Overwatch/Reaction Fire & Suppression - FMA

Jon Tuffley spake thusly:

Interested in others' opinions on this one - originally we had no
limit on
number of suppressions, but in testiing this meant that sometimes a
figure
got loads of them piled on it at once and it got a bit silly. Question
for
discussion: if you're under fire, are you more inhibited if you think
more
people are firing at you, or doesn't it make much difference?
Then we tried a max of 2 suppressions, which works OK-ish, but then
thought
we'd try going to one only. That way, you CAN pin someone down
completely
but ONLY if they fail their first remove suppression test, which gives
good
troops a bit more chance to keep moving.
An alternative idea we had was to allow up to 2 suppression chits, but
to
say that if you rolled better than TWICE your motivation number, then
you
removed 2 chits at once (eg: a Veteran/2 would need 3 or better on his
D10
to remove 1 supp chit, but 5 or better to remove 2 in one action).

** I like that last. That way you can "suppress" a unit effectively,
but a good unit can say "Screw it! We're going anyway!". FWIW, in
paintball, I sure found a difference from being engaged by 1 hostile
with a semi-auto and five...

As a frequent proponent of overwatch in SG2, and having written and
tried several flavours because I play many games with OW rules, it
strikes me that
1) laying down chits (even with dummies) is a no go. Yes it denies
areas, but unless the area is huge, people just work around it.
2) writing down is too cumbersome (although this might be close to
RL - using a target point such as a tree or rock or whatever)
3) arcs are problematic unless they are painted on the figure base

Go with "rough line of sight" for OW. You have the right of it. It is
a planned action. If someone is smart enough to plan ahead and lay in
wait, then the attacker better either not come right down his throat
(flank!!!), drop arty or some indirect or air on the target, or come
in a vehicle. Walking out into an area covered by an emplaced gunman
is VERY unhealthy.

I think an interesting way to do overwatch against opponents executing
what the CF calls A-to-C (Advance to Contact) drills (bounding
overwatch movement) is this. (use the same for reaction fire)

If a target finishes a movement in the open and is in the LoS of an
enemy unit (and the other prereqs being in place), the enemy unit (if
it was on OW) may fire on the target (AIMED). Reaction fire may be
attempted if the unit was not on OW. (This is a hasty fire action).
(UNAIMED). If the target does not finish in the open, but was in the
open for a period of time during the movement (bounded from cover to
cover) - if on OW, roll a reaction test (+2?) or if doing reaction
fire, add 2 to the check required to execute reaction fire. If this
"reflex" test is passed, the unit fires on the target when it is in
the open (so move it back to the open part - kind of an interrupt
thing). Otherwise, the unit has bounded successfully without being
engaged. This sort of reflects (though piss poorly explained) the real
"up-he-sees-me-down" way bounding A-to-C is often taught to
infantrymen. (now, I'm told that in the Falklands this proved too slow
and people just got up and ran, but that had to be more risky).

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008