Company Mods & Armored Cavalry Regiment Concept

SGII - Company Mods By Stuart Murray

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It became apparent to my gaming group that the typical platoon-level
SG game was over too quickly if one side lost a single squad from
arty or aerospace attack. We kind of stopped using these in games
so games lasted a little longer. I started thinking about this more
and I realized that what I wanted to play was a reinforced company
level combined arms game in which a small amour contingent could
effectively support a single company (including organic mortars/HMGs)
and not skew the game too much with its firepower.

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One problem with using larger forces is the alternating action phase.
Because opponents can react to the actions of a single squad
operational coherency quickly dissolved. It seemed wrong to me that
a company commander could not gain an advantage by activating a
whole platoon rather than a single squad.

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Another disadvantage of playing larger SG games is the time it takes
to move lots of individual figures. While playing I observed that
players tend to worry greatly about the facing and disposition of
individual troops. I noted that in larger games this focus on the
individual troops tended to distract the commanders from the 'larger
picture' of the tactical battle.

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I began tinkering with how I could activate whole platoons in a
timely manner while lifting the tactical level from squad combat
to platoon/company combat.

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To speed moving figures and relieve the player of worrying about
individuals I started to gang base squads. I found that too much
detail was lost when basing squads so I dropped the multi-basing
to the level of fire teams. I tried it a few times and it seemed
to work out. I then tried lifting the tactical level by activating
platoons/or platoon equivalents (such as a pair of tanks) with a
single chit, like Dirtside.

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I tried it a couple of times on gaming buddies before bringing it
to the GZG ECC. The feedback from them was positive. There is very
little 'learning curve' and the leaner game appealed more than
regular SG to a player who was new to SG (he had only played a
couple of times).

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So, what I ended up with is a way to play faster, more complex,
games of SG in an evening and I still get to use all my little
toys*

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Mods for company gaming: (NB, I use 15mm figs)

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Basing
Fire teams, or functional groups (such as command, SAM, ATGW etc)
are based on a single base. I use a 1" base, usually square. This
represents the team within a 10mx10m area (SG scale is stated as 1"=10m)

Fire teams are two (high tech and PA), to four figures (low tech)
per base. Specialists are usually 2-3 figures.

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Example Platoon: Commonwealth Infantry Platoon

Command: Base of Lt., Sgt, RTO 3x Rifle Sections: Base of NCO
and 1 rifleman, 2x (Base of 2 riflemen and 1 SAW)Support: Base
of Marksman and 1 rifleman, Base of ATGW (2 figures) Platoon
rides in 4x IFVs

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Company Command
Only company command has EW and artillery support chits. Platoons
do not, this helps preserve the chain of command for such
request/priorities.

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Activation
A single platoon group (or equivalent) is activated at a time.
When activated all bases/elements in the group may perform
independent actions, i.e. in an infantry platoon some may fire
while others move (An example of cover fire and move, otherwise
not modeled well in SG). All SG rules apply, such as leader
replacement etc (in this case it will be a base that is
promoted).

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Movement
I typically choose a base near the center of the platoon, measure
and move that base, then move all the other bases without measuring.

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Firing
Firepower is calculated per figure in a fire team, as SG. NB, the
PLATOON is firing, so, it is up the player how they resolve fire
team firing. Pick targets and detail how many fire teams are firing
at each target. Example: a Commonwealth Infantry platoon firing on a
Union infantry group. The Commonwealth player chooses to target the
Union group with three sections (three groups of three fire teams).
First determine the firepower for each section; resolve as SG for
each section independently.

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GMS: Any figure with a GMS may fire with either the GMS, or with a
rifle/SMG etc. I do not limit the GMS to 3/4 shots; the fire team
will carry reloads.

Mixed bases: bases with riflemen and a SAW gunner may fire either
combined i.e. SAW in support, or just as a SAW.

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Casualties

Each base can take TWO wounds; this is independent of the number
of figures actually on a base. If a base gets one hit I place an
untreated casualty marker next to, or on, the base. If the casualty
gets treated I replace that with a treated casualty marker (I use
regular casualties for untreated and figs on stretchers for treated)
. I use casualty marker castings from Peter Pig. If a base gets two
hits it is dead and I replace it with two untreated casualty markers
. (I adopted an idea from a historical gamer, he used two sets of
generic markers, one green, one grey, that way he did not have to
buy specific casualties, he used the same ones for everything. It
sounds strange, but I find it is effective)Any casualty (treated or
not) is moved with the fire team. Casualties can be 'pooled' for
protection, left at an aid point, or recovered by medevac; if so I
use a small marker (a small piece of pipe cleaner placed on the base)
to represent the base having one 'hit'. Alternatively, casualties
can be abandoned like regular SG and the base marked accordingly.

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The Armored Cavalry Regiment Concept:

The great difficulty in accurately portraying armored and other vehicle
heavy units is that their size is really too large for most gaming tables.
What is needed is a means to get the feel of a large formation but keep
the size down to a acceptable size for play in most venues. I have
struggled with this problem over the years without much success until
while cleaning out old boxes of stuff I stumbled across my old copies of
"Wargamer's Digest". This magazine was put out in the late 70s to early
80s, or at least that's when I stopped getting it. This was a great little
Mag with lots of useful items in it, one of them was the "Series 78
Standard Unit".
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The S-78 units where made for WW II gamers and were composed of either
of I/72nd scale or Roco Mini Tank vehicles. These units were for sale as
complete formations, the one thing that they all had in common was the
reduction in the size of the units and in battalion or larger there are always
the appropriate support units. The lack of support units (THE ASH AND
TRASH) has always been a pet peeve of mine, left to his own devices a
gamer will bring as many guns to bear as his point system will allow.
The beauty of a standardized MTO&E is the gamer can be required to
think in broader terms i.e. resupply and recovery. In a campaign game in
particular these factors can be of great importance and where possession
of the battlefield (with your recovery assets) can be down right lucrative...)
The main thing with these MTO&Es is that all units fight as they would
under the rules used i.e. a tank although representing a platoon under
these T.O.s is in fact just a tank that moves shoots and fights as it would
normally.