09 June 2016

Imagi-Unit - Special Targets Reconnaissance teams (SPECTRE)

It all started with an epiphany... Even in a world made mostly of imagi-nations, US Special Forces are a must have (or at least really useful) for ultra-modern games!
  • Looking for evidence of the Basranian nuclear program;
  • Supporting the Syldavian Forces response to the latest Bordurian invasion/annexation of their country;
  • "Advising" rebels in Touboutt-Chan;
  • Painting "high value targets" in Khemed...
Khrasan Miniatures DEVGRU. Picture from the manufacturer website.
The miniatures part was easy:
  • A couple of teams of Khurasan Miniatures DEVGRU (shop closed, no link!);
  • An Italeri MH-X Silent Hawk (I prefer to call it Ghost Hawk myself) 1/100 diecast;
  • And a pair of Rebel Minis not-Oshkosh M-ATV (I know those aren't really SF vehicles but they look cool!);
Nothing too ambitious right? Just wait for it...

On the fluff front though, as they aren't nearly enough real-world SF units, I had to make up my own...

The initial inspiration came from the trailer of the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon computer game, back in 2001 (oh boy, I'm not getting younger!*)...


The video punchline "They call themselves the Ghosts" stayed in my mind (together with StarCraft Sarah Kerrigan "I am a Ghost, remember?") all this time... So once I figured out I needed my very own US SF unit, I promptly decided to name my guys "Spectres"...

Clancy's "Ghosts" are supposed to get their names from the acronym GST (Group for Specialized Tactics, one of the Ghosts multiple designations; like real world Delta Force is also called Combat Applications Group). So my own addition to JSOC nickname also needed to be a fancy schmancy acronym. A bit of wikipedia-fu later I settled on Special Targets Reconnaissance teams!

Italeri MH-X Silent Hawk diecast. Picture from manufacturer website.
If there is a alternate designation, there is a main one, right? Well, thank you for asking! The Ghosts are supposed to be the US Special Forces Group 5, 1st Battalion, D Company... So I went looking for a suitable niche inside the US Army for my guys...

So more wikipedia-fu later, I decided that, as their name indicates, the Spectres primary mission is Long Range Surveillance. Current US Army LRS units are company sized and part of the Reconnaissance & Surveillance Squadron of a Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. Sounds good, right? But looking at the rest of the BfSB ORBAT, I find it lacks a bit of sexiness...

And this is where I developed a really bad case of mission creep!

Why just design a SF company... Why not design an entire brigade for them to fit in?

1 comment:

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