I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a Special Forces Figure Campaign, so I thought I’d test the waters to see if there was any interest and if so, then I’d submit a proposal in the Staging Area of the Campaign section?
Below is a brief overlay of my idea:
Campaign Name: Smooth Operators
Start time: 20th May 2022
End time: 1st Febuary 2023
Any and all scales of figure/figures welcome from any time period in history. figures can be made from plastic, resin, white metal or 3d printed, or you can sculpt your own if you are feeling brave.
No partially started kits, however after market accessories and vignettes/dioramas welcome as long as the figure/figures are the main focus of attention.
I’ve been watching the Live Resin thread for a long time thinking how cool those figures are. If they have something that counts as special forces, this would give me a reason to get something from them.
This is of interest to me. I’ve got some figs but could use an excuse to get others. So outside of US and UK ops I would need some guidance on what would be “special forces” of earlier periods. Grenadiers from pike & shotte, beserkers, snipers, etc? I would like to do a non-US figure but as I look what I find are “special purpose” or specialist types, not necessarily what we think of modern SOF.
my interpretation would be a small group of men that have received specialist training, equipment, pay, conditions or additional skills or tasks. so for example a sniper in an infantry company is not a member of the special forces but a sniper in the SBS or Navy Seals would be as he would have most likely received additional training and better equipment/weapons.
you could also argue that the vatican guard are special forces as they have a specific set of missions and specialised equipment to carry out their tasks.
if anyone else would like to add to this discussion about what is a special forces soldier, i am just using broad brush strokes here the way i understand the term special forces.
Including Police’s Special Ops?? I mean SWAT, HRT, Spanish GEO, French RAID… Some of the actual police specops has the same kits than military so it’s just a matter of painting.
No horse in this game as figures aren’t my jam, but I like the thought experiment.
Today’s main stream forces at one point in history were all new and “special”. An arquebusier in a sea of pikemen would have been pretty special at the time.
Unless you’re looking to limit the campaign to WWII forward, which I think is when we can really pinpoint the development of Special Forces in a recognizably modern context, I think an interesting definition might be troops of a sufficiently elite or specialist nature as to clearly separate them selves from their contemporaries.
This could include:
Units armed with firearms during the renaissance etc when cold steel and pole arms were still the norm.
Rifle regiments during the napoleonic era
Charioteers or mounted archers
perhaps when compared to phalanx type formations
German Sturmtruppen during WWI
I don’t know that I’d include marksmen from 20th century combat formations, but I would argue that dedicated snipers are sufficiently specialist to qualify, especially from the early days such as WWI.
I think if you are doing a Special Forces campaign it should be limited to pure SF units. SAS, SBS, Seal, Delta and other nations primary dedicated SF teams who are trained in multi task operations to the absolute limit of human endurance. That’s what an SF soldier is.
@SGTJKJ Jesper, i get where you are going with this, star wars legion but i’m ruling you sci-fi on this one as well
@Johnnych01 John, yeah you got what it is i am trying to do, i guess after another 15 hour night shift my brain doesn’t always work as clearly as it should, although i am open to some of the pre-20th century stuff just to see what would show up from medi-eval times.
I kind of agree as I think that the Sci-Fi and Figure Campaign already includes Sci-Fi, so that’s two figure campaigns where you can enter Sci-Fi figures.
I do think that the Special Forces Campaign should only include real Special Forces figures because Sci-Fi allows a fictional story to be posted whereas Special Forces is about real units and real history. Just my opinion.
“The first modern special forces unit was the SAS, formed in July 1941 from an unorthodox idea and plan by Lieutenant David Stirling.[22] In June 1940 he volunteered for the No. 8 (Guards) Commando (later named “Layforce”). After Layforce was disbanded, Stirling remained convinced that due to the mechanized nature of war a small team of highly trained soldiers with the advantage of surprise could exact greater damage to the enemy’s ability to fight than an entire platoon. His idea was for small teams of parachute trained soldiers to operate behind enemy lines to gain intelligence, destroy enemy aircraft, and attack their supply and reinforcement routes. Following a meeting with the C-in-C Middle East, General Claude Auchinleck, his plan was endorsed by the Army High Command”.
If you follow those lines I think it’s the safe bet. SAS are classed as the first modern Special Force unit from that in 1941. And as mentioned in my other post above, I would only be classing those units as pure SF units.
That would not include RM commandos, US Rangers, USMC, Para’s etc.
A grey area would be Chindits, Merrill’s marauders, Selous Scouts etc.
ok, so you guys would be fine if i re-tweak the rules and made it special forces from 20th/21st century
no sci-fi or “what if’s”
i could always organise a “Medi-eval Madness” Campaign for later on in the year and people could submit specialist troops from that era, what do you all think?
i am not sure what the numbers are required for a figure campaign, i think they are lower than other campaigns as this is a small section on the site. we seem to have about 10 people interested, so i will find out and if it’s ok then i will set up a campaign on the staging area.
Sounds good, Klaus. But just for my understanding did we end with a narrow or wide definition of special forces?
I would think British commandos and German Brandenburgers would qualify - or do we use a more narrow definition?