Chemical Weapons

[AbshireJW]

Yea Ive heard of guys in the 1st Gulf War in full MOPP IV gear for 48 hours, nothing says good time like peeing and pooping in your suit for 2 days...although since you cant eat you are ok, but you can drink water.

I personally have been in the suits for only a day or so, and Ive worn the full MOPP only a couple times for a few hours...NBC warfare sucks...but it is part of war, espically the Iran-Iraq war.

[Suhiir]

I was an NBC tech (5711) while I was in and to be honest I'm not sure modeling it in the game would be worthwhile.
Against nations with little/no NBC gear it'd just be "they're dead, game over".
Against nations with a good NBC capability it's more of a major nuisance then really dangerous.

[Marcello]

I think that in the latter case one could modify the various "searching", "rout/rally" options to simulate that.

[Pats]

And next we're modeling nuke weapons... ;-)

[thatguy96]

Pats said:
And next we're modeling nuke weapons... ;-)

Also been attempted. I forget by whom, but this was brought up recently too. They found the ability to generate suitable effects lacking.

[AbshireJW]

Well Chemical weapons although do suck in the real world aplications they are however part of history. There are a few examples of their use in modern warfare, most specifically the Iran-Iraq War. So yes they will destroy units that dont have NBC gear, the Iranians had NBC gear but with their tradional facial hair...alot of them died. Simply put, its no more a problem than Napalm from an Air strike, or a flame thrower, or a 155mm Artillery shell...dead is dead. Besides a green smoking hex filled with dead people would work both ways...neither side could use that hex for the entire game...Would change the way alot of battles would take place.

[hoplitis]

First things first. I would be suprised if the Camo crew included Chemical Warfare in the game. This a tactical wargame and I would, again, be suprised if someone suggested that chemical weapons are just another "capability" readily available to a battalion or brigade HQ. They must be "released" by a higher level of command. In the classical NATO vs WPact "whatifs" use of even "tactical" CWs could easily trigger a "strategic escalation" of the conflict. In any case, even for "3rd World" conflicts use of CW would be more of a strategic/operational option rather than a tactical one and as such probably out of the "scope" of the game.

AbshireJW said:
...Simply put, its no more a problem than Napalm from an Air strike, or a flame thrower, or a 155mm Artillery shell...dead is dead ...

Nope. This is an oversimplification. Impact or expolosive munitinos do most of their damage upon delivery. Chemical agents can be "tuned" both for immediate and lasting effects. One fairly common "mode of operation" is to deliver a highly potent agent in an aerosol form of medium volatility. The lowered volatility ensures that the agent (in the form of miniscule liquid droplets) will remain in the target area for an extended time and the high potency assures that the slow or "controlled" vaporisation of small amounts of the agent will have a disabling effect on the enemy. In fact you would have to "simulate" a range of Chemical Warfare agents depending on their "fugacity", "rate of dispersion" and/or overall "persistance" in the battlefield just to name a few parameters that might be important (not going into environmental parameters such as temperature, wind velocity/direction, humidity(?)/rain etc).
On the other hand you could design a scenario involving the advance of a NBC capable force in the aftermath of a CWs attack. You can "simulate" the effect of the protective suit for infantry (reduced speed, combat ability and possibly vision), select vehicles/APCs/armor with a known NBC capability, you can (seriously) reduce the strength and moral/rally ability of non NBC capable units etc. The interesting designer issue would be the moral/rally ability of the advancing NBC force, ie "I feel secure wih my protective gear" or "God help me I'm walking in the valley of chemical death!"