FASCAM - Gamey or not?

[Zemke]

I want to preface this post with the fact that I am involved in the same Danube 85 Campaign game with TBird and we are on the recieving end of this FASCAM isolation thing going on, so take what I have to say with that in mind.

I think the solution was offered at the front end, that FASCAM should not isolate a unit, but would still have the effects of a mine field otherwise.
In the example TBird cited, we are not talking about one unit, but many.

Never ever have I seen in any military staff exercise, simulation, wargame conducted by the military at Fort Leavenworth, has either side had the time or resources necessary to FASCAM 10 miles of terrain. I have also never read or heard that this was Soviet doctrine, much less NATO doctrine. It takes a lot of coordination and planning to fire one FASCAM, and we are talking about getting the right coordinates to 5-10 different artillery battalions in enough time to fire un-observed fire on trails in the woods. Even if that terrain is wooded and restrictive, to hit every trail to the point of isolation is completely unrealistic given the situation TBird is talking about, IMO.

As Fury suggested, real FASCAM is not persistent but has a time self destruct.

There is no problem if using FASCAM to delay or cover a isolated area like a bridge crossing or road intersection and other "natural" choke point, but when you are talking about miles of terrain, that completely isolates entire brigades, then there is no way I can buy into that. It may be an abstraction, but it is not an accurate one in the situation cited above. I would suggest asking an artillery man, (which I am not) how soon it would take to coordinate a fire mission like this and how long it would take to fire, and how much FASCAM ammo would require if fired by the maximum number of battalions (10), or the fewest artillery battalions (5).

Other than changing the game the only solution I see in future games would be some sort of house rule that limits un-realistic use of FASCAM. What or how that would be, I am not sure.
The link below cites un-class info/data on FASCAM.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/s...fascam.htm