means the encounter has already begun.[/FONT]</blockquote>

Verification