[GZG] [AAR][SG2] Woods Ambush

PLAYERS: Me and a friend who is an SG-2 noob. Was me introducing him
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...).

TomB

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...).

TomB

Great AAR Tom!