AAR SG2 Woods Ambush

By Tom B

PLAYERS: Me and a friend who is an SG-2 noob. Was with
me introducing a new guy to the game.

DURATION: 5.5 hours including setup and teardown and a
diversion for pizza. Also covers explaining the game to new
player.

BATLLESPACE: 6' long by 3' wide heavily forested board
with lots of tree stands, shrubs, hills (some climable by vehicles
and some not) and a small pond in the middle next to a small
slough. Most terrain was passable by infantry (hills +1" to +2"
and slough 2x movement). Not many long lines of site. I think
the longest shot I saw was probably 52" but the average shot
was more like 20-30".

BLUE FORCE BRIEF (NAC):

NAC mechanized force to travel down 6' length of board to exit
off far side. Unknown enemy forces suspected to be executing

intercept movement.

RED FORCE BRIEF (ESU):

NAC column trying to move through area of control. Engage column and
destroy, stop them from moving off far end of board as primary
objective, destruction as secondary.

BLUE FORCE ORBAT:

NAC mechanized platoon in 3 8x8 wheeled APCs (HMG armed) and one 8x8
IFV (LMG + AC armed). The platoon was composed of 3 8 man NAC infantry
squads (6 rifle + GL, 1 SAW, 1 Laser Rifle) and 1 Gurkha recon section
(1 SAW, 1 laser Rifle, 6 Rifles). The infantry was a 1 green, one
blue, and one orange quality section. The Gurks got a red chit.
Vehicles all had blue. There was also a single figure EW guy and an
independent commander (blue and orange respectively)

BLUE FORCE ORBAT:

ESU infantry platoon backed up by exoskeletons. 4 squads of ESU
infantry (7 x rife, 1 x SAW), 4 missile teams (missileer/loader with
ENH GMS/P), 1 command stand (5 x Commissar with 1 dog) and 1 support
team of gunner and loader (1 x AGL on tripod). The infantry was backed
up by one squad of Slow, Heavy Powered Armour and two Infantry walkers
(Heavy Gear minis) armed with 2 x SAW each. The PA was D12 armour and
the Infantry walkers were class 1 vehicle armour. Quality of troops
varied from green to orange with leaders being orange and PA being
orange. Walkers had one orange and one blue. These guys also had 1
independent blue medic.

SPECIAL RULES:

Infantry Walkers: Move 12"/2d12". Class 1 vehicle armour. Manual
firecontrol. 2 x SAW (D10 FP). Can use cover and concealment. Exposed
weapons rules were not used because I forgot to look them up on
stargrunt.ca beforehand.

Spotting: Unit QD + Sensor QD vs defense die. Defense die was range
die shifted up by 1 for any sort of cover/concealment. Beat on one
die, know something is there. Beat on both, know exactly what. Can
fire in either case. Automatic if really obvious (someone drives
vehicle into open 200m away), free roll if likely (someone walks
infantry squad into open 300 m away at the end of their movement), 1
action if not likely (trying to spot previously unspotted enemy unit
that has not fired in a woodsline).

PA: Can benefit from cover.

Extra die type: I use D16s as top die type for rifle firepower, armour
and impact for weapons. I don't extend range to 6 bands, but I do
allow engagements out to D16 if that is a result of cover shifts. A
rifle can still fire to those ranges, it just gets hard to hit.

Overwatch: 1 action, counts as fire action, allows you to interrupt
movement or other visible actions you see on enemy turn. Allowed
tripod or vehicle mounted rapid fire weapons to make multiple
engagements without losing overwatch counter. Otherwise, 1 shot =
overwatch counter expended.

EW: EW guy spent 1 action to get 3 EW chits. Used to JAM comms (NEVER
succeeded) and Jam GMS (ditto).

REAL GMS/P:

Should have also used Exposed weapons on Infantry Walkers rules and
Marksmen (both found in rules section of stargrunt.ca). Also chose to
ignore green PANIC tests.

NARRATIVE:

NAC forces moved onto their end of the board in the 1st turn. ESU were
allowed to start up to 10" on the board at their end. ESU moved very
aggressively forward in a broad line. Their primary objective was to
secure one of two defensible lines in woods or on hills. They secured
the first line and had GMS teams in firing position by the end of turn
1. NAC had merely got a few inches on the board and debarked infantry.

Turn 2, ESU finished securing first defensive line and moving forward
to second. NAC started moving dismount infantry and attempting vehicle
support. First APC lost to GMS this round.

Turn 3, ESU had secured second line very powerfully and were using
Infantry Walker firepower to start to suppress and inflict casualties
on NAC infantry. 2nd NAC APC lost this round. NAC ICV not having much
luck with its 25mm autocannon. ESU AGL starting to supress cupola
gunners on APCs.

