Re: FMA Skirmish guns

Well here goes my .02 worth.

The battle had been going fast and furious for longer than Sgt Gump
cared to
think about.  Alot of guys had run out of ammo a long time ago. Rookies
unloading full clips at bushes that looked suspicous did not help
matters.
They had shared out the last couple of clips and waited for the next
enemy
push.

Ammo consumption becomes important when you only have what you carried
into
the fight.

Firing options.
			die level    ammo
 Full Auto    -    FP +1	   4
			FP +2		8
			FP +3		16
(Your typical clip would hold 10 shots.  oversized clip 20.)

 Spread Fire  -  FP -1 die level per target(must be within 4" of each
other), 2 actions.  May be combined with auto fire.
(Mr. Barclay's rules were good but a bit involved for our tastes.)

 Reload       -  Reaction test to load in 1 action otherwise 2 actions

In the play test we said that one side would be trigger happy so we
could
see what the difference would be.  Each trooper carried 3 normal clips
and
one ext. clip.	We had an even split of reg and green with one veteran
per
side.  They started at 40" apart with dense to moderate terrain.  The
trigger happy squad opened up early and suppressed squad B pretty well
but
could not get any kills due to the range and cover.  Once they had to
start
reloading squad B got a break, spread out, moved into even better cover
and
started firing back.  When trig. squad let loose again the effects were
not
as good as they could not spread fire 2 or 3 enemy at a time. 
Eventually
they started to run low on ammo and things started to go wrong.  Due to
some
incredible die rolls by squad B they got 4 out of 10 guys knocked out in
one
turn and the others decided to leave.  This kind of stopped the play
testing
portion of our game.

RESULTS:
-The biggest difference we could see was that you could get suppression
easier but the casualty rate was only slightly more.
-If you have to reload and there are still bad guys you are in trouble.
-Green troops like to use lots of ammo.  They suppress things alot but
never
really hit anything.
-When a veteran troop autos on 2 or 3 guys at close range there are lots
of
screams and gurgling noises.
-More experienced troops could spread fire without using up gobs of
ammo.

Other thoughts...
I like the idea of being prone giving a cover result.  But I dont think
there is much difference between being prone behind the dege of a brick
wall
and kneeling behind same wall.	The area exposed to fire is roughly the
same.  Maybe say that going prone gives a die shift for cover but is not
cumalative with hard cover.  As far as leaving a prone position maybe it
could be just 2" of movement to do?

Bracing--  I am lnot sure what all AIMING entails but you can use an AIM
action anywhere.  Mr. Barclay was saying something about being prone or
kneeling next to cover giving a die shift up for firing.  This sounds
like
the trooper is bracing himself against a sturdy object to give a stable
firing position.  You could brace in any stance as long as there was
something to brace against. I.E. wall, car, Bobs corpse.  Once a figure
was
braced he would keep the bonus until he either moved or was suppressed.
This should take an action I would think.

Seems that we are loading up on the firing bonuses.  Is anyone still
giving
figures the option of going IN POSITION?