Re: Stargrunt 2 Morale Questions and Comments

	Howdy!

On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, Allan Goodall wrote:

> My experiences playing Stargrunt 2 at GenCon were the first outside of
playing
> my own Ork Hill scenario. I noticed that there seems to be a fairly
low chance
> of units dropping morale levels in SG2. I thought this might have to
do with
> the set up in my own scenario, but it seems to be fairly common.

	Over the last two years, we have never had any problems with the
morale rules.  Our average game runs 6-10 turns (30-50 minutes of 'game
time'), and there are always units with plummeting morale.  In
attack/defense games, it is not uncommon to have a unit or two drop
below
routed and surrender.

> However, I have noticed some weird things. In particular, total
casualties to
> a unit has no bearing on the unit's drop in morale. I had a unit lose
one or
> two figures per turn until the commanding officer was all that
remained. She
> kept her morale status as Confident. Okay, she was a veteran, but even
still
> this seemed very strange. 

	Yeah, Vets and Elites are for the most part unencumbered by
morale
problems.  That's why we play mostly with Regs, with the occaisional Vet
or Green (talk about morale problems!).

> During the con, the house rule used by Jeff Guillion was that a unit
only
> tested for morale once, at the end of the turn. This speeds up the
game and
> causes some nasty morale results, but I didn't care for it. I found it
to be
> too much of a pain trying to remember which unit had to take a morale
test and
> for what. Still, the current system seems not to result in enough of a
> lowering of morale unless the unit takes a lot of casualties and is
below the
> level of Veteran.

	We find it easier to tst for morale after each 'insult' (i.e.
casualty, loss of squad leader, etc.).	It is fast and easy.

> I'm thinking that something along the lines of a morale test or a
panic test
> should be done when a unit loses more than half its strength.
Currently a unit
> takes a TL 4 test when it loses more figures than it has left at the
end of
> the combat. Perhaps a TL2 test when the unit drops below half
strength, and a
> TL4 test when it drops below one quarter strength is needed.

	By the time a unit has lost half of its strength, its morale
should have dropped a bit, unless you are lucky (or a Vet).  Of course,
even if you are confident at only half of your squad size, more
casualties
WILL gut your morale.

> Finally, I noticed that the condition of the rest of the force on the
table
> has no effect on the morale of a given unit. That is, the whole
platoon could
> be taking a beating, but the morale of an individual squad that still
hasn't
> seen action hasn't been affected. I know that this was a bit of a sore
point
> with me in DS2, but it doesn't seem to be that big an issue in SG2.
Still, has
> anyone found this to be an issue, and if so have you looked at it?

	We've had no problem with this, as it simulates nicely part of
the
'Fog of War'.  Each squad has their own fight or variables to deal with.
Absract things like 'Oh, beta squad just got hammered' may not mean a
lot,
especially when you may not hear of it during the heat of battle.

	Laterish!

Ken