[SG2] Plague Boy vs. Standard Man: A SG2 Game Report - Long!!!

I played my ambush scenario last night. My head was stuffed up with
Dristan
due to a nasty, NASTY cold I had. My opponent was Gary Bradley, a friend
and
ex-coworker whom I have drafted into the ways of Stargrunt! Gary works
for the
Canadian Standards Institute (the guys who run into walls with
motorcycle
helmets to see if they work), hence the scenario was Plague Boy versus
Standard Man...

I will post the full scenario, including force list and a map of the
playing
area, to a web site in the near future. I didn't take any photographs
during
the game, but I've left it set up. I'll take some pictures tonight
(minus the
SG2 counters and stuff).

The scenario takes place in the Traveller universe (Solomani Rim, for
those
who care) on a Tech Level 12 planet. A rich, but small, faction on the
planet
has come to dominate a poorer but more numerous faction. The rich
faction
controls anti-grav system importation onto the planet, thus the poorer
faction
doesn't have anti-grav vehicles. A war broke out between the two
factions
earlier in the year, with the rich faction taking heavy losses. To
bolster
their side, they have imported Tech Level 14 mercenaries. The rich
faction has
just launched an assault on a city recently captured by the poor
faction. As
the forces converge on the city, a small mercenary task force has been
dropped
on an advance route to the city in order to disrupt incoming
reinforcements.
These reinforcments consist of a Mechanized Platoon in APCs. 

The terrain consists of a mixture of light and dense woods with a road
running
through it. The road does a gentle "S" bend about a third of the way
from the
eastern edge. The Mercs have to destroy or disable half the APCs and
escape
with at least half their force off the north edge of the map. Their
secondary
objective is to destroy ALL the APCs. The Mech Platoon drives along the
road
and must stop the Mercs from achieving their objectives. We decided that
if
all APCs were destroyed but the Mercs did not escape with half their
force,
the battle would be a draw.

The Mercs were all Power Armour troops. They had PGMP-14s (Plasma Guns
for
non-Traveller types) with Firepower of D6 and Impact of D12*. They
consisted
of four squads of 4, and a command squad of three. In essence, everybody
carried a squad support weapon! This seems nasty, until you realize that
the
firepower is only D6. 

The Mech Platoon consisted of 6 APCs, 6 squads of 6 men, and one command
squad
of 4. The APCs came in two types. One type carried only a multiple
launcher
pack (similar to those on NAC Power Armour). The other had the multiple
launcher pack and a VRF Gauss Gun (a GAC/2 which I allowed to fire at
dispersed troops as though it were a SAW with D12 x 2 impact). There
were
three of each vehicle, and either type could hold 12 men. The regular
squads
consisted of 4 men with Advanced Combat Rifles (FP 2, Impact D10), a
squad
leader with an ACR, and a support trooper with a 4cm RAM Grenade
Launcher (FP
D10, Impact D8).

The Mercs were all regular units of leadership 1 and 2, but they were
considered Low Motivation. Basically, I felt that they would have
excellent
NCOs, but Merc units would probalby have a high turn around and so the
average
grunt wouldn't make it to be a veteran (he should be promoted by then).
The
Low Motivation is simple: dead men don't pick up pay cheques. The
commander of
the Mercs was a Veteran 1. 

The Mech Platoon was medium motivation. They had 1 Reg 1, 2 Reg 2, 1 Reg
3,
and two Veteran 2 units. The commander was a Veteran 2.

I played the Mercs. I set up all the forces hidden and In Position. The
APCs
would be coming along the road from the east. Near the west edge of the
board,
the road runs into some woods. I placed one squad there. I placed a
second on
a hill, overlooking most of the road. At the mid point of the ambush
area, I
placed one squad on each side of the road in woods. My command squad I
placed
further North, in woods, so it would be easier for it to bug out of the
area.

Gary played the Mech Platoon. He placed his troops in the vehicles and
then
placed the vehicles one right after the other, with no real spacing. 

