Re: Where's the Cheese?

Brian Quirt wrote:

> Well, this one I'm also a bit worried about. One of the people in my
> play group usually uses 10-man squads (8 troopers w/ FP3 rifles, 2 w/
> SAW). If the squad could split, he'd go from 1 fire action
> Quality/D12/SAW/SAW to 2 actions each of Quality/D12/SAW. It doesn't
> seem to me like he has much less chance of scoring hits that way....

    Besides the obvious organizational problem here, which I'll address
later, take a
look at the average case.  You have regular troops firing their weapons
at a squad in
the d10 range band.  We'll give the squad those two SAWs at SFP d8.  So
in the first
case, you have a squad firing d8/d12/d8/d8 against d10.  On average,
you're looking
at 4.5/6.5/4.5/4.5 against 5.5.  The average situation is going to cause
a
suppression.  But you can see that by a slight upward rise of any of the
firer's d8s
(he's throwing three of them), he's going to score a hit.  Also, when he
hits, his
total on the dice is going to average out to be around 21, which would
indicate two
hits.
    Now look at splitting fire.  He's throwing d8/d12/d8 and d8/d12/d8
against d10.
You're looking at the average again as 2 cases of 4.5/6.5/4.5 against
5.5.  Most
likely outcome would be two suppressions.  Again, raise the value of d8
again (now
he's throwing four instead three of them), and you get a hit, but now,
on average,
the firer is rolling 15 total.	That is not an average of over two hits,
as above,
but 1.5 hits.
    It's still a noticeable difference, but the case you're citing is
really more a
problem with organization.  It doesn't seem like a good way to organize
your troops
when you could eliminate half of the squad's riflemen and still end up
with the same
in-game effect.  This just doesn't seem to pass the reality check.  With
the high FP
of the individual riflemen, it seems more likely that the force involved
would have
created two squads out of the 10 men in question.  Even if the high
command didn't
create this structure, it seems likely that the squads would act as if
they wre two
seperate entities, in game terms: they'd detach on a regular basis.
    It just seems that even in this extreme case, the interpretation
that I'm
supporting doesn't really break down that much.  At worst, it handles
the "extra" FP
better than simply wasting it.

-Mike

--
Michael Sarno

http://vietnam.isonfire.com
Check out the Charlie Company Discussion Group:
Info, resources, and links for RAFM's miniatures
skirmish wargame of infantry combat in Vietnam 1965-1972

"Tradition refuses to submit to the small and
 arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen
 to be walking about."
 -G.K. Chesterton