GZG's ESU Infantry Squad With Cyclops Battlesuit

Lot of 14 minis for use in scifi skirmish games like Stargrunt, Tomorrow's War. GRUNTZ, etc.  Intended to be a used as light mech section supported by a squad of light infantry.  Includes:
10 ESU army infantry figs including command figures and SAW users, mounted on US pennies - new releases from GZG just before the holidays

4 Cyclops battlesuit light mecha, two with autocannon and two with heavier AT weaponry, mounted on 1" steel washers.

Use Of Captured Vehicles

As stated in NQM if the town is captured, then anyone who cannot
find a space in another friendly box is captured by the enemy. Captured
vehicles may be used; captured men cannot. The way this will work
is items captured will be used in the next game but must be in
your colors!

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

ESU Ships Names (Look from The Russian Side)

In the Name of Socialism.

VKF, as it is shown in the "Fleet Book 1" follows
mostly Russian (or better to say Soviet Union) naval
traditions. That affects not only ranking system, crew
official and nonofficial customs, but also nominatingships.
In this brief article I want to give some impression
of how to name military ships to make them sound "Soviet"
and "Communist". The truth is, that Russian Navy hasn't
ever had any single system of ships' names (that's probably
because of relative insignificense of the Russian VMS (navy)
in comparison with "Ground Forces", unlike, let's say, Britain,
Russia has always been a continental power). It would be more
right to say, that Russian navy has a mix of traditions,
and some of them were different in times of Empire and the
Soviet Union. Let's, finally look at them. Tradition 1. Adjectives.
In the last years of the 19th century our navy got new class of
ships: fast torpedo armed destroyers (in Russian "esmintsi"). For
those completely new light ships Admiralty set up a new tradition:
give them numbers or adjective names instead of nouns.
Note,that in British navy, adjectives (like "Invincible") belong to
capital ships, but in Russian - to light ones (no bigger than
destroyers).Additional rule: at the beginning they tried to invent
the names for the ships of the same design, starting of the same
letter.So I would
suggest adjectives as the names of the ESU escorts.Russians say
"he" about their fighting ships (but submarines are "ladies"),and
Russian male adjectives end with a combination of an impossible
for any English-speaker vowel (written like "bl" in capitals), and
aconsonant, which sounds like the "y" in English word "play".
Sonormally that combination is written "-iy", "-ii", or "-y" when
transliterated into English. Very good and traditional for Russian
escort would be names Agressivny (Aggressive), Aktivny (Active),
Bespokoyny (Disturbing, Restless), Voinstvenny (Militant), Gremiashchiy
(Thundering), Derzky (Daring),Proslavlenny (Renown), Sovremenny
(Modern), Yasny (Clear)etc.