I used my Overwatch rules. Essentially, on a turn when a unit hasn't
fired, it
may spend one activation to place an overwatch counter. The overwatch
counter
may be spent any time an enemy unit moves or fires, allowing the
overwatching
unit to fire but with the range band shifted upwards. Overwatch can
interrupt
an enemy at any point in the enemy's movement, but can only fire at a
firing
enemy after the enemy's shooting has been resolved.

As an adjunct to the Overwatch rule, I changed the Reaction Rule. The
Reaction
Rule I used allowed any unit to interrup the movement or firing of an
enemy
unit in EXACTLY the same way as an Overwatch counter, provided that it
make a
Threat Level 0 reaction roll. This counts as the unit's entire
activation,
though. As it turnst out, Overwatch was used but this Reaction Rule
never came
into play.

My Mercs were all on overwatch. Gary moved his platoon along the road.
On turn
1, nothing happened, except some dummy markers were spotted. On turn 2
Gary
wanted to do some Recon by Fire. I disallowed it until he pointed out
that in
Vietnam troops often fired into areas that could be considered nice
ambush
sites. Anticipating nastiness when the Mercs opened up, I allowed it. It
didn't do anything, anyway, as the fire only succeeded in removing a
dummy
marker. Gary decided to leap frog the rear most vehicles over the
others. I
hadn't specified that the road didn't allow vehicles to pass (except
where it
actually cut through some woods) so I allowed it.

Turn 3 and the fun begins. Gary had to get at least 3 APCs off the
board, so
he ran one right up and through the woods at the end of the "S" bend in
the
road. Or, that was his INTENTION! I revealed my hidden marker and used
the
Overwatch counter from last turn (Overwatch counters can be used anytime
before that unit is activated again). All four Plasma Guns blazed into
the
side armour of the APC. The APC became disabled. There were two squads
in it.
One man was wounded, and three others killed. I was unsure of what to do
with
the troops inside the APC so I let them disgorge for free. A veteran
unit took
the majority of the casualties, but remained Steady. A regular unit
dropped
down to Shaken, even though only one man died in the hit.

Since I had most of my guys on Overwatch, I allowed Gary to continue to
activate his units. He put two of the APCs with VRF Gauss Guns on
Overwatch
and then moved the third one up. I activated the squad on the hill using
Overwatch and hit the APC. It brewed up (with no one inside). The VRF
Gauss
Gun and multi launcher fired from one of APCs on overwatch but it only
suppressed the group on the hill. A third squad of mine used Overwatch
to fire
at THIS vehicle, but failed to do anything to it. Another APC used
overwatch
on THIS squad, missing it. My fourth squad used Overwatch and fired on
the
previous APC. It brewed up nicely! 

So far I hadn't activated ANY units on turn 3 (they all fired due to
Overwatch) and I had succeeded in the first half of my primary mission
objectives. In retrospect, I should have started to activate units and
get
them the hell out of there. But, I was overconfident. I figured I had a
good
shot at taking out the other APCs. I stayed to fight. Since it was
Gary's last
move that triggered all the overwatching, I activated one of the squads.
It
fired into the one remaining APC with the VRF Gauss Gun and it exploded
in a
ball of flames. It had one squad in it, that dropped to Shaken
immediately. On
my next activation, they took fire and broke with multiple suppressions
(and
one dead and two wounded).

Gary activated the other two APCs and ran them north and east, along the
tree
line. His forces were chewed to pieces and he felt he was definitely
losing
the battle. However, his movement was unimpeded and the APCs were now
out of
harm's way. Worse (for me) they were between me and my exit point AND
very
close to my still hidden command unit.

The momentum had shifted. My units were still in ambush positions and
not in
an immediate state to escape off the board. I shifted a unit in the
trees to
take out the Shaken but mostly intact group at the first ambush point.
Two
activations later, the squad would drop to routed and eventually run off
the
board. The unit at the first ambush point fired on the Veteran unit and
reduced it to one man alive, one wounded (but still steady). 

The unit on the hill would turn out to be a problem. It removed the
suppression and tried to combat move through the woods on the hill, but
only
got 4 inches. The APCs, now in the north, spewed men on either side of
my
command unit! They fired on the guys on the hill, suppressing them. The
command unit ran out of the woods, and to a better position to the
south,
before the enemy could see them.

