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

[Ken Bywaters <argentnova@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi 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@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

On 1/13/06, Ken Bywaters wrote:

> With Dirtside, for the most part we simply ignored the points system, and
> pl! ayed 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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