Musing away, I was, about how nice it would be to have something to string
together games of DS2 and SG2. Then a thought came to me... would it be
feasible to implement a reasonably simple battalion or regimental level
metagame that would generate scenarios for DS2 and SG2? SG2 battles tend to be
fought with anything from 2 squads up to 1 company or more, whereas DS2
battles are probably fought anywhere from company to battalion sized. That
therefore means battalion or regimental level might be appropriate for a
metagame.
Questions that then raise themselves: 1) How should such a game be conducted?
2) If it is using a map, what scale is appropriate?
3) What time period is appropriate per turn of the meta-game?
4) How shall combats be resolved? 5) What elements of logistics need to be
involved? etc. etc.
My thoughts go something like this: Rating units: A Platoon should rate some
sort of strength statistic, say
perhaps from 1-10. This gives us a bit of range. Perhaps 1-5 is
sufficient.
A Company would rate 4-5x that most times, and a battalion 3-4x that
again.
And a regiment might well rate 4-5x that battalion rating.
Rating Size 5 Platoon 20 Company 80 Battalion 400 Regiment
This rating might be quite abstract and therefore, in a DS2 or SG2 sense,
would factor in a lot of disparate factors.
Turn length: Could be 1 day or 1 week (a first WAG).
Scale: Well, if you were using 1 day, I'd suggest that one hex (assuming we
used a hex board) would be equivalent to 5 km. If we used 1 week, I'd suggest
25 km. Of course, a little depends on the terrain. Rates of progress on the
plains in grav APCs will differ notably from that in swamps using foot
infantry.
You could use a metagame something like this to allow formations to manouvre
and engage in combat. This might work well with dummy markers too.
I'm thinking primarily of smaller scale conflicts such as those fought by
mercenary or colonial forces or smaller isolated combat teams. It would give a
framework to the SG2 battle that's on the board.
Of course, you _can_ do this with some sort of scenario preamble, but
it'd be interesting to have the players "play" themselves into a situation
where
an SG2 or DS2 battle was the result - then too we'd get scenarios where
casualties were an issue (you'd want them for later) and sometimes battles
would just not be fair - if your enemy caught you napping - but you'd
still want to bloody his nose (for campaign reasons) before throwing in the
towel.
This musing was brought about by me reading Rick Shelley's "Colonel" (the
sixth in a series of books about the Dirigent Mercenary Corps) which
reawakened my interest in some higher level manouvering.
I also briefly contemplated if TacOps (video game) could be refit to use
futuristic units and scenarios from the GZGverse:)
> Musing away, I was, about how nice it would be to have something to
I was thinking of using GEV, calling each unit a company or battalion and
adjusting the scale accordingly. Need some different units, of course. The
dearth of DS2 players around here means this is not a hot
Hmm,
Immediately springs to mind is Assault with the opther add on games,
Boots'n'Saddles, Bundeswher and Cheftain. Hex size was 250m scale and played
at Regt level. Obviously anything you choose will need some modification but
this one would I think be reasonably adaptable?
My 2 cents.....
Owen
> -----Original Message-----
Greetings!
After running my Moonbase Xi Dirtside II scenario a couple of times at GZGECC,
I had similar ideas. In the scenario one side is trying to enter a base,
acquire some data and exit the same side of the board. Both times there was an
infantry close assault near the base.
If I ever run it again, I would like to have a side table to set up a
Stargrunt II linked game. What I tought of doing was: 1. Create a template
6"x10" to represent the area on a SG2 board (60"x96" or 2 3x8 tables). 2. When
any activated unit gets within 10" of opposing forces, the Game Judge places
template is over them and the DS2 turn for those figures is replaced by 3
turns of SG2. DS2 has 15 minute turns and SG2 has about 5 minute turns. 2a. At
the end of the 3 SG2 turns, the figures are "mapped" back onto the DS2 board
and the template is removed. 2b. If a unit was activated during the SG2 turns,
its confidence marker is flipped on the DS2 board (it has used its DS2
activation).
2c. Units on the SG board may NOT effect units _not_ on the SG2 board.
I.e. command reactivation to/from an off-board unit, weapons fire at a
unit
off-SG2-board, etc. is prohibited. Artillery may be called in from the
SG2 board, but its effects will take place on the DS2 board. 2d. Confidence
and leader rating changes are reflected on the DS2 board. A unit must be
destroyed on the SG2 board to be removed from the DS2 board.
Some comments on the above: 1) This makes close range (under 10") tank battles
VERY deadly, as they take place using SG2 rules. 2) If you have multiple
instances of foces within 10" of each other, it gets messy as you have to
reconstruct terrain between DS2 turns. Example: 4 unts
(A,B,X,Y) A-X are withing 10" and B-Y are within 10", but A-X is not
within
10" of B-Y. A is activated and goes to SG2 board with X. Later in the
DS2 game Y is activated and goes to the SG2 board with B (terrain is
reconstructed to match the DS2 board). Next DS2 turn A is activated agian
and so the SG2 board would be reconstructed back to the A-X terrain.
etc. 3) SG2 stats for all DS2 units would have to be made prior to the game
and casualties kept track of. 4) Suppression of vehicles do not translate into
Under Fire markers in DS2, but suppression on infantry would translate into
Under Fire markers in DS2.
> -----Original Message-----
That
> therefore means battalion or regimental level might be appropriate for
[snip]
Similar to an idea I've had floating around in my head, except I was thinking
to use SG to resolve at close assault actions in DS.
Neath Southern Skies -http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernskies/
[Pirates] Dame Captain Washalot
[MKW2] Admiral Peter Rollins - Task Force Zulu-Beta
[Firestorm] Battletech PBeM GM
> -----Original Message-----
G'day,
> Similar to an idea I've had floating
We've been thinking of doing this too... or just going so far as "you know
when xyz happened in the DS game the other night, lets redo it at SG scale".
Cheers
Beth
I'm thinking that some thing with a 1 to 2 km hex would be in order. For SG a
table would be one hex, for DS a table would be multiple hexes. Using Assault
would for SG give you table of @ 7 hexes, for DS a hex would equal 2.5 inches.
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
DS2 has a ground scale of 1"=100m (p.4), so a hex would be 10-20"
SG2 has a ground scale of 1"=10m (p.5), so a hex would be 100-200"
Or to put it another way, if you have 1 hex = 1km and use 2, 30x96", tables:
A SG table would be less than 1 hex (1 hex tall, 1/2 hex wide).
A DS table would be about 10x9 hexes (you loose about 1/2 hex on every
other hex when figuring width).
\__/ \__/ Every other hex you can only count
/ \__/ \ the width of the base, not corner
\__/ \__/ to corner
/ \__/ \
\ / \ /
If you go to 1/2km per hex, it might be easier.
SG 2x1 hexes DS 20x20 (rounding for ease of use)
Any way you look at it a DS2 board represents about 100 (actually 90 and 10
partial) SG2 boards.
> -----Original Message-----
For
> SG a