One thing that I found missing in the rules, or at least not covered well,
is the use of SAW/Machinegun Teams.
Machinegun teams, according to the rules would only be able to fire once, even
if they had two activations, where in position, set up with a field of
fire, loads of ammunition (belt/battery/box feeds), and containing a
gunner and other crew.
What I usually do is allow machinegun teams the ability to fire twice. Once
during each activation.
A machinegun squad of three troopers is set up to fire at an enemy squad, if
the gunner fires (Quality) a SAW/Machinegun (Penetration) you can't
simulate the high volume of fire, and you only roll two dice; the other guys
in the squad are busy stabilizing and fedding ammo to the thing. However by
letting them fire twice, once in each action, you can simulate high volume of
fire,
as should be generated by an in-position tripod/bipod machinegun team.
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Fri, 19 January 2001, "Jack Mosquera" wrote:
> One thing that I found missing in the rules, or at least not covered
Quite true. This was sort of discussed earlier, too, with regard to the
firepower and penetration abilities of heavy machine guns.
In one respect, this isn't really any different than how it's treated in Squad
Leader. A machine gun fires once in a turn in Squad Leader. Its effects do
something to the target... or they don't, just like SG2. A suppression marker
in SG2 (or 2 or 3...) simulate fire falling onto that squad throughout the
turn.
On the other hand, I think it's ASL that has the concept of firelanes, or
something like it. In real life, a lot of fire is poured down by a machine
gun. You don't want to try running through a machine gun's fire lane. This
isn't supported in SG2.
(This got me thinking about something. Machine guns don't actually fire in
flat trajectories, like a laser. They have to fire in some sort of eliptical
trajectory due to gravitational effects. You could argue, then, that depending
on the range, a machine gun firing at a distant
squad has to "arc" the shots up to hit the target. However, a laser --
like a vehicle mounted HEL -- should be able to fire in a flat
trajectory and cut through anything in its path. A gauss SAW would still have
to worry about gravity, but to a lesser extent due to the weapon's high
velocity. I'm not sure how this could be implemented, though.)
> Machinegun teams, according to the rules would only be able to fire
Bear in mind that there is errata on this. A weapon may fire once PER
ACTIVATION, not once per turn as stated in the rules.
> agoodall@canada.com wrote:
> On the other hand, I think it's ASL that has the concept of firelanes,
Up to a point, the arcing trajectory of a bullet can be
approximated as a flat, laser-like trajectory. The barrel of a
rifle, SAW, whatever, is angled slightly upwards compared to the line of sight
and starts beneath it. The shot rises up to a maximum point before falling
downwards. If you point the weapon accurately at the centre of a target's mass
and shoot, there's going to be little difference in effect between shooting,
say, 100mm too high or 100mm too low, so as long as the bullet is within this
(or your choice of other) margin you can consider the
trajectory flat. This gives the weapon's "point-blank range" (as
I've heard this distance described).
You can get ballistic tables from various sources that tell you how much
modern bullets will fall at different ranges. You might assume that the line
of sight starts 50mm above the muzzle and allow the bullet to rise 150mm and
fall 200mm, for a total drop of
350mm (or 14"-ish). I expect most modern rifles/SAWs will shoot
approximately flat out to around 200-300m... somewhere around the
same sort of maximum range troops are allowed in SG2, I hope. (I haven't a
copy to hand for reference.)
However...
> However, a laser -- like a vehicle mounted HEL -- should be able to
...this assumes not only a flat trajectory but abnormally flat
terrain. Your table may be billiard-ball smooth... but is the
ground it represents really that flat?
In WW1 through Korea, watercooled MG's (for the most part, though I'm sure
others also) were somewhat regularly using the fact that their trajectories
were not flat to hit targets in defilade. Instant (weak) artillery.
Rob
[quoted original message omitted]