Tradition 2. "Flyers". From the very beginning Russian submarines
got the names of fish and other water creatures: Akula (Shark),
Krokodil(Crocodile), Krab (Crab); while amphibious ships often got
names after small or medium predators: Kunitsa (Marten), Rossomaha
(Wolverine).So, once "swimming" submarines got fish-names, then
"flying"spaceships should have birds' names: Orel (eagle), Voron
(vulture), Yastreb(falcon), Socol (also falcon, but of different kind),
Orlan, Filin, Albatros,Burevestnik, Chaika, Skopa would be nice. But
more popular are not flying birds but flying winds. We still have in
Russian Navy "Buria", "Shtorm" (both mean storm). But in Russian
science fiction our spaceships are often called after snow winds.The
most popular spaceship in Russian Sci-fi is called "Hius" (Hius - is strong
cold wind, which blows in steppes in February). Like in Arabianlanguage
there are 20 words for "Camel", in Russian there are several wordsfor
"blizzard", and many of them are used for warships, while thelast - for
real spaceship. Here are some (and all of them are different blizzards):
Poziomka, Metel, Viuga, Purga, Zariad, Buran.Tradition 3. Geography.
That tradition evolved in 1920s-30s, and it isstill used, but it has changed
much and became non systematic now a days.I'll try to restore it.So, in
1920s-1930s some light cruisers were named after big national areas of
the USSR. The idea was to underline communist loyalty of the areas. They
were "Krasny Crim" ("Red Crimea", note male adjectiveending);"Krasny
Kavkaz" ("Red Caucasus"); "Chervona Ukraina" ("Red Ukraine",not Russian,
but Ukranian language name). Gunboats had the names ofthe smaller regions,
there were for example "Krasnaya Abhazia" ("RedAbhasia"), "Krasnaya
Gruziya" ("Red Georgia"), "Krasnaya Armenia".In VKF ESU there are some
light cruisers of the "Tibet" project. Tibet- is a national mountain area in China.
Add word "Krasny" and get thename of the tradition: "Krasny Kavkaz",
"Krasny Tibet", "KrasnyXinjian", "Krasnaya Transilvania" etc.There were
other ships in old Soviet Navy in 1920-1940s, which class was called "leaders".
Leaders were smaller then cruisers but bigger than esminets-classes
(destroyers), so we also may consider them like cruisers. They were named
after capitals of the Sovietrepublics "Moskva", "Kharkov", "Tashkent", "Kiev".
And, finally, Soviet battleships were also called after biggest ports and renown
naval fortresses: "Vladivostok", "Petropavlovsk", "Sevastopol", "Archangelsk"
+ In VKF ESU there are some ships of "Bejing" project. So, it would look authentic
if some cruisers (even big ones, cause "Kiev-class carriers" in Soviet Navy were
also officially called "aircraft carrying cruisers") in ESU squadrons would have
names of local capitals. Eg "Changsha", "Kunming", "Namp'o", "Nagpur",
"Rostov","Minsk", "Bratislava" etc. The biggest battleship of the Soviet Navy
was going to get name "Sovetskiy Soyuz" (The Soviet Union), but it hadn't ever
been finished. So I would suggest this kind of "geographical line, going up".
Cruisersare named after lands and local cities. Battlecruisers and battleships
-after biggest cities and small countries with adding words "Sovetsky"(Soviet),
"Narodny" (People's), "Sotsialistichesky" (Socialist) or "Krasny"(Red)
("Sovetskaya Manchuria", "Leningrad", "Narodnaya Korea","Sotsialisticheskaya Chekhoslovakia"). Dreadnoughts might have namesafter the biggest territories,
planets, star systems ("Sovetskiy Soyuz", "ChzhunGo").

Tradition 3. Revolutionaries.

