Say hello to the Marine Corps' newest....

[regexcellent]

I think a lot of the resupply in afghanistan does get contracted out. There's some Russian helicopter airline thing that does it.

[Elok]

Would it help if it tended to result in faster promotion, so there's a financial/prestige incentive to do so?

But yes that is a fundamental conundrum of the volunteer army.

The faster promotions thing would be very valuable for attracting people who are not sociopaths or idiots to the position, I imagine. It still has the liability of being more likely to get your ass killed or crippled than any other MOS, exposing you to more discomfort, and teaching you far fewer skills which could be readily transferred to a civilian career. Except, apparently, in "E-Sports"; a while back, my brother told me some big-shots in the Army had to forbid their elite troops from playing COD, since the idiots were treating the game like an actual combat exercise, using official special forces tactics, dominating the game...and showing the whole world our playbook. Don't know if it's true, but either way it's funny to think about.

[regexcellent]

I can tell you right now that -

1. No high level COD plays would work in real life. For starters there is no actual such thing as quick-scoping. Or kill-streaks, or gaming the classes system by packing a G36C and an M4, both with grenade launchers so you get double the noob-tube ammo.

2. No real life tactics I have ever encountered would translate to COD. Except maybe in the very broad, very vague general sense that you're supposed to shoot the enemy while not getting shot.

More likely, they get really good at COD because they have nothing else to do for months on end but play xbox.

One basic example of why would be the tiny environment you're locked in the game. The effective range of an M4 is stated to be 500 meters (although with a .223 round good luck actually killing someone out of a 14.5" barrel at that distance). Engagements in Afghanistan are frequently at the upper edge or even past that range. The xbox 360 doesn't have enough memory to actually render draw distances like that. At distances of 75 meters in-game you're talking sniper rifle range. But there's all sorts of other reasons to chew on as well, that's just a super obvious one that's easy to explain.

Gonna edit this post one more time to say that I haven't been exposed to more than the tip of the iceberg in infantry tactics, but it seems to me that if real life tactics worked in COD pro gamers would have discovered them and be using them.

[Berzerker]

hello

and congrats

[Ben Kenobi]

You need to resurrect all those threads where everybody said you couldn't do it, so you can laugh in their faces.

Well, I was very wrong. Congrats Albert. If he wants to laugh in my face for getting it wrong he's earned it.

[giblets]

It's too bad you welched on the avatar bet.

[Ben Kenobi]

Sadly, volunteering to run/drive around hostile territory with weapons at the ready is not a clear sign of good judgment.

I'd rather have someone fighting because he wants to be there rather than a conscript.

[Ben Kenobi]

It's too bad you welched on the avatar bet.

Trotsky was up for the full length. I'm really crying in my beer because uninvolved whiners have their panties in a wad.

[Ben Kenobi]

If you think about all of the **** that a person needs to live, especially for extended periods, logistics gets really complicated really fast, and that's not including stuff like fuel and ammunition and spare parts for vehicles. As you move up in size, units are supposed to be able to operate independently for longer and longer periods. I think the smallest Marine unit that can handle 30 days of self-sufficiency has around 1200 people. The logistical overhead for supporting a bunch of combat troops overseas is massive.

Yep. Plenty of work in the biz. Good luck Albert and I hope you have success at this. Plenty of corporate opportunities in logistics. I wouldn't be so quick to move into engineering. This might be a blessing in disguise.

[Elok]

I can tell you right now that -

1. No high level COD plays would work in real life. For starters there is no actual such thing as quick-scoping. Or kill-streaks, or gaming the classes system by packing a G36C and an M4, both with grenade launchers so you get double the noob-tube ammo.

2. No real life tactics I have ever encountered would translate to COD. Except maybe in the very broad, very vague general sense that you're supposed to shoot the enemy while not getting shot.

More likely, they get really good at COD because they have nothing else to do for months on end but play xbox.

One basic example of why would be the tiny environment you're locked in the game. The effective range of an M4 is stated to be 500 meters (although with a .223 round good luck actually killing someone out of a 14.5" barrel at that distance). Engagements in Afghanistan are frequently at the upper edge or even past that range. The xbox 360 doesn't have enough memory to actually render draw distances like that. At distances of 75 meters in-game you're talking sniper rifle range. But there's all sorts of other reasons to chew on as well, that's just a super obvious one that's easy to explain.

Gonna edit this post one more time to say that I haven't been exposed to more than the tip of the iceberg in infantry tactics, but it seems to me that if real life tactics worked in COD pro gamers would have discovered them and be using them.

I wouldn't know, since I've only ever seen the anarchic fustercluck that you get when teens play against each other. Well, we'll chalk that one up to barracks rumors, so to speak. My brother is in the cyber-warfare stuff for the NSA, not combat, so he wouldn't know. From what you describe, it sounds like the XBox would be great for modeling Iron Age warfare, if only

A. Teen gamers could get interested in it and
B. It didn't involve standing in a shield walls for ages trying to cut through each others' guards without breaking formation.

EDIT: Unless medical technology has advanced significantly, I don't believe our troops in the field heal on-site by finding an out-of-the-way corner to squat in for three seconds, either. The army should look into that, it seems like a very useful trick. The only problem is, whatever drug is involved seems to make you hemorrhage from your eyes every time you get hit.

[Al B. Sure!]

Real life tactics would not work in Call of Duty because, among other things, there is no survival aspect. A support by fire position is useless in COD because players don't care about their lives so they will never be effectively suppressed.

Battlefield improves things a bit by having much larger maps and suppression where your screen turns white when rounds are hitting around you, effectively suppressing you and forcing your head down. This allows the possibility of some more realistic tactics but again, unless you have players who treat it like real life on both sides, realistic tactics will be a lot of work for no actual benefit greater than regular shooter gameplay.


However, good COD play is not random cluster****s. I have played with teams before (that did ironically contain players with military experience) and we completely dominated the randoms by establishing a battle position with canalized engagement areas and buddies covering each other. Our success got absurd with upwards of a 5:1 k/d ratio, sometimes even to 10:1. I guess we were sort of using defensive tactics but it was heavily simplified.


Marine infantry officers learn significantly more stuff at IOC but at TBS, we do get a foundation for infantry tactics and a combined arms attack, patrol, movement to contact, or defense, day or night, urban or not, is a very complicated thing to plan and execute. Our orders easily run into a dozen double-sided pages of analysis, a scheme of maneuver filled with tactical and fire control measures, phase lines, rates of fire and ammo considerations, consolidation plans, a fire support plan, signal plans, and the plethora of things that fall under 'coordinating instructions'. I posted my patrol order before and that was just tip of the iceberg.

No COD player got no time for that!

[Aeson]

Congrats Al

[Al B. Sure!]

FYI to docfeelgood with all his combat comments. There are no open billets within 150 miles of my geographic area for infantry officers. The only available combat MOS' were engineer, artillery, and ground intel (the last of which I am not eligible for due to my clearance level).

[regexcellent]

However, good COD play is not random cluster****s. I have played with teams before (that did ironically contain players with military experience) and we completely dominated the randoms by establishing a battle position with canalized engagement areas and buddies covering each other. Our success got absurd with upwards of a 5:1 k/d ratio, sometimes even to 10:1. I guess we were sort of using defensive tactics but it was heavily simplified.

The fact that your team had organization, cohesion, and communication probably meant way more to your success than anything you'd find in an infantry field manual. That's something that's important in any team competition.

Of course in battlefield that won't save you from the guy who's been flying the jets 16 hours a day since the game was released.

[Kuciwalker]

stop wasting my tax money.