One of the Mech Platoon squads moved south and east to harass the
command
squad. They succeeded in suppressing it, before another squad of Mercs
fired
on it. A deadly battle ensued, resulting in the mercs in the squad being
mowed
down. The PGMP-14's firepower was less impressive against dispersed
targets,
even those at close range. The command squad then came under fire again,
taking 3 suppressions! Another squad of mercs, the squad that routed the
enemy
at the first ambush point, ran into the enemy for hand to hand combat.
One
merc fell wounded, but the attack succeeded, with three Mech Platoon
guys
wounded and the other two broken. 

The battle on the hill became a slugfest. The very first unit to fire in
the
battle ran up the hill to help its suppressed friend. It took two
casualties
for its trouble, and kept receiving a suppression from the one remaining
guy
in the first Veteran unit. Eventually, however, the Mercs did take out
one
more APC (which swung around to help out) and suppressed another Veteran
unit.

It was getting late at this point and we assessed the damage. The
remaining
APC had been moved to the north west edge of the board, nicely out of
the way.
The Mercs had lost more than half its force, but if they got the wounded
off
the board to the north they could still win. The Mech Platoon had lost
more
than half its force, but still had one APC, and two squads (not
including the
command squad) in combat shape. One or two more dead Mercs and they
could not
win.

The battle was pretty close to a draw, with the edge going to the Mech
Platoon. The Mercs could probably get most of the men off the board, but
it
would take a fair bit of time to resolve it and another couple of
casualties
could seal the Merc's fate. On the other hand the Mech Platoon is in no
real
shape to help out in the fight in the city, with 4 APCs destroyed and
one
disabled.

In retrospect, we both made mistakes. My biggest mistake was in not
setting up
a squad for perimeter security, and not trying to escape when I had
succeeded
with the first half of my primary mission goals (the game would have
been
radically different if I had started to move my guys north the moment
the
third APC was destroyed). Gary's biggest mistake was in not disgorging
infantry early enough, and in the way he set up his APCs in the convoy. 

Changes to the scenario will be minor. The Mercs will be allowed to
select
either the north or south board edge for escape instead of the Mech
Platoon
knowing by default. I'm also thinking of placing some grav APCs on the
board
for the Mercs and letting those ferry the mercs off the board. This
would be
instead of them going off a particular board edge on foot.

The Overwatch rules worked very well. They made the ambush possible,
really,
without having to have a scenario specific ambush rule. My own,
homegrown
Reaction Fire rule wasn't used at all.

One thing I wasn't sure of, though. I wasn't sure if the Impact versus
Armour
roll was an Open Shift or a Closed Shift? You see, the Mercs had D12
armour in
woods against ACRs with D10 impact. I was rolling D12 versus D10.
However, the
light cover of the woods should have given them a die shift if it was an
open
shift. This would have meant that the Mercs should have been D12 versus
D8. I
think I goofed on this, and the Mercs shouldn't have been so badly
damaged. 

The low motivation of the Mercs didn't really apply. Because of the way
units
make morale tests, the Mercs being whittled away meant that they didnt'
take
any serious morale tests. I'm leaning more and more towards changing one
of
the Confidence Test conditions. As well as a test when there are more
casualties than men remaining in the squad, I'm thinking of having a
similar
test when the strength of the squad falls to 50% or less of the squad's
full
strength. This would have meant a better chance of the mercs having
lower
morale. The Mech Platoon had a lot of men dead and wounded, but only two
squads were left in fighting shape morale wise.

At any rate, it was a fun (if long) scenario. I wish there was a faster
way of
resolving Impact versus Armour rolls. Those paired off die rolls can
take
quite a long time to resolve. Still the scenario seems fairly well
balanced,
with poor tactics being the main reason for our problems. The Mercs did
hurt
the APCs badly, but once the infantry disgorged it was a real slugfest.

I'm looking forward to hearing	your comments and suggestions.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"