Re: Where's the Cheese?

>"Glover, Owen" wrote:
>
>> It is using the rules to gain the advantage rather than the game
>> mechanics or tactical employment of your squads that makes it cheesy.
>
>    How do you simlute suppression fire, then?  It is a valid tactic
and
>takes advantage of the mechanics of the game, not the rules.  It's not
>something that creates a loophole that give you an incredible
>advantage.  It simply shifts the way your fire has effect and allows
you
>to opt for fire that is more likely to suppress than kill.  In RL, I
can
>do this, why not in SGII?
>

I have to agree with the esteemable Mr. Sarno on this.	I don't think it
is
cheesy, because it makes sense given the fluid way the time frame works,
as
described by St. Jon.  In a given period of time, perhaps the squad is
firing its rifles at a target while the SAW is reloading, or moving to a
different position within the squad's area, or sighting in on the target
better, or whatever.  Maybe the squad commander says to the SAW gunner
"ok,
you hold your fire for a minute and save ammo, and then give the squad
cover and keep the supression going on the target while the riflemen are
reloading..."

The fact of the matter is, as has been pointed out, you are a LOT less
likely to do damage to a target by taking the SAW fire out of the
squad's
fire, but certainly more likely to lay in supressions.	Which makes
sense.	

And the game is a set of rules that abstracts a lot of what goes on in a
RL
firefight, and compresses many complex actions and commands into a
simple
set of dicerolls.  Lots can happen in 3 or 4 or 5 minutes, in RL.  I
think
one can make a good argument with examples to support it on both sides
of
this issue.

So in the end, the gaming group should decide what they feel comfortable
with.  Certainly the rules themselves do not prevent this.  (Though I
always agree with the statement "play the game not the rules"....)

>> Taking it even further in cheesiness, I've seen guys try to argue
that
>> since they have 6 riflemen with FP 3 rifles that they are wasting the
>> fire of two of them (6xFP3=18 but they only get a d12) so they wish
to
>> fire 4 rifles in one action and then use a second action to fire the
>> other two!!
>
>    But that's not what we're talking about here.  Even so, I'd allow
it
>in my games.  The squad IS using up it's second action.

OK, that's peaking a lot higher on my "cheese" meter.  Which may not
make
sense given what I just said about the SAW split, but the game does
treat
the SAW and the riflemen as separate elements in a squad...  OK, it's
completely subjective here.  I don't have a problem with splitting off
the
SAW and firing at the same target (especially as it is going to cause
less
damage).  I do have a problem with doing this with riflemen. 
Contradictory
views?	Probably.  Doesn't have to make absolute perfect sense, though.
It's a game :)

Adrian