[GZG] Re: Gzg-l Digest, Vol 8, Issue 57

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http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lHi John,
   
  I found that many of the people I played DS2 with tended to field
their forces just based around buying models that they liked the look
of.  Whereas I did lots of conversions to produce variants on a common
chassis for different roles, and went for broad interlocking
capabilities.  I think the munchkin swarming efforts arose because those
players never figured out that they were facing an integrated battle
system rather than "look at my really hard battle tank".  And yeah,
arty-delivered mines do have their uses!  A lot of the swarms never got
that close anyway because attempting to charge across several kms under
fire is not a career idea.
   
  Only ever used tac nukes in one DS2 game, and that was a specific
scenario around an alien raid where they wanted to move fast, gather a
harvest (they were actually collecting humans to refuel a hyperdrive
than ran on life energy) and get out.  Their philosophy was very much
"it isn't our planet, and we aren't stopping here anyway".  The first
nuke was a counter-battery round, and the second cleared the axis of
advance of about seven platoons that were stupid enough to stay bunched
even after the first detonation.
   
  The most dangerous weapon against the force I usually fielded was a
heavy laser kept at the rear with delaying units forward of them if I
was attacking, because most of my weapon systems were MDC4s and GMS(H)s
that got outranged.  However, because my opponents didn't seem to really
notice just how effective these could be, air or arty strikes usually
got rid of these, or else I managed to take out enough ADS to allow my
VTOLs to ranging around the area like the gunships against the
retreating Iraqis in Gulf War 1.
   
  I guess we overhaul the designs and force mix when DS3 hits the
shelves though, hmm?!!	;-)
   
  Your memory about the history of Coral Sea and Midway is clearer than
mine (but hey, I'm a Brit!), but yeah, the Shokau/Yorktown extremes are
a great contrast.  So maybe we should have a scenario cards that can go
either way - you get a ship back faster than by the normal repair
allowance, or much much slower.   
   
  Cheers,
  Ken	

  Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 12:23:45 +0100
From: John Atkinson 
Subject: Re: [GZG] Re: FT Scenarios
To: gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
Message-ID:

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On 1/13/06, Ken Bywaters wrote:

> With Dirtside, for the most part we simply ignored the points system,
and
> played scenario based games there also. My design philosophy as far as
I
> can tell may be similar to John A'! s - I tend to go for maximum crew
> protection, best vehicle survivability, and for effective combined
arms
> integration (much as US/UK/Israel seems to do). It's worked fine -
though
> when we've played games on points the munchkin-type players have
sometimes
> deployed swarms of small tankettes with close range fusion weapons or
> insanely large-composition missile platoons in an attempt to overwhelm
the
> more realistically designed forces.

The answer to that is is artillery with scatterable minefields and
airstrikes. On-board forces, perhaps a platoon or two of scouts to
direct the fire. On paper, that should work. Personally, I'd be
inclined to break out the tac nukes just to make the point about how
obnoxious I find such behavior.

You are right about the design philosophy behind my DSII designs. I'm
planning a serious overhaul of the entire force mix eventually, once I
get around to it. Shoving Combined Arms even lower level, inspired by
the US Army's UAs, but with a more robust organization (3 combined
arms BNs, a full BN of indirect fire assets, etc)

> A few of the special effect cards should reflect unexpected fortunes
or
> misfortunes! E.g. the availability of an extra battlecruiser, which
has
> unexpectedly been repaired and made spaceworthy faster than estimated
(Was
> it USS Yorktown at Midway that was repaired in 24 hours?).

72. It it interesting to note that at the Battle of the Coral Sea
(where the Yorktown was damaged) the Japanese carrier Shokaku received
some bomb damage and Zuikaku's air group was shot up so badly that
both carriers were held back for refit. The Shokaku's damage was
considerably less than the Yorktown's, but Japanese repair yards did
not work with the same sense of urgency and ingenuity as American
yards.

John

		
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