FASCAM - Gamey or not?

[Volcano Man]

I am not denying those things, but my question is, instead of just complaining about it: how should/could it be different? I personally am not convinced that there is a problem in this area since the game has been this way for so long, it is usually a minor nuisance when someone tries to isolate a unit like this at the expense of wasting all their FASCAM, and there are simply a lot of things that are abstracted like this but, abstract as they are, they still get the job done.

In my experiences, despite the fact that FASCAM is surface scattered and not buried, not many places have grass/vegetation cut like putting greens so it is still very difficult to spot the mine until the first vehicle hits one (unless of course you are in the open desert), and actually, most modern hand laid mines are not buried at all. I only mention this because it is important to remember that a minefield (in PzC or MC) is never thought to be covering an entire 1 mile^2 area (unless it is 3x density). A minefield in a given area is generally enough to cause confusion, consternation and cautiousness to a unit to the point that it needs to reconnoiter said area to determine the exact dimensions and location of the minefield. Unless you definitively know where the minefield is and where it is not then you are not going to assume these things and drive around freely in the area. This marking of the minefield and bypass is essentially a unit penetrating it. Of course, I admit that this is all justification to fit the circumstances.

Would it take several hours to penetrate, mark, and bypass a surface laid minefield? Probably not, but a battalion of artillery could certainly place FASCAM *by the map* in strategic places which would, in game play terms, paralyze a unit until it breeched it, and all without completely and methodically saturating the area. Of course a major combat multiplier would be lost from using FASCAM in an unobserved manner such as this (since you would not be canalizing the enemy into a predesignated engagement area / kill sack), but it still would not be totally useless to do it either.

I would like to call attention to the effectiveness of FASCAM artillery strikes in Steel Beasts Pro and Pro PE (not that anyone here knows anything about this simulation). In countless military training exercises where FASCAM was deployed in the simulation, and despite it being openly visible on the ground, the AAR recorded that human units are almost always momentarily disrupted even if there is no enemy in the area (unless you have a god view of the battlefield, you are never 100% certain that there is no enemy in a given area). We can sit and evaluate the behavior of a 2D counter on a map when something like this happens, but in reality it is not that simple or, in many cases, logical. This delay and disruption becomes even worse if a tank hits a mine and is destroyed and confusion ensues on whether the vehicle took direct fire, and the requirements of tending to the disabled or dead vehicle(s) crew.

This is yet another abstraction in a turn based game system that is trying not to model the unburdening complexity and unplayability of something like Decisive Action. Something could no doubt be done to improve this particular aspect, and the same could be said of many other aspects of the game system. I was only trying to prod for some kind of simple and practical suggestion that might improve it; anyone can complain about something not being unrealistic. ;)