[Oborous]

Originally Posted by Dimitri

Necro post I know, but Oborous is still around so thought I'd mention something, he could possibly reply to?

I think you do not realize that irregulars are not there because they "want" to be there, generally there are there because they "must" be there. Things like family feuds tend to be forgotten till the common enemy is first removed from the picture.

In addition, when your operating completely behind enemy lines, you have no logistical infrastructure other then what you can get due to your troops families and friends that sneak food and supplies to you. Generally, this means no guns, or ammunition, other then what you can take from the enemy, which means rationing of ammunition, and yes, using any firearm available.

The job as commander, isn't to mold your men, or plan for logistics, as much as instead its to keep your men alive for as long as possible while maximizing the amount of damage you cause your enemy. Its something that many parts of the World have had to deal with, and lots of first hand accounts of commanders are out there published now. But its not something that can be "planned" like a regular Army can do, Joe doesn't want to hear that he has to carry a Bren even though the ammunition has run dry cause "that is what your trained for".

Its a different mindset sure, but its not unworkable if your willing to forget the rule book for the time being.

Dimitri

Hi! Yes, I'm still around. I'm trying to figure out the point of your post and how it applies to airsoft.

I structured this thread to discuss, in an abstraction because this is airsoft, some concepts of how the mission drives the requirements. Trying to apply this perfectly to partisan groups in real life combat expands beyond the intent and the abstraction breaks down, this was shaped to apply more to the concepts of airsoft. We do not have airsoft weapons that make two kilometer shots, we do not have effective indirect fire burst/area of effect weapons.

However, with respect to your post. I strongly disagree that because partisans are fighting a common enemy that all local history will be forgotten. There are examples of a member of a partisan team turning in the rest of the team to get vengance for a slight that happened before the invaders came, there are cases of partisan reserve groups not responding to move into position because of tribal or other issues.

Any partisan leader will make every effort to inflict maximum damage on the enemy and attempt to keep as many of his/her troopers alive. How would this not be planning, training, communications, and logistics? Many partisans look exactly like the locals, because they are locals, how can you tell a partisan is a partisan if they're not carrying any military gear or if they're just a local running away because there are explosions nearby? Many partisan attacks have very sophisticated planning, where there will be known locations to dump your gear so you can exflitrate, and then you can recover your weaponry at a later time. There will be logistics, as where do you hide after the attack, who do you hide with, so do you have information that collaborates with the people hiding you incase you/they are questioned?

Planning and Logistics for partisans are different than regular army, but does not remove the neccesity of them, not does it remove some commonality.

I am not a fan of much of modern, developed nations military planning, logistics, and training. Much of it is due to extended periods of peace, so you have make work projects that then become entrenched, because bored soldiers get into mischief. There is also a trend to add so much information gathering that sometimes the KISS solution has dramatic effects, look at What happened to this carrier group, I'd suggest doing some further reading on the whole Millennium Challenge 2002.

Basically, no Partisan force is voluntarily going to stay green, they are going to learn and add sophistication, as much as their environment allows. However, the having troops that 'must be there' rather than voluntarily be there does change things, this may or may not be good for the effectiveness of the force. If you move to attack the village of a significant portion of a partisan force, those partisans affected are highly likely to leave to defend their town, even against overwhelming odds, which creates the conditions for defeat in detail.

So, I guess I come back to 'could you please rephrase your question as it pertains to airsoft', if you would like to debate Partisans in real world conflicts, we could certainly create a topic in the Off-Topic area, or via PM's.