Re: Where's the Cheese?

Kr'rt wrote:

> Don't the rules say that you (The Squad Leader) split off a sub
> section of a given squad, thereby forming two smaller elements?  That
> accomplishes the splitting of fire maneuver and has the additional
> leadership mechanic to eliminate the "cheesiness"

    Yes, we've talked about this over the past few days.  It was
actually used to
support the argument that splitting fire seemed like a reasonable
interpretation.

> If you want to lay down split supressive fire, pay the admin costs.
> This would emulate the SL saying "You five, burn a clip over there.
> and YOU five, wait until these guys reload and then hit em again."
> After the threat is over, the SL then reorganizes his squad into one
> coherent unit then moves on.

    This seems reasonable.  However, the detach action basically creates
another
squad.	There are a few restrictions, but it really simulates something
much
different from "Tom, Dick, Harry, you fire over there.	Larry, Moe,
Curly, you fire
over there."  From a realistic standpoint, I can see spending the
additional action
on splitting fire, but detaching seems like much more effort than that.

> Isn't Stargrunt supposed to be squad based in flavor?

    Sure, it's a squad-level game, but it is also in skirmish scale and
you
calculate a squad's firepower by adding up the individual firepower of
each man in
the squad.

>  Splitting fire
> down to that level borders on what FMA is supposed to do.  ie Squad
> Based versus Figure Based gaming.

    I don't find this to be a convincing argument.  There is already
plenty of
overlap between FT/DS/SG/FMA.  It would be more convincing if casualties
in SGII
weren't handled on a per man basis, taking into account the individual
armor that
the grunt is wearing.  It would be a more convincing argument if support
weapons
couldn't fire at a different target.  Some elements of SGII are
abstracted out to
the squad level, others are not.  What we're discussing here isn't
handling each man
firing seperately in an activation, but allowing the player to divide
the fire over
both actions in one activation.

-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

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