Re: [GZG] New to the list, and 2 questions: lift/jump infantry rules, and 15mm alien 'natives'

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Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 5:24 AM, John Tailby <john_tailby@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

>  If your jump pack weighs as much as an infantry backpack it's
additional
> weight that the troopers have to carry around. Like scuba gear. Most
> infantry carry a lot of gear and adding 25 kilos or 50 pounds of
weight will
> reduce their mobility considerably compared to leg infantry unless
jumping.
>
> If the jump pack is a rocket pack or jet turbine unit, then unless it
runs
> all the time, it will weight the troopers down. If you are jumping
around at
> say 50 miles an hour it's pretty difficult to risk landing in any kind
of
> terrain like trees, without the risk of serious impact trauma.
Parachutists
> don't drop into trees if they can avoid it.
>
> I would suggest that for any kind of near future tech jump pack that,
you
> count all terrain as dangerous and risk casualties if you start or end
your
> movement in terrain. So you jump from open ground to open ground.
>
> The infantry should also be encumbered on the ground so move at a
reduced
> rate and or have a lot less equipment, so no heavy weapons maybe only
an SMG
> equivalent and grenades.
>
> You might also consider that infantry use their jump packs like
dragoons of
> old, jumping to get into position and then dumping their packs to
fight on
> foot.
>
> Infantry that jump in nice easy hops will do a very passable
impression of
> a clay target for any kind of overwatching enemy unit. If you bounce
above
> tree height you become very visible and will draw fire from all over
the
> place. Enemy units should be able to interrupt your jump action with
some
> kind of reaction fire or overwatch fire if they can draw LOS to any
part of
> the jump move.
>
> All these are good points, some of which I had semi-intentionally
decided
to ignore or streamline into non-existence for two reasons:  1), I
didn't
want to make the jump rules overly complex and 2), the spirit of the
background I was trying to emulate (which is a bit space-opera).  But
they're all good points - one of the last ones that I gave the chop (and
therefore probably one of the first I'd reinstate) is your notion of
restricting jumping to 'open to open' or similarly clear terrains; and
'dismounting' (or at least switching from jump to straight leg- modes)
for
the fight proper.  Both of these could be dealt with semi-easily I
guess, by
giving jump troops two Terrain Charts to work from, to represent whether
they're slogging it or jumping, and tying their speed for that turn to
what
mode they selected.  The Jump chart would be more restrictive; the Leg
chart
would basically replicate the normal Infantry chart.

I also like your idea for interrupting jump moves (at least the low-tech
ones, which will presumably be more of a ballistic trajectory and less
of a
nice nap-of-the-earth hover than the high-tech ones) with reaction fire.
This, plus the open-to-open restriction, would force Jump commanders to
utilize their mobility only on the approach, and then hunker down for
the
real fighting - which is again reminiscent of a mounted-infantry
paradigm.

Some of the others points I still feel are more dependent on the
particular
setting you're trying to emulate - Traveller Imperial Marines with their
grav belts are still carrying FGMPs; on the other end of the spectrum,
W40K
style 'assault marines' are using pistols and swords.  The Revolt on
Antares
guys are depicted as carrying skinny little carbine-looking things and
have
a fairly low Combat rating, so they would indeed be lightly armed, but
probably not any slower than regular infantry (but having said that,
still
not as fast as normal SG lightly armed 'scout' troops).

Thanks again to you and everyone else for the feedback, I'll try and get
a
v1.0 of the rules up later tonight, incorporating some of these ideas
while
still trying not to be overly complex.

Ken