SGII First Game

2 posts ยท Oct 5 2000 to Oct 5 2000

From: Flynn Richardson <Flynn.Richardson@u...>

Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 16:02:23 +1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Subject: SGII First Game

Hi All, Hopefully this will not bore to many of you!

During my trip to Europe earlier this year I called in on Jon and picked up
some of his nice new 15mm figures, (after filling out the survey in a
positive manner I had no choice.. well that's my excuse any way :-) so
here is the AAR of our first game.

"A couple of space jockeys finally got down and dirty and have a go at SGII."

We played the "Meeting Engagement" Scenario and my NSL Panzer grenadiers
(minus Vehicles) faced off against Adams UNSCM.

I was using the organisation straight out of the rule book and Adam was using
one he got off a web site some where (sorry forgot to note it down) Neither of
us knew exactly what the other was using.

My plan was to roll up one flank first by concentrating my platoon. I thought
that the UN might be a hard fight so wanted to give my grunts the best chance
possible. We started the game by putting out our inverted counters and then
telling each other which ones to remove. I tried to keep a straight face as
Adam removed my command element! Never mind, I swapped it for one of the other
squads and carried on (25% casualties and the first turn hadn't even started!)
I removed three of his markers that opened up a hole opposite where I wanted
to be and we started the first turn. We ran into our first problem at this
stage as we could not work out if you could move the dummy markers as you have
to activate them and place your figures on the table. We decided to move a few
and the there was a round of "pass" as each of us tried to work out where the
real units where.

How do long time players do this?

The next turn the UN forces occupied some light woods inn the center with a
good field of view and proceeded to spot one of my units, Yep the command
squad again. I moved another unit around on the left flank and exposed a dummy
unit. Then one of the counters I thought was a dummy opened up on my exposed
command unit firing its support weapon first and then with its second action
the squad weapons. Once all the firing had stopped my unit had lost its SAW
gunner and was down a confidence level and had two suppression markers on it.
I replied by opening fire with my remaining squad but made the mistake of
forgetting to add in the quality dice, so no hits but one suppression marker.
As the second action the unit went to ground. Adam reacted by moving his third
squad on to the right flank of the command squad and my second squad.

At this point I knew that I had only removed dummy markers as he had only
started with three squads of eight men :-(

As his second action he opened fire on the command squad but only added
another suppression marker. I still had the command squad to activate so used
it to reactivate my two other squads. Still forgetting the quality dice I
managed to inflict a suppression and one wound result. End of the turn.

The next turn Adam activated the suppressed squad and reorganized it to remove
the wound, lucky for me it was a kill! He then tried successfully to remove a
suppression counter. I made a big mistake in not activating a unit hoping to
make him think that I still had a squad undisclosed. He responded by
activating his command unit and reactivating his first squad which proceeded
to mow down my second squad. Its leader gallantly stepped in the way of a
plasma blast to save the SAW gunner who was only wounded. The rest of the
squad huddled together and elected Private Von Funkleburg as new squad
leader!(rolled low so leadership rating went down to 3) His leadership did not
last long though as the UN command squad used its last action to place fire as
well. Von Funkleburg coped a round as well and the squad was down to two
untouched, two wounded and the two smoldering corpses of the squad leaders.
Quick huddle between the two survivors again (Bags not me!) and a new leader
emerged! ( the new leader had a better leadership rating back up to 2) I
activated my first squad and got some revenge on the offending UN first squad
by wounding one and putting them back under suppression (boy is it hard to
penetrate power armour when you only have assault rifles!)At least I had
worked out how to use the quality
dice :-)

Adam replied by indicating that he would CA my Command squad! (boy power
armour can move fast! I didn't realise how far they can cover in a turn)Lt
Richoffen holds the troop together for the confidence check ( three to one
odds with the power armour modifications) and I let out a sigh of relief when
the UN failed to get enough combat move to make it on the first bound, but
promptly groaned as the Lt couldn't get his troop to get there heads up and
fire on the new threat (remember they were still under three suppression
markers!) Adam easily made it on the second bound. We paired off his eight
power armoured troopers vrs my 5 Panzer grenadiers when the dust settled I had
two untouched (including the glorious Lt who defeated both of his
opponents!)and one wounded and Adam had three untouched two wounded and three
dead! In typical Adam fashion he passed the confidence test but my guys failed
(What do you mean there isn't a positive modifier for surgically removing
power armoured trooper bollocks with a can opener? asks the Lt) and fell back.

