From: mark.langsdorf@a...
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 16:01:59 -0600
Subject: [SG2] Battle Report - Newbies on Patrol [LONG]
Walter Cook, Jason Abell, and I met for our first game of Stargrunt II on
Tuesday. We played a general meeting engagement after deciding the Patrol
scenario was too complicated for our plans. The rule was that each player
had to shoot at least two squads from each other player -
we didn't want two people duking it out and then having
the third play clean-up, which is the classic three
player strategy.
The table was about 6' square, heavily forested, with a hard cover bunker in
the center. It only had firing slits on one side, and worst luck, the slits
face my units!
I had a full platoon of FSE Legionnaires, as per the book organization. They
were a mix of green and regular troops with a Reg 2 commander. I set up in the
southwest corner in 5 rough clumps.
Walter had a Warzone (Bauhaus?) army, a split of close combat troopers with
assault shotguns and swords, and some standard light infantry with assault
rifles but little support. He had two veteran units, but his command group was
a green 2. He set up on the east side.
Jason had a Void army, backed up by some other figures. Again, it was mostly
close combat troops, though he did have a green squad with standard rifles,
and a power armor detachment of 3 guys, including one with a flamer. His
troops were on the northwest corner, mostly facing me.
After a little confusion to decide initiative (not me, since I had 5 squads),
play began and went fairly quickly. The first few turns were mostly movement,
as we tried to establish lines of fire. Jason was the first to use his command
group well, sending his green rifle group into the bunker early. That give him
line of sight on my command group in the center, and I ended up retreating
into the woods shy a SAW gunner.
Walter was pretty much out of the early part of the game, having to move
through a lot of hills and woods to get to the bunker. He finally arrived in
grand style, with one of his assault groups scaring Jason's squad out of the
bunker and into a wheat field. The resulting combat
was amazingly even-handed - each player lost 3 out of 6
figures, each in a row. Jason's unit routed anyway and soon moved off the
board. The command squad provided covering fire.
Another one of Walter's fast assault squads assaulted
my command squad - 8" movement is nasty. Only two
of them made it, but with +2 die shifts and some good
rolling, my entire command squad went down. I got my revenge the next turn,
though, when one of my infantry squads moved within 5" and opened fire,
killing 2 and wounding another 2.
On the west, Jason's armor unit pushed my Reg 1 squad out of their wooded
position and broke them (rolled 2 consecutive 2s for the confidence test) and
then started getting pinned by regular fire from my greenies.
Play mostly stagnated at this point. I had enough fire
power, and the right firing arcs, to double-suppress
everyone's squads, which I did. Jason and Walter's command squads fired on
each other, but that just left them pinned down, too.
Finally, Jason managed to unpin his power armor long enough to attack one of
my green squads. A low roll on the assault move left him in the open for final
defensive fire, and two of the suits went down. The survivor retreated into
the woods, only to have the unactivated
greenies fire into him, taking him down with a GMS/P
(we house-ruled that GMS/Ps could fire at infantry as
though the infantry had basic ECM, plus cover shifts). Jason surveyed his
options and retreated, and Walter pulled back rather than deal with the my
squads that didn't have to defend against Jason. So I guess I won, though my
forces had penetrated less than 18" from their starting points.
Lessons learned: Morale is surprisingly unimportant in SG2. Out of 13 units (8
CO and 5 ST), only 2 went to broken or worse, and only another 1 or 2 went to
SH. Suppression is amazingly important in SG2. There were 2 or 3 turns when no
one could shake suppression counters fast enough to move. Don't use crappy
troops or leaders to go into position in open terrain. I had a Reg 3 fail the
test 4 times, the rat bastard. Close combats are very decisive, but final
defensive fire can make your day suck.
Everyone had a good time, and wanted to play again. We're going to try VOR
next week, to give both games a fair trial, and then (hopefully) go back to
SG2.
Anyone got rules for VOR Neo-Soviets in SG2?
Specifically, the effects of Commissars capping rad troopers?