Contemporary Combat Inspirations

Book, film, and video reviews to get your creativity goin'!

**********************   NEW CONTENT as of August 25, 2025  ***********************

This wreck is the most important terrain in the world...cuz I'm behind it!

It's not that hard to find material on modern conflict. But not all of them are useful to the gamer.  I'm looking for inspiration to play, to paint, to make scenery. Some of these really deliver. Others are fantastic ideas for scenarios. Many are free!

This post will be regularly updated as I discover books or films that I find inspirational and are perhaps off the beaten path a bit. I am usually not going to do a thorough in-depth review, as those are usually found elsewhere, like Amazon, and you can check them out.  I'm going to focus more on why these are inspirational and / or useful for *gaming*.

*************************   NEW CONTENT: August 25, 2025  ***************************

Red Platoon : a true story of American valor, Romesha, Clinton, author. (2016)

This is a well-written and tactically interesting best seller of the Battle of Kamdesh, Afghanistan 2009, at Combat Outpost Keating [click]. In the words of one participant:  'These things aren't given out when something went right. A lot of stuff went wrong, and it's a heavy weight at some times.  so file it under the category "lotsa medals, lotsa mistakes" for the situation to occur at all. There are a number of gaming scenarios available here - for skirmish games, you can splice down the smaller actions that are part of the battle, which also provides specific reasons outside the scenario itself for the parameters of the scenario, e.g. length, victory conditions, etc.  For a higher level of game, you could work out playing the entire battle, altho again it would likely break down into a series of phases or scenarios.

Romesha is not a typical Staff Sergeant, and altho he must have had help writing the book, a clear narrative voice and intelligent observations characterize this writing; it's worth reading even if you aren't into little metal men!

The Battle of Kamdesh was also made into a film called "The Outpost" [click]. It features the sons of Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood, along with Orlando Bloom re-using techniques from his Black Hawk Down role, to good effect:

I did see this film, and felt it was solid as entertainment.  Definitely worth seeing as an inspiration for gaming.  Also, my library has it so a freebie.

*************************   NEW CONTENT: July 18, 2025  ****************************

Military Watch Magazine [CLICK], a South Korean publication, has a lot of pics and articles about many topics, including ground-pounder and PMCs.

Russian Military Equipment [CLICK] via Wikipedia. A great place to start since lots of this equipment is carried by contractors and Russian allies.

This one by Lightning Press [CLICK] and many other "smart books" that summarize US Military publications are helpful to the wargamer.  Previous editions of this should be available inexpensively. They summarize hundreds [sometimes thousands] of pages of military doctrine, and should help the budding wargame designer / scenario designer to create scenarios with parameters that are a lot more realistic.  

Also sometimes it is a helpful reminder that a squad of 8 Soldiers, when deployed for a fight, maintains sectors of fire [sometimes 360 if in "injun territory"] and therefore facing matters at the lowest level, you skirmish game designers you!

Another project worth doing... examine a well-known and well-documented brush conflict. Get familiar with the political events b/c they affect military events, and especially things like budgets, providers, supply etc.  These issues will guide you in justifying realistic limits to your wargaming forces in scenarios.  It is very rare that any commander can take a point list and buy anything he wants!  Lookin' at YOU GW and all those who imitate you...

Above, a bunch of publications available at my local library system on the Contra war in Nicaragua.

*************************   NEW CONTENT: April 28, 2025  ****************************

Ratnik [Russian Future Infantry Combat System] gear pics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratnik_(program)

Now available at fine purveyors of violence, everywhere!

Book reviews:

Liked this one better than "Highway..." by Geddes, mostly because of the style and personality that came through in the book [which one might credit to Pezzullo]. Chase has a wide experience of missions, and is less focused on highway work in Iraq. Overall, would read this first then "Highway..." later.  Lots of scenario ideas and an engaging read.

Coyle, well-known for "Team Yankee" [great book, great boardgame by Frank Chadwick] here again demonstrates his personal knowledge of the military and - here - peace keeping missions. It is basically the story of one squad and its misfortunes in a tense clash on an ethnic border similar to the issues with the former Yugoslavia.  If you want an entire book about one squad, and several great skirmish scenarios, than you'll enjoy this.  For the more casual reader, at times the characters and situations can be a bit formulaic, but that is likely because our stories, over time, become similar to so many other people's.  Recommend you get it from the library, or borrow it, to see if you like it.  I can see it annoying - or not annoying - a Soldier who served, hard to predict.

If you want to understand more about the economics and tasks of military contracting, this book undoubtedly presents a lot of data on that.  There are also a bunch of accounts of various missions. More than any of the other "military contractor" books, Smith gets into the "how" of how various tactical tasks are done, and this might be a useful book for the game / scenario / budding novelist or action film maker who wants to see some of the granular possibilities of tactical tasks. I only say "possibilities" because I can't verify if his explanations of, for example, ramming a road block are the actual best way to do them.  

I did check on the criticisms of this book, and couldn't find anything except shallow mud-slinging. To me, it reads like someone talking about their experiences within the limits of those experiences, and the open claims he makes about people and places could be easily denied by the persons named. For now, I see no reason to deny what he says he did and what happened and how things are done. But for a wargamer, who cares, anyway, this book has lots of interesting gaming ideas!

*************************   New EDIT: July 7, 2024  ****************************

"Kobane" - 2023 film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KcC7mBpoKo

Decent movie. Incredible inspiration for terrain in both countryside and city, as well as irregular troops [Kurds] and ISIS types. Plenty of painting inspiration here, I will be capturing some stills for my In Country bad guys. 

Kurds:

ISIS

"13 Hours" book and film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDZgtl4OsXk

From director Michael Bay, 13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI is the gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked the US diplomatic and CIA compounds in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.

Based on the nonfiction book "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi" by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff and Members of the Annex Security Team.

Great book, great movie - a rare occurrence in the media world.  A book where the journalist and men on the ground knocked themselves out to make a strong account of what happened somewhere, followed by a movie that honored that purpose.  A few scenario ideas, but lots of inspiration for fig painting, scenery, etc.  Bought the book, and watched the movie multiple times they're so good.

Hyena Road - full movie, free

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWuxeDm1SGA

The Canadians in Afghanistan. Nicely done if not spectacular, checks the boxes.

Lots of other free movies pop up when you find this one.

"Escape from Tarkov" film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OIT7W24V8

From a video game, Russian with subtitles. Great action scenes involving two "fictional" PMCs fighting in the ruins. Great firefights with a little personality and plot added. Makes you want to get the figs on the table, that's for sure!  Wonderful inspiration for scenery and painting figs.

"The Best in Hell" film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ab_XBS1gE

Great action, great painting inspiration ["not-Ukraine"], great illustration about how a modern tactical fight escalates over a few buildings deemed important by higher-ups. The less you know about modern company level OPS, the more you will learn from this. That it is intended as a sort of propaganda piece makes it even better - it reveals how bad the Russkies have fallen in their propaganda skill since they were commies.

Gritty, explicit, opinionated, and with dozens of scenario ideas, especially of the escort, protect, etc type, often with light weapons. While the narrative wanders a bit into history, his conversation on the fact of Private Military Contractors [aka mercenaries] and the past use of mercenaries is pertinent. It by no means covers the issue fully, but it is an interesting conversation. Same with women in combat and as contractors. 80% of the book is Geddes experiences, anecdotes, opinions, encounters, including a hilarious gunfight in his hotel. About 10% is "big picture stuff" and includes the narratives of others. Another 10% is all over. 

I got this from the library, and if you are working on some narratives of scenarios for contemporary skirmish wargaming, or perhaps some older ones from even the 60s on up, you will find plenty of ideas in here.  Also, it's not boring.  Sure, you may find some of his "up the British" tiresome, as well as his critiques of non Brits, but overall it is worth taking with a bit of Cadbury to sweeten.

If you have any interest in asymmetric warfare, these 14 accounts of actions in Afghanistan will provide you with multiple scenarios from small to medium.  Some will provide you with several scenarios if you are doing small-unit skirmish. They also are enlightening of the difficulties in conducting operations in hostile terrain, weather, etc.  While you still need to translate these into your rules and a scenario, a lot of the ideas are right there for you. [CLICK] Best of all, they are free downloads! Altho I bought hard copies of both cuz they are great!

"Fangs of the Lone Wolf" is another free download courtesy of the US Army [CLICK].  You can pay for the book at various sources, or just run with the free download.

Book has plenty of diagrams and is focused on the study of tactics through vignettes.  Doesn't matter if you aren't interested in Chechnya, there loads of scenario ideas and plenty of things to learn that will enhance your moderns game.