Re: FMA Suppression

Allan Goodall wrote:

> Okay, using the auto fire rules I posted yesterday I'd probably make
some
> changes with regard to this. If an automatic weapon is fired at a
group of
> figures, the start and end point of the "line" across which the weapon
will
> fire would be indicated. For instance, if it was spraying a 4" wide
area, the
> ends of a 4" wide line would be indicated. At least one target figure
would
> have to be on that line. The die modifier would be based on the length
of the
> line (not the number of figures along that line).
>

Explain the DR modifier in detail. Can I use an example to illustrate
and you tell
me if I'm off base? A soldier uses a SAW for "area firing". Say that a
SAW is
normally an impact D8, For every multiple of 1" (or 2" maybe) it goes
down a die
type? Or are you talking making -DRMs. What goes into limiting the size
of the
band? Or is it range constant.

>
> Now, after doing that, all figures within the arc of the weapon would
be
> attacked, friendly or enemy, within the same range band as the line.
The arc
> is taken by holding a ruler from one end of the line back to the
firing
> figure, then from the firing figure to the other end of the line. I
tried this
> on a table, using golf tees as indicators. Worked easily enough.
>
> Basically it's a beaten zone. The width of the beaten zone is up to
the
> player, and the depth is based on the depth of a range band.
>

But what limitations are put into effect to limit the size of the beaten
zone (say
I want to make one the width of the table? <grin> Note that this system
is not too
much different than TOM's, which I'll summarize.

Step one: When you make up your stat cards before the game you have the
length of
the area fire at any given range band. ie. range band one= 2"; range
band 2= 3";
range band 3= 5" (Note I'm just making these up to hurry it along.) Also
on the
card, based on weapon type is how many attacks a given automatic weapon
can make
using burst (i.e. 3) or Full Auto (i.e. 8) as well as how lethal it is
(Say
semi=d10, burst = D8, FA=D6).

Step two: Our intrepid SAW gunner is one Overwatch, eyeing a street
corner. A
daring enemy squad attempts to haul ass across the street. They begin to
run. The
SAW gunner activates opportunity fire. Lets say the enemy are at
rangeband three.
(Whatever that is), which happens to allow a 5" fan.  The Gunner sets
out a tape
measure or straight edge and lays out the limits of the fan (using golf
tees or
whatever per your description).

Step three: Anything within that fan is attacked. If two guys are caught
in the
fan and the gunner is using burst fire, then he has (in our example) 3
attacks to
divvy up on those two guys. He attacks closest to farthest, say spending
2 attacks
on the first guy and one on the last, both using the (Again in our
example) D8
against the enemies armor (or if you play the other way, the enemy rolls
a range
band die).

A few observations.
 This is very lethal if either, the gunner is hitting an area where he
can see a
bunch of figures, OR if a squad has activated a number of figures
together and
they a re all running across the street at once. But what if you are
playing where
you only allow one figure to be activated at a time? This greatly
diminishes the
effect of the fire as a way to suppress an area people will be running
through.
See my fire lanes below:

>
> >Here's a better question. Enemies hunkered down behind a berm 20m
> >out.... my guy fires his SAW on FA to rake the position and keep
their
> >heads down. He doesn't try to kill them, just prevent them from
> >moving. How do we do this in FMA?
>

A possible suggestion: (a slight variation of what I posted last night).

Fire Lanes: (2 action event). Upon overwatch activation, the gunner sets
down a
marker (or markers) per the above stated procedure (either one) These
markers show
an imagined lane between the gunner  on out to the marker. Anything
running across
that lane is attacked  per the auto weapon rules above. (Either Alan's
or Tom's
variation). But here's the kicker. The Gunner has an amount of attacks
per whether
he's full auto or burst either 3 or 8 above. And anyone coming across
the  fire
lane gets attacked until the number of bursts is used up. Perhaps a
better way
would be to only allow one attack per figure caught within the
crossfire. You
could diminish the effectiveness say one or two dice down if you aren't
using
Tom's auto rules. In fact you could limit this further, say a gunner
must have an
Assistant gunner with him and limit this to crew served (call the other
guy a
spotter in more advanced techs or do away with it all together).

What this captures is: Many times MGs lay down a fire lane. It's no
surprise to
anyone there. Anyone who crosses the street falls under it's influence.
It's as
obvious  (even if they only fire  a few rounds) to those trying to cross
the area
as if the guy had a big red laser beam and was shining it down the
street. While
the troops trying the move through that area amy not even have come
under attack
by the weapon, they suffer a sort of mental suppression result just by
knowing the
gun is out there and zeroed down the street. Note that normally you find
this out
the hard was as the first guy runs across.

As an additional idea, once a fire lane has been established you could
enforce a
+1 task check for anyone trying to willingly cross this lane.

Note that either this Fire lane rule or the Beaten Zone rule I posted
earlier
serve the same purpose, to deny an enemy a free ride across a certain
piece of
terrain and in effect serve to suppress them where they are without
penalizing
them for being under good cover.

Los