Re: SGII First Game

On Wed, 04 October 2000, "Flynn Richardson" wrote:

> Hi All,

Hey, there! Welcome to the SG2 fold.

> We started the game by putting out our inverted
> counters and then telling each other which ones to remove. 

I've never actually done this. I've never done the random
quality/leadership me
thod either. I usually design my own scenarios and pick the force size
and lead
ership accordingly.

> We ran into our first problem at this stage as we could not work out
> if you could move the dummy markers as you have to activate them and
place
> your figures on the table. We decided to move a few and the there was
a
> round of "pass" as each of us tried to work out where the real units
where.

I've only ever used dummy markers for one side of a game and so this has
never 
come up. Technically, the rules state that when a unit is activated and
does so
mething (move, fire, what have you) they lose their hidden status. I
play it di
fferently. I usually don't let the counters move while hidden, but I do
let the
m do spot actions, communication type actions (such as a command unit
transferr
ing actions to another unit) and go on overwatch (using my house rules)
while s
till remaining hidden.

I wouldn't have a problem with units moving while hidden, though I'd
probably g
ive another unit a beneficial die shift if they try to spot a hidden
unit that 
moves. 

> At this point I knew that I had only removed dummy markers as he had
only
> started with three squads of eight men :-( 

> Still forgetting the quality
> dice I managed to inflict a suppression and one wound result. End of
the
> turn.

Ouch. Yeah, that would be nasty forgetting the quality die. 

> The next turn Adam activated the suppressed squad and reorganized it
to
> remove the wound, lucky for me it was a kill!

Lucky for him, actually. If the figure became "okay" that's bad for you,
but it
's worse for him if the figure is wounded. The figure has all the
negatives of 
being dead with none of the benefits (that is, you can leave the dead
behind, y
ou have morale problems if you leave wounded behind). When I play, I
often hear
, "Oh, good. My wounded guy's dead." 

> I activated my first squad and got some
> revenge on the offending UN first squad by wounding one and putting
them
> back under suppression (boy is it hard to penetrate power armour when
you
> only have assault rifles!)

Wait a minute! You went up against PA with regular panzergrenadiers? PA
is much
 better than regular guys, probably close to twice as good (in close
combat, th
ey ARE twice as good). You were at a disadvantage if you started off
with the s
ame number of squads as he did and he had PA. If you also lost squads
when he d
idn't, you were in serious trouble.

Another note: Adam used up an action to reorganize a PA unit in order to
determ
ine what had happened to the wounded guy? He doesn't have to do this.
The rules
 for Power Armour state that they don't need to reorganize. They simply
roll to
 see what happened to the wounded guy right away. It's a slightly
different rol
l, too, as it's possible the guy is fine but his armour is shut down.
It's anot
her reason PA is at an advantage. So you lucked out a little when he
used up an
 action doing this.

>  Adam replied by indicating that he would CA my Command squad! (boy
power
> armour can move fast! I didn't realise how far they can cover in a
turn)

That's ANOTHER reason they are nasty! *S*

> Lt
> Richoffen holds the troop together for the confidence check ( three to
one
> odds with the power armour modifications) and I let out a sigh of
relief
> when the UN failed to get enough combat move to make it on the first
> bound, but promptly groaned as the Lt couldn't get his troop to get
there
> heads up and fire on the new threat (remember they were still under
three
> suppression markers!) 

Ah, failed the Reaction test to fire on the charging guys, huh? Don't
you just 
hate that? At least they made their roll to stand firm. *L*

> Overall lots of fun and, once we got the hang of it quite fast. 

Good game report, too!

> I made a
> few mistakes (reread the rules silly and add the quality dice to your
fire
> attacks!)and Adam out thought me in setup(he had set up everyone in
the
> middle), but not too bad for a first game. The UN tin cans will not
have
> it so easy next time!

And you were seriously understrength, too, for fighting against PA. Try
it agai
n, but take, say, 6 squads of Panzergrenadiers plus command squad
against 3 squ
ads of Power Armour plus command squad. Or 4 + 1 against 2 + 1. That
should giv
e you a more balanced game. 

Another way to balance it would be to give your guys all veteran and/or
elite s
tatus (perhaps it's a commando strike team on a special mission). That
could ev
en things up a bit more, too. The quality die helps in combat as well as
commun
ications, confidence, and reaction tests.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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