Re: [SG] Discussion about weekend questions

On Wed, 17 Jul 2002 14:35:27 -0400, Adrian Johnson
<adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>And yes, I'm fully in support of the "play the game, not the rules"
>mentality, but you have to look at what the rules are trying to
represent
>in this case, not what should be possible in situations the rules are
NOT
>designed for.

I'm on Adrian's side on this argument.

>If the vehicle had to spend the action to disembark the infantry, then
what
>you're saying is that an APC is limited, in a roughly 5 minute period,
to
>driving 120 meters, depositing infantry, and doing nothing else.  Now,
>*that* is absurd.  

That's not including other absurdities in the vehicle rules. You can't
move
that GEV tank at top speed (top _game_ speed, that is, which is a
fraction of
realistic top speed) and fire its main gun. That GEV tank can move 120
metres
in 5 minutes and fire its main gun, or it can go 240 metres and _not_
fire its
gun. Hey, what if you want to fire the hull mounted machine gun, too?
Can't
move the GEV tank because both fire actions eat up the vehicle's two
actions
per activation.

>  Is it reasonable to suggest that within that abstract
>period of time, the exact order in which movement and disembarking
happens
>doesn't really matter?  I think so.

In fact, I've always found SG2 only makes any kind of sense if you look
at
what happened in an entire turn and not on a per activation basis. For
that
matter, it makes more sense to look at what happened in an entire game.

Take, for example, the idea of an APC driving up to within 60 metres of
a
squad, loading the troops while giving covering fire, and then driving
away.
This could _easily_ be done in 5 minutes.

It can't be done in an SG2 turn, without a command reactivation via the
Transfer Action. The APC is activated. It moves (1 action). It fires.
End of
activation. The squad is activated. It moves (1 action). It has one
action
left do do something while in the vehicle. End of activation. Next turn.
The
APC is activated. It moves (1 action). The only way this makes any kind
of
sense is while crossing the turn barrier.

I've been giving vehicles a lot of thought. While Jon deliberately
hobbled
them in order to make SG2 an infantry heavy game, I have been thinking
of
trying SG2 as a tank heavy game. I thought that with 6mm figures it
should be
possible to run SG2 in centimetre scale as a tank-only affair.
Unfortunately
there are a lot of issues to overcome. I have a good idea of what they
are,
and adding them into regular SG2 would go far towards making vehicles
more
realistic (and more powerful). It will be interesting to see if, when
added,
they really _do_ overpower the game.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
unimaginable mortician was revealed!" 
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