[SG2] Battle Report - Newbies on Patrol [LONG]

Walter Cook, Jason Abell, and I met for our first game of
Stargrunt II on Tuesday.  We played a general meeting
engagement after deciding the Patrol scenario was too
complicated for our plans.  The rule was that each player
had to shoot at least two squads from each other player -
we didn't want two people duking it out and then having 
the third play clean-up, which is the classic three
player strategy.

The table was about 6' square, heavily forested, with
a hard cover bunker in the center.  It only had firing
slits on one side, and worst luck, the slits face my units!

I had a full platoon of FSE Legionnaires, as per the book
organization.  They were a mix of green and regular troops
with a Reg 2 commander.  I set up in the southwest corner
in 5 rough clumps.

Walter had a Warzone (Bauhaus?) army, a split of close combat
troopers with assault shotguns and swords, and some standard
light infantry with assault rifles but little support.	He
had two veteran units, but his command group was a green 2.
He set up on the east side.

Jason had a Void army, backed up by some other figures.
Again, it was mostly close combat troops, though he did
have a green squad with standard rifles, and a power armor
detachment of 3 guys, including one with a flamer.  His
troops were on the northwest corner, mostly facing me.

After a little confusion to decide initiative (not me,
since I had 5 squads), play began and went fairly quickly.
The first few turns were mostly movement, as we tried to
establish lines of fire.  Jason was the first to use his
command group well, sending his green rifle group into
the bunker early.  That give him line of sight on my
command group in the center, and I ended up retreating
into the woods shy a SAW gunner.

Walter was pretty much out of the early part of the game,
having to move through a lot of hills and woods to get
to the bunker.	He finally arrived in grand style, with
one of his assault groups scaring Jason's squad out of
the bunker and into a wheat field.  The resulting combat
was amazingly even-handed - each player lost 3 out of 6
figures, each in a row.  Jason's unit routed anyway and
soon moved off the board.  The command squad provided
covering fire.

Another one of Walter's fast assault squads assaulted 
my command squad - 8" movement is nasty.  Only two
of them made it, but with +2 die shifts and some good
rolling, my entire command squad went down.  I got my
revenge the next turn, though, when one of my infantry
squads moved within 5" and opened fire, killing 2 and
wounding another 2.

On the west, Jason's armor unit pushed my Reg 1 squad 
out of their wooded position and broke them (rolled 2
consecutive 2s for the confidence test) and then 
started getting pinned by regular fire from my greenies.

Play mostly stagnated at this point.  I had enough fire
power, and the right firing arcs, to double-suppress 
everyone's squads, which I did.  Jason and Walter's
command squads fired on each other, but that just left
them pinned down, too.

Finally, Jason managed to unpin his power armor long
enough to attack one of my green squads.  A low roll on
the assault move left him in the open for final defensive
fire, and two of the suits went down.  The survivor
retreated into the woods, only to have the unactivated
greenies fire into him, taking him down with a GMS/P
(we house-ruled that GMS/Ps could fire at infantry as
though the infantry had basic ECM, plus cover shifts).
Jason surveyed his options and retreated, and Walter
pulled back rather than deal with the my squads that
didn't have to defend against Jason.  So I guess I
won, though my forces had penetrated less than 18"
from their starting points.

Lessons learned:
	Morale is surprisingly unimportant in SG2.  
Out of 13 units (8 CO and 5 ST), only 2 went to 
broken or worse, and only another 1 or 2 went to
SH.
	Suppression is amazingly important in SG2.
There were 2 or 3 turns when no one could shake
suppression counters fast enough to move.
	Don't use crappy troops or leaders to go
into position in open terrain.	I had a Reg 3 fail
the test 4 times, the rat bastard.
	Close combats are very decisive, but final
defensive fire can make your day suck.

	Everyone had a good time, and wanted to play 
again.	We're going to try VOR next week, to give
both games a fair trial, and then (hopefully) go
back to SG2.
	Anyone got rules for VOR Neo-Soviets in SG2?
Specifically, the effects of Commissars capping
rad troopers?

-Mark Langsdorf

Mark Langsdorf
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc		Tel: 512.602.3756
5204 E. Ben White Blvd. M/S 590 	Fax: 512.602.5051