RE: [SG2] EW & Artillery

On Thu, 26 Nov 1998, Thomas Barclay wrote:

> Brian spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> <<snip>>
> Well, maybe (if you want to keep it to one dice) you shift down the 
> enemy dice by the same amount.... just to preserve the relative 
> advantage. Or maybe such complex comms is easily jammable. 
> 

I'd say so. It's not just a simple radio call & short orders, but
passing
some fairly detailed information back and forth - coords, fire mission
type, priority, etc.
 
> > An EW unit, on the other hand, rolls based on systems quality
(d6/8/10 for
> > BAS/ENH/SUP) and can often spare a chit (especially in small
games)to give
> > a boost to the die rolled. A SUP EW committing two chits to a
jamming
> > attempt rolls a d12 - vs at most a d8, usually. Artillery callers
can
> > commit 'Support Request' chits for a similar boost, but once you use
an SR
> > chit, it's gone for the game, whereas the EW system gets three EW
chits
> > every turn....
> 
> Of course, you could have your own EW.... which is what you should 
> have. And hopefully not all the guys you face will be them with 
> superior gear, you with nada. 

Granted. The scenario that prompted this question happend to be set up
that way, however.

>  <<snip>>
> > (PCC - Personal Combat Computer - coming sooner than you think to a
US
> > Army near you...)
> 
> Actually, I don't imagine it will be long till automated marking will 
> transfer from map to arty to avoid user transcription or recitation 
> errors. You can still have map read errors, but the avoidable errors 
> are gone.  

then you have to jam the datastream from the field computer to the arty
comp...or just introduce single-bit errors to render the coords
gibberish.

> 
> > So I find myself arguing both sides of the EW-vs-fire support
issue...it
> > should be jammable, however.
> 
> I like the idea of having support requests jammable.	If you don't 
> have your own EW, you should suffer consistently (a lesson, bring EW 
> if you expect to face it and you should always expect to face it!).  
> I'd say the way around this is have multiple command elements on the 
> table make support requests (ie your platoon commander and your 
> various squad leaders). The EW jammer can't jam all those requests 
> with three chits. It costs in actions, but it equates to everyone 
> trying to call for arty - not all that unprecedented. You obviously 
> have to overwhelm his jamming capability. 
>

Just flood the airwaves, and hope that your frequency-agile comms gear -
lots of sets - can find more frequencies than his similarly-agile but
outnumbered EW elements. Sensible.

One of the ideas I'm kicking around (only for very large SG2 games) is
large EW systems - vehicle or bunker mounted multiple-operator systems
than have more power & more activations than the regular tactical EW
sets.
I'm not sure they're a good idea, though - they'd have massive power.
Scenarios only, for sure.
 
> There must be a way to bring the quality of your comms gear (with its 
> internal crypto and communications session re-establishment 
> protocols) into play here for such rolls. As it stands, you can have 
> great comms and have no advantage over someone with a crappy 
> radio-shack walkie talkie. 
>

Two ways of doing this: one, either have EW elements around all the time
-
they can effectively (by running ECCM) act as signal booster to cut
through enemy jamming.

Or, if a squad has SUP or BAS sensors, give a die shift up or down
respectively to all comms & fire support rolls. (assuming that the
Sensor
rating of a squad is more than just IR/lolight/fancy scopes but includes
comms as well - resonable, I'd think).

Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
-- http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Nebula/9774/ --DS2/SG2/games
webpages--

 
> I don't have an answer now.... but you've got me thinking....always a 
> bad thing.....
> /************************************************
> Thomas Barclay	       
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>  "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
>  it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
>  -Bjarne Stroustrup
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