At this point having taken close to 50% casualties ( and rapidly approaching
curfew time) My PG's offered the UN terms of surrender, (You get to keep our
nice shiny guns and we carry the wounded ok?) Which they accepted.

Overall lots of fun and, once we got the hang of it quite fast. I made a few
mistakes (reread the rules silly and add the quality dice to your fire
attacks!)and Adam out thought me in setup(he had set up everyone in the
middle), but not too bad for a first game. The UN tin cans will not have it so
easy next time!

I forgot to bring home works digital camera so no pic's this time :-(

From: Allan Goodall <agoodall@a...>

Date: 5 Oct 2000 12:36:23 -0700

Subject: Re: SGII First Game

> On Wed, 04 October 2000, "Flynn Richardson" wrote:

> Hi All,

Hey, there! Welcome to the SG2 fold.

> We started the game by putting out our inverted

I've never actually done this. I've never done the random
quality/leadership me
thod either. I usually design my own scenarios and pick the force size and
lead ership accordingly.

> We ran into our first problem at this stage as we could not work out

I've only ever used dummy markers for one side of a game and so this has never
come up. Technically, the rules state that when a unit is activated and does
so mething (move, fire, what have you) they lose their hidden status. I play
it di fferently. I usually don't let the counters move while hidden, but I do
let the m do spot actions, communication type actions (such as a command unit
transferr ing actions to another unit) and go on overwatch (using my house
rules) while s till remaining hidden.

I wouldn't have a problem with units moving while hidden, though I'd probably
g ive another unit a beneficial die shift if they try to spot a hidden unit
that moves.

> At this point I knew that I had only removed dummy markers as he had

> Still forgetting the quality

Ouch. Yeah, that would be nasty forgetting the quality die.

> The next turn Adam activated the suppressed squad and reorganized it

Lucky for him, actually. If the figure became "okay" that's bad for you, but
it 's worse for him if the figure is wounded. The figure has all the negatives
of being dead with none of the benefits (that is, you can leave the dead
behind, y ou have morale problems if you leave wounded behind). When I play, I
often hear, "Oh, good. My wounded guy's dead."

> I activated my first squad and got some

Wait a minute! You went up against PA with regular panzergrenadiers? PA is
much better than regular guys, probably close to twice as good (in close
combat, th ey ARE twice as good). You were at a disadvantage if you started
off with the s ame number of squads as he did and he had PA. If you also lost
squads when he d idn't, you were in serious trouble.

Another note: Adam used up an action to reorganize a PA unit in order to
determ ine what had happened to the wounded guy? He doesn't have to do this.
The rules for Power Armour state that they don't need to reorganize. They
simply roll to see what happened to the wounded guy right away. It's a
slightly different rol l, too, as it's possible the guy is fine but his armour
is shut down. It's anot her reason PA is at an advantage. So you lucked out a
little when he used up an action doing this.

> Adam replied by indicating that he would CA my Command squad! (boy

That's ANOTHER reason they are nasty! *S*

> Lt

Ah, failed the Reaction test to fire on the charging guys, huh? Don't you just
hate that? At least they made their roll to stand firm. *L*

> Overall lots of fun and, once we got the hang of it quite fast.

Good game report, too!

> I made a

And you were seriously understrength, too, for fighting against PA. Try it
agai n, but take, say, 6 squads of Panzergrenadiers plus command squad against
3 squ
ads of Power Armour plus command squad. Or 4 + 1 against 2 + 1. That
should giv e you a more balanced game.

Another way to balance it would be to give your guys all veteran and/or
elite s tatus (perhaps it's a commando strike team on a special mission). That
could ev en things up a bit more, too. The quality die helps in combat as well
as commun ications, confidence, and reaction tests.