Oh yeah, one other really important element to add... The war in Afghanistan has lasted something like 12 years, but no person has stayed in Afghanistan for 12 continuous years. Every year, you have a unit rotation. This unit rotation has a huge influence on the way a FOB is operated and the effect it has on surrounding areas. Units are large groups of people who enter and exit theater in waves, and when a new unit comes in and replaces an old unit, they have a phased replacement process. Each unit and its command can have really different culture and values, depending on the mission role of the unit, what branch of service it is a part of, how funded they are, what part of the country they're from, their historical legacy, etc. I've personally overseen about 5 unit rotations myself and have a pretty good idea on the process, both formally and informally.
informally, when a unit first arrives in country, they are very energized and ready to go. They've been preparing for this rotation for over a year with training, briefs, etc. The new units traditionally fall in on a unit which is exiting theater, so they're replacing a tired unit. The tired units are really tired out and spent. They're only thinking about going home and resting. Who can blame them? They've all been working for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 365 days without breaks. The new unit gets in and sees how "poorly" everything is running and they vow upon their unit pride to turn things around and make a mark in history. The underlying political current is "Everything is fucked up, we're going to fix it all by changing everything!", so there's a bit of upheaval as a new unit comes in and changes everything, even if it worked. What's especially ironic is that the unit leaving theater always says, "We're going to leave the incoming unit in great hands by having everything ready for them to fall in on." (and they do). The end effect is that, even though you have 12 years of war, due to the unit rotations, you have twelve one year wars instead of twelve years of one war.
In my very first unit rotation (Feb 2004), I was in the Marines with 1st MEF and we were the relief for the invasion force in Iraq. We occupied a new base called "Camp St. Mere" at the time. It was about a mile outside of Fallujah and we were replacing the 82nd Airborne Division (army). Of course, the marines are supposed to be the best branch of service, so there was a notable rivalry between the Army and the Marines. At the time, Fallujah was the most violent city in the world. A few weeks prior to our arrival, insurgents had attacked the local police station and killed 40 police officers in downtown Fallujah. Every evening, we took rockets and mortar fire. Several people died. The army policy was to just wait it out, but the marines weren't interested in sitting behind walls and letting people shoot at us. I worked in the command staff, so I heard several officers say quietly that after the army left, we would be the new sherriffs in town and go on an offensive against fallujah. Right around the end of March, four idiot contractors decided to drive right through the center of fallujah, alone. Their SUV was surrounded by insurgents and all four of them were killed. Their bodies were dragged through the streets by a mob, and then hung off the side of a bridge. This became worldwide news and hit washington DC. The secretary of defense wanted retribution. Now, we were already planning on going into fallujah, but in a month or two. After this incident happened, our timetable became rushed and within a week, we had the whole city surrounded by army and marine units. I watched from the comfort of our command center as units spent days doing bloody house to house combat, winning territory a neighborhood at a time. The ring of units surrounding Fallujah gradually constricted, slowly closing on the center of the town. We were a day or two away from victory, and then we got an order from Washington DC to withdraw. The civilian casualties were too high for the politicians to stomach. There was an uneasy peace agreement struck with the citizens of Fallujah: We promised not to come into their city if they promised not to shoot rockets and mortars at us. It lasted for 3-4 months, and gradually the mortars started again in July. We were leaving theater in September, but that summer, secret new battle plans were being drawn up to take Fallujah in response to the breach of agreement. Except, we wouldn't be the invaders this time, it would be our replacements. A few months later, I watched the news in November as the marines retook fallujah. After their rotation came back, I asked some of the marines about it. They proudly said that they had to come in and do what we couldn't do: take fallujah. I laughed quietly to myself, knowing better but letting them have their victory.
Oddly, about 10 years later, I was a contractor in Afghanistan working on an army/airforce base (Bagram) and oversaw three different unit rotations over the course of 18 months. The interesting thing here is that the units left, but I did not, so I was a source of continuity between unit rotations and had pretty deep knowledge about what was being done and the reasons behind them, so when new units came in, I provided a bit of stability between rotations instead of the traditional upheaval.
I have no idea if or how you'd like to use this in your game, but it would be fun to see these effects simulated in a video game. I suspect that if you really nailed it, you might actually get a few military officers to play your game as a part of their training and preparation for a deployment.
but please let me know if you find any and i'll do my best to fix them
