Re: Stargrunt II

> A few more questions along that line.
> 
> you can have your heavy weapons fire at targets different from the
rest of
> the squad right?  What if I have two PPG, can I have both of them fire
at
> the same "other" target, would they combine?

Each seperate target/weapon requires a seperate action.  So you could 
have two seperate Pigs fire at two seperate targets, but that would take

both actions for your whole squad and the regular grunts with ordinary 
rifles would just be sitting there with their thumbs up their butts.

Unless you wanted to save the Pigs to fire when you're squad is 
re-activated by a leader, or you want to save the riflemen.

> How do you go about balancing one force against another?  Has anyone
> come up with a point system to use as a guide?  I realize I
> probably just stepped on some toes by asking that, but I really don't
feel
> like playing a dozen+ games just to learn how to play one balanced
game.

How about using identical forces? ;)  The other option is to change 
objectives in the middle of the game.  If one side's getting trounced, 
and both players realize it, just suddenly have orders come down for 
their new objective to be something currently within reach.  Perhaps not

terribly satisfying, admittedly, but a possible solution.

> 
> Can you combine two squads into one?	I plan on fielding 9 man squads
of
> light infantry (two PPG per squad) and wanted to include on the battle
> field separate 3 man heavy teams (one man carrying a SAW) acting as
> independent squads.  One of the things I would like to do is be able
to
> combine a Heavy team/squad and one of my light squads during a battle
(so 
> there would actually be two squad leaders in this "reinforced" squad).
 Is
> that legal, or would I have to do that before the game started?

The one thing I don't understand is why people would field a bigger
squad 
than five members if they were using any weapon of firepower 3, or a 
seven man squad if using a weapon of firepower 2.  With four riflemen 
armed with firepower 3 rifles backed up with an SAW man, you've just 
achieved your maximum efficiency--a d12 for the riflemen and then the
SAW 
as the second action (or Pig, or IAVR or whatever).  What good would 
seven riflemen do?  Aside from helping out as soon as you take 
casualties?  I know, I know, call me a "power gamer" but this is a
little 
too much of a rules loophole, unless I'm totally missing something.

Let's take a standard U.S. style rifle squad (I'm not in the military so

please correct me if I've got this wrong--this is just picked up from 
other games):

Squad leader w/M16
Fire Team Leader w/M16
Rifleman w/M16
1 SAW Gunner
1 Grenadier
Fire Team Leader w/M16
Dragon Gunner w/M16
1 SAW Gunner
1 Grenadier

Now, assume the M16s are firepower 2 and the grenade launchers are 
firepower 3.  That means altogether the squad has 18 firepower points, 6

of which are wasted because you can't have better than a d12, and you 
have 2 SAW gunners, which is just fine.

Of course if you divide the squads into fireteams, attaching the squad 
leader to one of the fireteams than your fine and dandy and efficient, 
with one fireteam firepower 9 and one firepower 7, resulting in each 
rolling a d8, right?  And each is supported by a nice SAW.  But what 
happens in terms of leadership?  What if I start the game with fireteams

like this, and assuming the squad leader is a sergeant, what is the 
fireteam leader, a corporal?  If my Liutenant (platoon leader) tries to 
give his action to one of the fireteams to re-activate it, is that two 
levels of command, platoon leader to sergeant to corporal, instead of 
just one?  I would think so.  Does this rambling make any sense to
anyone?