Re: Newbie question

On Fri, 02 Oct 1998 14:08:02 +0100, Oerjan Ohlson
<oerjan.ohlson@nacka.mail.telia.com> wrote:

>Haven't played WH40K for ages and SGII only a little, so I'll leave
that
>for someone else.

Okay, I'll handle this one.

In an opposite move to Epic40K/DS2, SG2 is designed to simulate battles
slightly bigger than 40K. Well, as compared to 40K Rogue Trader, that
is. I
never got into any of the later 40K games. 

SG2 is designed so that the base unit of the game is a squad. Individual
figures are marked and removed for casualty purposes, but otherwise
everything
happens at the squad level. I guess you could say that the individual
figures
are there for bookkeeping purposes.

Each player activates squads one at a time. Each squad gets 2 actions
per
activation. They can fire each weapon only once per turn, but can move
then
fire, fire then move, move twice, etc. Combat is different from almost
any
type of game you've played, but it's easy, fast and a lot of fun. The
attacker
rolls a certain type and number of dice and compares it to dice rolled
by the
defender. The result tells if the target was hit, missed, or just
suppressed,
and the number of potential casualties. Typically a squad fires all
weapons at
another squad or splits the fire of its small arms and support weapons. 

Command control and morale are very important, more so than 40K. Each
command
unit has a special action. It can use one of it's actions to activate
another
squad, including one that had already activated. This allows some units
to act
twice in a turn. The strategy, therefore, is not just in moving and
using the
squads, but also in how you activate them. Flexibility is the key. 

With morale, squads drop through 5 levels of morale, potentially routing
a
unit off the field. This is controlled by a squad's quality (untrained,
green,
regular, veteran, elite) and it's leadership value. Sounds like a lot,
but
quality is so tied into things like combat that it eventually (very
quickly,
actually) becomes seemless and easy to remember.

While the game concentrates on squads, there are rules for individual
figures
(such as snipers), artillery, vehicles, power armour, aerospace
operations,
ECM, etc., etc.

Proper tactics usually result in correct outcomes. You can charge an
intact
unit that hasn't been activated in order to conduct close combat, but if
you
haven't supressed it first, you're in for a lot of pain! Close combat is
so
much of a crap shoot that I rarely recommend it! This is a big
difference from
40K.

Note, the game has no point system. I don't have a problem with this,
but
quite a few people do. Perhaps we'll see one in the Bugs Don't Kill
supplement
due when Jon gets around to finishing it.

If you have any other specific questions about the game, don't hesitate
to
e-mail me. SG2 and DS2 are fairly similar, although most people prefer
the SG2
combat resolution system.

Allan Goodall	       agoodall@sympatico.ca

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart