[GZG] Re: Gzg-l Digest, Vol 8, Issue 57

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http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lHi John,

I found that many of the people I played DS2 with tended to field their forces
just based around buying models that they liked the look of. Whereas I did
lots of conversions to produce variants on a common chassis for different
roles, and went for broad interlocking capabilities. I think the munchkin
swarming efforts arose because those players never figured out that they were
facing an integrated battle system rather than "look at my really hard battle
tank". And yeah,
arty-delivered mines do have their uses!  A lot of the swarms never got
that close anyway because attempting to charge across several kms under fire
is not a career idea.

Only ever used tac nukes in one DS2 game, and that was a specific scenario
around an alien raid where they wanted to move fast, gather a harvest (they
were actually collecting humans to refuel a hyperdrive than ran on life
energy) and get out. Their philosophy was very much "it isn't our planet, and
we aren't stopping here anyway". The first
nuke was a counter-battery round, and the second cleared the axis of
advance of about seven platoons that were stupid enough to stay bunched even
after the first detonation.

The most dangerous weapon against the force I usually fielded was a heavy
laser kept at the rear with delaying units forward of them if I was attacking,
because most of my weapon systems were MDC4s and GMS(H)s that got outranged.
However, because my opponents didn't seem to really notice just how effective
these could be, air or arty strikes usually got rid of these, or else I
managed to take out enough ADS to allow my VTOLs to ranging around the area
like the gunships against the retreating Iraqis in Gulf War 1.

I guess we overhaul the designs and force mix when DS3 hits the
shelves though, hmm?!!  ;-)

Your memory about the history of Coral Sea and Midway is clearer than
mine (but hey, I'm a Brit!), but yeah, the Shokau/Yorktown extremes are
a great contrast. So maybe we should have a scenario cards that can go
either way - you get a ship back faster than by the normal repair
allowance, or much much slower.

Cheers,
  Ken

  Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 12:23:45 +0100
From: John Atkinson
Subject: Re: [GZG] Re: FT Scenarios
To: gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
Message-ID:

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> On 1/13/06, Ken Bywaters wrote:

> With Dirtside, for the most part we simply ignored the points system,

The answer to that is is artillery with scatterable minefields and
airstrikes. On-board forces, perhaps a platoon or two of scouts to
direct the fire. On paper, that should work. Personally, I'd be inclined to
break out the tac nukes just to make the point about how obnoxious I find such
behavior.

You are right about the design philosophy behind my DSII designs. I'm planning
a serious overhaul of the entire force mix eventually, once I get around to
it. Shoving Combined Arms even lower level, inspired by the US Army's UAs, but
with a more robust organization (3 combined arms BNs, a full BN of indirect
fire assets, etc)

> A few of the special effect cards should reflect unexpected fortunes

72. It it interesting to note that at the Battle of the Coral Sea (where the
Yorktown was damaged) the Japanese carrier Shokaku received some bomb damage
and Zuikaku's air group was shot up so badly that both carriers were held back
for refit. The Shokaku's damage was considerably less than the Yorktown's, but
Japanese repair yards did not work with the same sense of urgency and
ingenuity as American yards.

John