Re: [SG2} House Rules for Fire Team Units

The GZG Digest wrote on 4/4/2005 1:00 AM:

> Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 17:04:15 -0400
> From: "Laserlight" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
> 
> Untested, but these seem reasonable
> 
> 1. The basic unit is a fire team, which is normally either a rifle
> element (2-5 men) or a support weapon element (gunner and assistant).

In the modern U.S. infantry organization, a fireteam consists of three 
riflemen and a support weapon, which usually does not require an 
assistant. One of the riflemen can be armed with another support weapon,

such as a grenade launcher.

I'm basing this on reading of some of the U.S. Army manuals online, and 
I know there are others on the list with actual expertise in this area 
who will point out my flaws.

> 2. Support weapons normally require two soldiers to operate.	The
> assistant gunner is notionally armed with a rifle but does not use it
> if the support weapon is functional.	If a support element drops below
> two soldiers, it may fire normally on its own action but cannot
> receive transferred actions.

That's true for World War II, and for some big support weapons, but 
isn't true of support weapons in general.

> 3. The squad leader may leave any element without creating a
> detachment, and may operate independently.  If he wants to join an
> element (add his firepower, operate its weapon, etc), it has to
> reorganize.

That's a pretty hefty penalty for something that happens instinctively. 
Imagine two fire teams sitting beside each other. The squad leader runs 
from the one on the right to the one on the left to add his firepower to

the team. I'm not sure why it would take a Reorganise action for him to 
yell, "You're firing too high!" and get them to fire more effectively.

> 4.  A squad leader may transfer actions to elements of his squad.

Works fine for two fire teams per squad. What about the Phalons with 
three fire teams per squad? Historically there are other armies that 
played around with three fire teams per squad. I'm still working on this

myself.

> 5.  Morale penalties are calculated on the entire squad and affect the
> entire squad.

You have one fire team heading for cover across a field with some light 
bushes to a tree line. You have another fire team giving suppressing 
fire. The firing fire team is hit with artillery and drops to broken 
status. Does it make sense that the maneuvering team should drop to 
broken status, too? As per the RAW, the moving unit would have to dive 
for cover in the nearest bush and could not continue to the trees if
broken.

I would give them different Confidence Markers and have them make 
Confidence Tests on their own. However, I would add a form of cascading 
morale. If the other fire team is all killed or wounded, or if the squad

leader is a casualty, it should force a Confidence Test on the remaining

fire team. Perhaps if the other fire team is down to half strength or 
less it should also trigger a Confidence Test on the part of the 
unharmed fire team.

What happens when you transfer actions from a command unit to a fire 
team? Do both fire teams become reactivated or only one? If both are 
reactivated, do they get two actions?

On transfer actions, I thought that the flow of the action would be from

command unit to squad leader. The command unit would transfer the action

to the squad leader using the regular rules, but then it would flow from

the squad leader to the fire team for free if he was in integrity range 
of the fire team, or it would require a Communications roll if he was 
outside of integrity range. This gives the fire teams a reason to stick 
near the squad leader.

-- 

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