"First response/Casevac rules?" Topic

Having been involved in emergency relief alongside military forces in many crises over the past 30 years, I am acutely aware of how much investment is placed on medical capacity, and what that does for morale..

Having bought a peter pig granit ambulance on a whim – and hankering for some medics – i wondered if medivac could – like armored recovery – play a role in FoW…

A MO team with truck or ambulance could be an add to infantry company forces – Brts, German and US would would probably have this option as they had well developed systems… I would consider good medivac capable of providing another roll if a platoon fails its morale check, and providing the medics can get within command distance.

This would give some forces an advantage when faces with much larger less well supported armies… Also could be with-held in Stalingrad and other types of scenarios where troops are cut off and left to their own devices.. (although an Auntie Ju 52 could be an option!)… very useful to properly account for US investment in casevac choppers in Vietnam…

Anything to get my granit into action!

In Dirtside, you got a morale bonus for medivac support, a bigger bonus for air medivac.

Interesting – in WW2 there are some nice options – the granit and blitz ambulances, US dodges, Brit Austin K9s… a field hospital 'warrior' – the one at Anzio comes to mind… The Aussies haad some ancient DH 86s used four case vac in the desert, Brits used Bombays and Germans Ju 52, US and everyone else ended up with C-47s…

Also medic teams could be modelled on small bases and added to HQs as points options…

Depends on the level of the game. Platoon level it's just a medic and stretcher bearers getting the wounded off table to the jeep for evacuation tot he RAP. Company level you can show the jeep or ambulance halftrack to evacuate the casualties. Battalion or brigade level games you might actually model the RAP etc.

But I don't think medevac aircraft are really going to be on table until a Corps level game and then I think they'd just get subsumed into the LOC stuff.

Yep, a flight of fancy, I guess :)

Didn't the FoW Vietnam rules have something very much like this? 'Wounded' teams could be treated by a Medic or CasEvac, and possibly return at full strength?

Interesting, I must look at the Vietnam rules… although for me its not about keeping teams in the fight, most wounded could not be treated in the timespan of a tactical game like FoW, its about morale.

TooFat Lardies' Charlie Don't Surf rules cover medevac and casevac. There the emphasis is not on keeping people in the fight, but getting seriously wounded men off the field so that they don't die. Every dead Free World soldier costs the player a number of political victory points. Consequently, it is possible for the FW player to win militarily, but lose politically due to casualties.

Medevac choppers can also be shot down, which will cause the FW player to lose political points as well. There are medics at platoon level in the US forces, but their purpose is to help remove shock, which is a measure of disorganization. Of course, they can also stabilize and care for critically wounded men until the medevac/casevac arrives. If you are thinking about including medevac in a game, I recommend you check out those rules.
BWW

Thansk Brian, Kreo and James – very helpful…

I will look at the TFL ruleset, but I still think it should be a morale issue… Strategically, yes too many body bags was a big issue as we know – but even without that pressure, soldiers fight for each other – an d certainly western soldiers expect the best from their organsiations – in the same way we demand the best medical care in our civillian lives, soldiers want that too… and its a great reassurance that its their… AS feeling that if one of us goes down, everything in our county's power will be put in place to make sure he/she has the best chance… So great medivac means that the cause is good, we are not fighting vain, our buddies are gonna be looked after… It still does.

I think that viewpoint can be traced back to the Crimea and Florrie herself, but more importantly to WW1, where needless casualties deeply affected the British, German, Russian and French will to fight…

Future War Commander has a 'medic' rule, which I've used for modern scenarios with Cold War Commander.

Part of the problem, at least with Flames, is that a stand getting 'killed' via fire doesn't really represent 4-5 men KIA/wounded. It represents 1-2 wounded and the others escorting them off to the aid station.

This idea is why you can have multiple 'wounded' markers on a single FoW'Nam base. It's also why some of the FoW Heroes can 'raise the dead', they're calling troops back from escorting the wounded to safety!

Like kreoseus2 said, the DS2 Medivac rules are great. Just don't forget that any player who kills the medics buys the beers afterwards.