Turn 4, ESU destroy ICV and gun on last APC leaving one unarmed APC.
By this point, they have inflicted maybe 3 or 4 casualties on NAC. NAC
EW total failure. ESU casualties 1 GMS loader.

Turn 5, ESU uses fire to suppress two NAC squads and uses PA to
assault (my advice to my foe shows here). PA in melee vs. veteran
squad slays 6 of 7 and forces remaining one to flee. Last APC lost for
NAC. NAC has taken about 11 casualties by this point. ESU maybe 2.
Gurkhas caught in open and suppressed. Bad things ensue.

Turn 6, NAC manages to rip some holes in the ESU PA (green squad at
range band one!). Causes one kill and one wounded. ESU return fire
badly hurts green squad. NAC eventually concedes surrender as ESU
forces push up through slough in the middle of the map while holding
both flanks strongly. ESU casualties approx 2 dead, 3 wounded. NAC
casualties approx 16 dead if you count vehicle crews, 2
routed/surrendered, 6 wounded, all vehicles destroyed.

ANALYSIS:

I let Lorry get away with some things I'd have called more veteran
players on. I provided advice on how to use the PA and how to make
effective close assaults. I let him choose his weapons for OW fire at
firing time (rifles or missiles for missile teams). I let him operate
as if he knew some stuff his player knew but his guys would not. And I
let him be a bit gamer-y with lines of sight and troop movements. I
also let him fire OW before new activation rather than just making him
blow it off despite the lack of new action to his front.

On my part, I forgot to include my laser rifles for most of the NAC
squads (giving it FP 3 instead of D12) and I probably rolled about 33%
1's and another 15% 2's no matter the number of sides on the dice. I
blew a bunch of command transfers, armour checks, and one or two key
defense rolls (Gurks in the open getting suppressed in RB 5). None of
my HMGs or autocannons caused more than a suppression. I could not,
for the life of me, knock out his two infantry walkers. My EW jamming
failed every time (about 8 total attempts).

For his part, his dice were good for movements, adequate for fire, but
he also managed to roll well at key times. Every GMS that hit (he
missed with 2 or 3) was a major impact and disabled or destroyed a
vehicle.

But the point was not for me to win, simply to introduce him to the
rules, let him move some guys, and roll some dice. Mission well
accomplished and he said at the end that he could see how it would
allow more tactical choices than WH40K. I declared victory and we
cleaned up.

I think I could get him to play again and have some idea how to shake
some of the 'gameresque' bits of his play - maybe I hide some of the
results to introduce uncertainty or maybe I make mission objectives
secret and random from some cards. I'll also let vehicles do more as
time goes by. They're weak in SG2 (very very much so) and weak even
with my few revisions here. Run as I think they should be, they should
last a fair portion of the fight and be dangerous foes.

I'm looking forward to other games and more opportunities to use some
of my beautifully painted figures (I just got a shipment of NI figures
back from my painter and the chocolate-chip inspired camoflage he
produced was just magnificent...).

I noticed I forgot to include my GMS/P rules inspired by Oerjan.

GMS/P: Treat as class 3 weapon for crew escaping damaged vehicles.
Does 3d12 on minor impact, 6d12 on major. Oerjan and I talked about
how an IAVR or GMS/P has to be able to take out a tank or it isn't
much use and modern ones do. Not much point in carrying 1d12 damage
weapons (2d12 on a good roll) vs. 3d12 to 5d12 armour.

FURTHER THOUGHTS:

I should probably go with fixed armour values for vehicles... random
armour is just waaaay to variable to feel real. Maybe 8-10 points per
level would feel about right. This would mean a glancing blow (minor
penetration result) of the same sized weapon vs. that same class of
armour would mean Xd12 vs X*8 or 10. Considering a dice average of
6.5, less than a great chance of penetration, but still quite possible
with a good roll. On a solid hit, you'd be rolling 2Xd12 vs X*8 or
X*10 and that means effectively averaging twice as much (13.0) vs. 8
or 10 per level and giving pretty good odds of penetration. It would
also remove one more dice roll and speed up the game a bit.

The other idea I've been toying with is giving vehicles a more
sophisiticated range of damage (slowed, crew injuries before vehicle
kills, sights out, comms out, weapon damage, etc). And of course,
using my rules for PDS, ADFC, etc. to help them out. And letting
crewmen do different things (gunner shoots cannon, driver drives,
commander spots - for instance).

T.

--
"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a
terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it."
Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like
administering medicine to the dead." -- Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine