Janes

[Jefffar]

I managed to pck up most of Jane's 1998-99 edtion books relevant to land warfare a few years ago for about 20 bucks a pop (normal retail is around $500) which have been sed heavily in providing realvent equipment details.

I have to rely on the web for developmens since then and information about settings.

[Devari]

I have access to most of the JANES publications at work and we are allowed to download them etc... to use in my campaigns....

I was wondering do any of you guys use Janes or something similiar in your campaigns?

I've used Jane's books in the past as a general reference (I recently purchased their 2005 recognition guides for tanks, ships, aircraft, etc.), although for most weapon or vehicle specifications I try to rely on other sources. Jane's books are excellent for background information and other interesting details but they also have many errors and omissions in their specifications. Since they're a civillian publishing group they don't have direct access to military equipment or information, they simply collect and publish information that is publicly available.

Tom Clancy's non-fiction books (Armored Cav, Marine, Fighter Wing, etc.) are a great source of information for military equipment and organization. Since Clancy has actually been given tours of military units, demonstrations of weapons and vehicles, etc., the information is generally very accurate and reliable and the books themselves are fun to read.

The internet is a convenient source of information but unfortuantely a lot of it is incorrect or misleading and it takes a while to determine what information is reliable and what isn't. I've found that this is becoming increasingly difficult lately because sources such as Wikipeida have been copied by several other sites and this ends up spreading a tremendous amount of incorrect information that is presented as a "reliable source" when it's simply something someone typed into a web page. Usually I will only use information from the internet if I can find several independent internet sources or if I can find the information on an official site such as the manufacturer's website.

Lately I've been trying to find information on Russian equipment for a N&S campaign and I've found that the official websites for Kamov, GAZ, etc. are excellent sources. After all, if Kamov states that the Ka-50 has a certain speed or weight I'm going to take their word for it since they're the ones who actually built the helicopter. Many of the Russian sites also have english versions which is nice since unfortuantely I can't read Russian .

[Devari]

I find Janes pretty good other than weapons etc.. they have the latest terrorism reports, technology developments, what each country is doing. Police reports/tactics, country briefings etc...

A real treasure trove of informatin for my campaign....

I assumed you were referring specifically to Jane's military reference books in your original post. I haven't read the other material that Jane's publishes, although some of it certainly looks interesting.

[Jefffar]

Lately I've been trying to find information on Russian equipment for a N&S campaign and I've found that the official websites for Kamov, GAZ, etc. are excellent sources. After all, if Kamov states that the Ka-50 has a certain speed or weight I'm going to take their word for it since they're the ones who actually built the helicopter. Many of the Russian sites also have english versions which is nice since unfortuantely I can't read Russian .

I did a lot of research on russian gear for RObotech. I still try to keep tabs on it to update what I have.

The official Russian Sources these days are great for providing a lot of detailed specifics - but - and there is always a but - historically Soviet/Russian performance claims were based on carefully crafted ideal circumstances trials in which the design had been optimized for the specific figure they were after. As a result a lot of their figures are artificially high and may not stand up to real world experience.

[Devari]

Lately I've been trying to find information on Russian equipment for a N&S campaign and I've found that the official websites for Kamov, GAZ, etc. are excellent sources. After all, if Kamov states that the Ka-50 has a certain speed or weight I'm going to take their word for it since they're the ones who actually built the helicopter. Many of the Russian sites also have english versions which is nice since unfortuantely I can't read Russian .

I did a lot of research on russian gear for RObotech. I still try to keep tabs on it to update what I have.

The official Russian Sources these days are great for providing a lot of detailed specifics - but - and there is always a but - historically Soviet/Russian performance claims were based on carefully crafted ideal circumstances trials in which the design had been optimized for the specific figure they were after. As a result a lot of their figures are artificially high and may not stand up to real world experience.

That's true, Russian performance claims have to be carefully assessed, particularly because they export large amounts of their military equipment and are often in direct competition with western countries for military customers. However, performance claims for American equipment also have to be looked at carefully because there are often major economic incentives to get certain military programs approved or cancelled regardless of whether the weapon or vehicle in question meets the necesssary requirements. The Stryker is a good example of this, because many tests that were performed were designed to produce a certain result instead of giving an accurate assesment of the vehicle's capabilites.

I've found that in most cases the basic specifications such as length, weight, speed, etc. published in official sources are generally very reliable, which is the main information I usually need. For determining things like weapon damage I always try to base this directly on physical information rather than on performance claims. For example, one of the first things I look for with anti-tank weapons is the weight of the warhead because this is often more informative than the "armor penetration" capability reported for certain weapons. Same thing with ballistics - calculating the muzzle energy and momentum of a bullet will tell you a lot more about its performance than relying on someone's subjective claim of "stopping power". I generally use other modern vehicles from the Palladium books for comparison when assigning game stats, although I've found that Palladium's stats for certain weapons or vehicles often need to be changed to correct errors or inconsistencies.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of Russian equipment has been extensively used in Afghanistan and Chechnya and there is a large amount of practical experience with this equipment that can be taken into account. This is also true with American equipment that was used in Vietnam and Iraq. I've found that comparing the "official" performance of certain equipment to the actual combat performance is very useful because it helps determine how to realistically represent military equipment in a game setting.

[Rockwolf66]

While I do use Janes for some things and I have a small library of firearms information. My preference is to go out and experience something firsthand. This means that instead of simply taking the word of some idiot with an opinion and a web page as gospel I will first research then test that opinion. while it may be expensive at times as I am on a college students budget, I have still managed to do quite a bit.

it also means that while gaming I tolerate allot of things that don't work so well in real life, such as firing two handguns at once or firing from the hip at a target more than 7 yards away.

Still I am lucky as I have several Players with Military experience and honestly know how to act durring firefights.