Re: SGII special troops

>> Sniper - one per platoon at most.  Independant unit?  Detached
element?
>
>Definitly one/plt at most. Maybe only one/company, because snipers are
>very powerful. Run them as independants.

Check out the Sniper rules in the SG rulebook - they are good for this.
Owen's comments about the relative rarity indicate the highly
specialized
training, etc that goes into making "real" military snipers.  However,
what
you do find in some armies is the use of marksmen - regular riflemen who
are probably better than average shots, equipped with heavier rifles
with
telescopic sights than the regular infantrymen, but assigned to infantry
units.	The idea behind this is to provide a bit more accurate long
rante
firepower to an infantry formation, but without the specialized training
that goes into making a sniper.  These are used quite differently
tactically too.

For SG, I've used this concept in a number of games, and it works well
to
give smaller infantry units a bit of extra "oomph" without, as Owen
pointed
out, running into the unbalancing potential of "real" snipers as per the
SG
rules.

What we do is have a "marksman" assigned to an infantry squad, or in a
small team of his own, and he uses rules that work basically like this:

Fire him as you would a support weapon firing on it's own;  ie he
requires
a separate fire action to use in the "marksman" role and you don't fire
anything else with him.  His "firepower" would be that of the sniper
rifle
he's carrying (see the back of the SG rulebook for examples of the
various
sniper rifles) and his "quality" is that of the squad he's in.	He gets
12"
rangebands (benefit of the sights) but does not get the other special
benefits of the sniper as per the rules (ie getting a "hit" result with
only one of his two die exceeding the defense roll, etc).  He can't pick
out targets in the unit he's shooting at.  Alternately, you might say he
can pick out specific targets (ie the SGT or EW trooper or SAW gunner)
in a
target squad, but only if he hits within his first range-band or two. 
The
only real advantage of this trooper over a regular support weapon is
that
he gets better range - and in a big squad, it gives you the option of an
extra individual weapon to fire separately from the squad fire.  If he
is
used WITH the squad's fire, then he just counts as a regular rifleman.

This works quite well, and adds a bit of interest to infantry units,
without the huge advantages a "real" sniper gets - particularly if you
let
the marksman pick targets when he's in close...

>
>> EW - one per platoon at most, in the command squad, plus one in the
>> company command squad.
>
>Sounds about right. This is how mine run.
>

Me too.  We've tried it with higher concentrations of ew, and find that
the
game gets totally bogged down with everyone rolling ew/counter ew every
turn, and because so many of the command unit reactivations get stopped,
the game slows down.  I suggest limiting ew to one, or maybe two ew
units
per side in almost all games where it's used, unless there's a specific
scenario driven reason to have more.  Keeps things flowing fast that
way.

>> Heavy Weapons (IAVR, GMS/P, etc) - one per squad (a total of one, not
>> one of each kind).
>
>One GMS/P per squad, certainly. Anyone can carry an IAVR, though - so
>some/all of your riflemen can have IAVRs as well, and probably should.
>

Though that depends on the doctrine of the army you're playing, and
their
supply situation, etc.	It isn't much fun if you decide that you have a
super army and each trooper carries IAVR as well as the squad having
it's
SAW plus a GMS/P, etc etc etc.	That gets to be a bit much.  If you're
going to carry a bunch of IAVR's, then for "game balance" reasons lower
the
numbers of your other heavy weapons.

<snip>

>> Medic - one per platoon at most.  In command squad?	Another in the
>> company command squad?
>
>I'd be tempted to run Medics as independant single figures - nominally
>with the company command squad, but detached for action.
>

I do this regularly.  I have 2-trooper medic teams assigned at Platoon
or
Company HQ level in my NAC force.  I use the NAC female medic/ammo
carrier
figure who has a box in one hand as the medic, and a rifleman as her
assistant.  They act as a separate "squad" in my formation, and can move
around the battlefield as needed to provice medical services.  The rules
say that if you have a medic with a squad that takes a reorganize
action,
you get the benefit of the medic.  The way we play the separate medic
team
is that the medic team has to move into unit coherency with the squad
they're going to help prior to that squad taking the reorg action, but
when
the reorg happens, the medic team does not become part of the bigger
squad.
 They can then be off to help someone else on their next activation. 
This
works well.

<snip>

>
>> Crew-served weapons - one per platoon at most.  Independant unit.
>
>Yes, and yes.
>

unless there are reasons (scenario driven) why they should have more. 
If
you have an attacking light-infantry unit who jumped into an LZ 10
klicks
from a target and have been humping for a few hours to stage an
improvized
attack, they might not want to be carrying a big automatic grenade
launcher
with them at all.  If you have a platoon assigned to defend a set
position
from a known oncoming attack, maybe they're assigned more crew served
weapons from their higher headquarters, and have them dug in. 

I've played several games where we've run a company on the attack versus
a
platoon on defense, and we usually give the platoon some extra stuff to
defend with, including mines, better positions, dummy markers, and crew
served weapons.  Makes for an interesting (though usually bloody)
battle.

Have fun with it all!!!

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com