In this "tradition" there are two"branches": revolutionary events, and
revolutionary leaders andorganizations.Events. Biggest and the most
powerful capital ships were named afterthe most powerful or most
significant Communist revolutions. In thesoviet Navy there were
battleships "Parizhskaya Komunna" (ParisCommune) and "Octyabrskaya
Revolyutsia" (October Revolution). You may call your battleships and
battledreadnoughts after any revolution you like from history of the
past or GZG-universe. Leaders. It's easy. Take any revolutionary or
communist leader from any history and give his (her) last name for a ship.
If you want to name a ship after a Chinese revolutionary, take his full name.
The only rule: more powerful ships should be called after a bigger leader.
Let's say "Bauman" or "Komarov" for destroyer, "Mikoyan"for cruiser,
"Che Gevara" for battleship, "Mao Zei Dong" or "Lenin" for
dreadnought. For lighter ships you may choose nonpersonal names
"Revoliutsioner" (Revolutionary), "Krasnogvardeets" (Red Guardsman),
"Stalinets" (Stalinist), or, for example, "Luddit" (Luddite).
Tradition 4. Famous people. Very often Soviet ships got names notafter
revolutionary leaders, but after famous warlords, naval commanders
and scientists. In that case slight different system is used. Not only
surname, but also rank of the person is included into the ship'sname. If
we take Full Thrust ESU classes, they should sound "AdmiralGorshkov",
"Marshal Voroshilov", "Marshal Zhukov". In the Soviet Union
there was rater a big scientific fleet, research ships of which were called
mostly after famous scientist. In GZG-universe ESU carriers are obviously
called after people, who stood at the beginning of the spaceflights(the same
way were some sci-ships in the USSR). So, in that tradition the ships
shouldn't have just surname, but also rank of the person."Kosmonavt
Komarov" (Cosmonaut Komarov), "Akademik Koroliov", "ProfessorYangel".
This way you can determine cruiser named afterrevolutionary Komarov
(which name would be just "Komarov"), from the carrier named after the
astronaut. If the person had no title or rank (like Tsiolkovsky), there should
be his first name instead: "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky".Tradition 5. Renown.
Since the middle of XIXth century in Russian navythere is a tradition to
"reincarnate" ships with admirable history.Several names have changed
three bearers so far. Those renowns are:"Merkuriy" (Merkurius). Brig,
which defeated in 1827 two heavy Turkishfrigates. Later there was a light
cruiser with the same name."Azov". Russian battleship renowned at the sea
battle of Navarin in 1829. In the end of the XIX century, there was raider
(cruiser) with the same name."Avrora". (Aurora). Corvette of the Baltic Fleet,
took part in the Crimean war against English and in 1862\63 journey to USA,
to uphold Notherns in the American civil war. Light cruiser with the same
name, built in about 1897, survived terrible Tsushima sea battle, took part
in the WWI, and became the leading force of the October revolution. Now,
it's one of the symbols of the Revolution, and "honorable older man" (ship
number 001) of the Navy."Variag" (Viking). Cruiser which in 1904 engaged
suicidal battle against Japanese navy, gloriously fought till the last cannon,
drowned, but didn't surrender. Battlesong "Our Variag isn't going to
surrender" became unofficial anthem of Soviet and modern Russian navies.
There was a missile battlecruiser with the same name. And non finished big
nuclear powered air carrier, scrapped in 1993, also supposed to be called
"Variag"."Slava" (Renown). WW1 battleship (yes, we also had one with that
name).Delayed advancing German fleet fighting all alone, in 1916 in the
Baltic Sea. Flagship of Soviet heavy fleet (former "Molotov") was renamed
into "Slava" in 1957, when Molotov tried to coup Khrushchev, and was expelled
from the leadership."Kirov". Cruiser of the Baltic fleet, which took huge part of
defence of Leningrad during WW2. Big nuclear powered battlecruiser
(flagship of late Soviet Baltic fleet) has the same name.So, for game purposes
you may choose any heroic episode of Russian, Chinese, Polish or Corean navies
(or imagine any from the history of ESU spaceforces) and transfer any name
from there.Minor traditions. Sometimes ships were called because of certain
anniversary or political event. "50 let Octyabria" (50 years of October
revolution). Sometimes they are called after sponsors. "Leninsky Komsomol"
(Leninist Young Communist League, traditional sponsor of SovietNavy) or
"Severstal" ("Northern Steel", an industrial concern, which builds submarines).
Traditionally auxiliary transports are called after big Russian rivers (Volga,
Lena, Volkhov, Dnepr, Don).Altered tradition. Battles. In "Fleet book one"
there are three ships, which are completely out from MODERN tradition,
but they could fit, into TSARIST tradition, never used in post-revolution
times, but rather possible. I mean names "Manchuria", "Rostov",
"Petrograd". There is NO city Petrograd, but there was a victorious
and glorious defense of it (from bolshevist side, surely) during the Russian
Civil war. And there was victorious battle for Rostov during WW2, and there
were successful battle for Manchuria where Soviets were against Japanese in
1945 and there was a "Manchurian victory" of the Chinese People's (Red)
Army during the Chinese Civil war in late 1940s. So, I would suggest name
capital ships after big victories of different communist armies.I hope these
short principles will help you to get more fun from fighting on the side (or
against) of glorious Peoples Military Space Fleet, which brings liberation to
the working class of all the nations of Human-kind.


Yours,Timophey (Tengel)
Potapenko