"The Wounded & The Dead" Topic

It seems self evident …

Yep

Yes.

LT

It depends on the culture/training.

I believe I've heard / read of guidance to some enemy forces to wound rather than kill, as it not only demoralized the enemy in an ongoing bases, as opposed to deaths that can be compartmentalized and set aside, and, wounded includes with it the drain on logistics, command services, medicines, and the folks pulled off the front lines in support of the survivor ops.

It sounds accurate, until you stop to think that this probably hinges on the specifc circumstances of the encounter. If your squad took a shell and half the soldiers were blown to gruesome bits in front of the others' eyes, that might have a worse effect on the remainder than a squad that takes small arms fire over a longer period of time and the hit soldiers only take slight wounds and can either carry on normally or merely drop out of the fight with encouraging words to the others to not worry.

I'd want to check this broad claim against statements by participants and survivors. Exactly what are their feelings? And also, would these reactions be the same for all periods or conflicts and all troops? (Compare trained special forces squads to raw militia squads, for instance.)

Agree with piper909, there are many circumstances that affect those reactions.

Is Force on Force mostly focused on one genre and type of battle/force composition? I find that a lot of the generalities that people offer and others reject are really only generalities within the window of "the games I play".

The statement quoted is focused on modern western military organizations for the most part. The Force on Force rules include Attributes that modify the way units from a different cultural background might react to wounded/slain comrades.

We used modern western troops as the baseline because most folks playing our games more closely identify with them. They're just the baseline, though.

Best,

Shawn.

For No End in Sight, I did something pretty similar:

Most casualties result in wounds, which will penalize the squad more, though they can be contended with (patch up and carry to safety).
Straight kills are less common (particularly for armour) but also less worry.

Irregulars function differently (Sometimes they will withstand their losses, sometimes they'll lose manpower from failed morale)

Yep, we have similar mechanisms in Force on Force – units that are subject to "shrinkage" can lose figures due to poor morale throws, which basically represents local fighters who decide that now might be a good time to take a break for a restorative cup of tea . . .

Never having actually been in combat, I can't comment.

Nothing says "Really need some tea" like a brisk firefight :)