The Desert Wars keep popping up and I've even used them in passing in my campaign. I've always played that they were televised skirmishs between megas, governments, and any one else who wanted to try out a new piece of tech or wanted to secure whatever resources were still left in the Arab/North African world.

What say you?

They haven't come up yet in any game I've been in, but I think of the Dessert Wars as being like Paintball competitions... with live ammo. I see it as teams of varying sizes, supported by corporations, who get cheap advertizements for their products through support of good teams.

I aim more at a combination of Arms Show, Bloodsport, and "Non-Peaceful Negotiation".

It has been described that it started when a blimp (Or some such) was over an ongoing battle there, and it was a ratings bonanza, IIRC, and, so, it's a major "Sport" now, with rules and regulations and all that.

A "Civilized war for a civilized time" would be a good way of selling it. With a variety of reasons for the combats.

First off, you have the typical battles. Just like a Hockey Season, only going all year long. Every MegaCorp and Major Country would be involved with teams. They'd probably even have divisions. Light Infantry (Footsloggers only), Mechanized Infantry (APCs allowed), Supported Infantry (Some tank, Helo, and LAV units are allowed), and Unlimited ("Patton's Wet Dream"). These are "Bread and Circus" shows for the masses, and pure bragging rights only.

Second off, Corporate Court/United Nations sanctioned Battles. Rather than fight a war, waste untold lives (And civilians), and damage even *MORE* of nature... Fight it out in Desert Wars! Now, this is for all the apples and oranges, people, and not only important for the situation going on, but also a Pay Per View bonanza! It's also a good way to clear the air over issues that can't be dealt with over a negotiating table or Shadowrun.

Third off, during Sweeps Week, GRUDGE BATTLES! RUSSIA VERSUS UCAS in a battle ROYAL! NEONET versus RENRAKU, over that Fuchi bad blood even after all this time!

How does that sound?

The main advantage in my mind would be that fighting over a worthless piece of radioactive desert means you're not fighting in and around anything expensive.

So it's a live fire testing ground for new tech and tactics?

Wow, that really can't be the sort of place you send troops you actually care about ;p Morale must suck.

Pay is better than being a regular grunt. Desert Wars is advertising!

And, instead of just being "Grunt Soldiers", they're "Combat Athletes". The infamous ones get their faces on the Soyies box (As long as they're a part of the Aztechnology Combat team, of course, as that's the owner of Soyies.).

In addition, when pieces of you get shot off, you get the cooler replacements, as well, as you're a walking advertisement! And are more likely to be able to keep it afterwards, for when the people in the bar go, "Didn't you used to be...".

actually in my mind it would be the prestige post for the gung-ho corp sec guys. fully supplied with all the latest and greatest, including medical. it beats watching ice form in some isolated research station in the Arctic, or having to wear a tux and follow some asshole vp around a cocktail party.

And, for the Military Soldiers, a chance to demonstrate just what the "Difference" is between Military and "Security Forces".

A lot of pride and unit honor on the line there!

GO WINNIPEG BLACK DEVILS!!!

Jesus Christ.

There's an entire subchapter of Target: Wastelands about Desert Wars.

There's no need to just pull shit out of your asses.

Sadly I don't own that book, care to summarize?

Corps fight! People watch! Much fun is had by all ... well most!

Hehe, alright. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't vastly off point characterizing it to my players.

I would be more specific, but don't actually have access to the book in question at the moment.

I think there's something we CAN pull out of our hoops on this one, however!

All right folks, who is your favourite team???

For Light Infantry work, I gotta go with the Winnipeg Black Devils! Excellent skirmishers, with good urban combat skills! Lack of equipment and communication support doesn't hurt when individual training is so high!

Mechanized Infantry, I go with the Sudbury Irish Regiment, who are great defensive fighters, they zoom to strategic locations, and hold them, period. For a more aggressive group, I like the German Blitzers, but the retirement of their CO in the last season might hurt them this year.

For the Heavy Metal, you can't be the Ares Hammer's Slammers. Period. They beat you. Like a red-headed elven stepchild!

I bet a lot of surviving veterans get work as corporate spokespeople, play-by-play (shot-by-shot?) announcer gigs and tons of groupies from their celebrity. A realy glory hound might go for it...

The Desert Wars take place mainly in former Libya (today part of Egypt) and in Algeria.
Central staging area is the city of Tamanrasset in the Ahaggar mountains in Algeria.
Main event is the four-months Desert Challenge, smaller events are the Mercenary Challenge (only independent teams) and the Open Challenge (corps, mercs, nations...).

Important fact: Most of the Desert Wars is fought with non-lethal or simulated weaponry! Only selected battles are fought with actual live ammo.

A spin-off of the Desert Wars, called Rad Wars, is scheduled to take place in the SOX in autumn 2070 for the first time.

I had fun with my group by having a Merc contact of theirs ask for their assistance with the Pilot episode of Squad Wars, a much smaller version located in urban settings around the world where they had a certain objetive to acheive each time. Missions included capture the flag, save the hostage, take out the paracritter etc... with an opposing squad simoultaneously going after the same target, or they were guarding it. We had a blast. I just used the unbelievable number of maps available for first person shooter games out there

Sounds like Urban Brawl, with less high explosives.

I doubt it'd last the season.

T:WLs also mentions that the Desert Wars coincide with some of the world's largest arms trade shows and talks about how there are a lot of shadow ops that occur behind the scenes (stealing prototypes, gathering intel for different teams, etc).

There was an early (pre-Crash / SR3) spinoff planned to be held in the Gobi desert (China/Mongolia).

Live ammunition is commonly reserved for finals, or grudge matches...

Now if that isn't a reason to have the High-Def, Wide-Display Trid set up and ready, I don't know what is!