Re: Re[2]: Stargrunt II question

At 02:32 PM 1/23/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Have you actually tried it out in practice? I suspect from your
comments
>that your examples are pure theory. Try it in an actual game and see
what
>happens. When we were playtesting, one of the scenarios we used was
three
>squads on each side and a board with _no terrain
>whatsoever_. Forces started about 40"-50"  apart. Try that and see
>how difficult it is to get within 15" with no adverse effects.....
>
>Mike Elliott

Mike,

I think you may have missed the point here a bit. Obviously with no
terrain
the squads will get beat up. [I wouldn't think a game played that way
would
be very fun. It would all boil down to who got the initiative and made
good
rolls.] Anyway, I agree with the Tom's thoughts about overwatch. No
matter
how you cut it squads in SG2 can run around the battlefield far more
freely
than in "real" life. With the current system once a squad fires an
overwatch it is "helpless." Sure, you should have supporting units but
in
the games I've played we never have more than four or five (max) squads
on
a side. With terrain and stuff it's pretty hard to setup ideal mutual
overwatch unless you want to clump your troops together. The ability to
have a support weapon DOMINATE a position is lost. I like a variation of
Miguel's idea where a UNIT can spend an activation "setting up"
overwatch
and then it places a marker to indicate an overwatch "zone" that it can
attack multiple times. This stops gamey tactics of getting a unit to
fire
overwatch so you can then storm it with impunity. It also gives support
weapons their proper place.

BTW, I think DS2 and SG2 are two of the most enjoyable games I've
played.

-----
Paul J. Calvi Jr.
tanker@best.com

"If I had time...to study war, I think I should concentrate almost
entirely
on the 'actualities of war,' the effects of tiredness, hunger, fear,
lack
of sleep, weather....The principles of strategy and tactics...are
absurdly
simple: it is the actualities that make war so complicated and so
difficult, and are usually neglected by historians."

--FM Archibald Wavell to B.H. Liddell Hart (as quoted in "Frontsoldaten:
The German Soldier in World War Two" by Stephen G. Fritz.)