DS2 Answers from Beth

G'day Tom,

> 1. Can vehicles close-assault infantry by 
themselves? We
> said yes (let
them use their APSWs as infantry fired 
back with their
IAVRs). 

Fuzzy line there as it says vehicles can 
'support'... so may
be they're 'supporting' they're internal 
crews. So I'd say
yes - given DS states vehicles in close 
assaults use fire
APSWs. 

[Tomb] It is kinda fuzzy. It implies vehicles 
can be involved in assaults but never says 
if they can go it alone (and what is more, I 
can't imagine a RL reason they couldn't... it 
might not be wise, but it is possible). 

> If so, should being assaulted by tanks 
give the defender a
> similar mod to
their
> confidence test to being attacked by PA?

May be. At first I thought yes and then I 
thought may be not
as tanks aren't as agile as PA.

[Tomb] True, but I think having a pile of 
APSWs to meet the attack with and heavy 
armour gives you a lot better chance of 
surviving than line infantry, so standing 
should be easier (I'd think). 

> 2. Can vehicles be close-assualted by 
infantry? 

If you define specific spots/tanks to attack, 
maybe define a
location and if there happens to be a 
vehicle sitting on
said spot....

[Tomb] That's essentially what happened. 

> If so, shouldn't being in armour give the 
defenders some
> positive mods to their confidence test? 
Watching size 4
> GEVs run from PA was funny, but 
perhaps very much too
> easy. 

Well PA assaulted by line infantry don't get 
any bonuses, so
maybe vehicles shouldn't either.

[Tomb] Good point. I'm gonna have a real 
good rethink about both these morale tests 
and see if I can come up with some 
compact/sane values to use for test levels 
that actually reflect the situations.

> 3. Should odds factor into your morale 
tests for CA? 1
> lone PA stand attacking a tank formation 
shouldn't be as
> effective as 8 of them.....

I would've only allowed a single stand to 
attack a single
tank, not the entire formation. How you 
allocate attacks
after that, whether they all mob one (and 
thus numbers
counting comes back into play) or they 
spread out (like CC
in SG) is more open unless you've defined a 
single location
to attack (which DS says you should really 
do).

[Tomb] Well, except that the defender has 
to make a confidence test to stand, and 
IIRC these are made per UNIT not per 
ELEMENT. So attacking one tank (which is 
effectively what happened) can drive them 
all off the objective....

> 5. Reaction fire seems automatic. Should 
it maybe have a
> check? Otherwise whoever gets in 
position first has
> automatic death dealing to the other 
guy. Especially if
> the unit RFing is "under fire"?

I'm having a complete mental blank... 
reaction fire? Do you
mean opportunity fire?

[Tomb] Yes. By an artifact of unit numbers 
one side was able to have an unactivated 
unit in front of a woodsline waiting for the 
enemy to show his head. Now, he knew the 
enemy was there, the enemy knew he was 
there. In real life, he'd drive to the edge 
and acquire targets and fire while they 
would acquire him as he appeared and fire -
 kind of a shootout. But in the game, all fire 
from the sitting unit (opportunity fire) 
would occur before any from the moving 
unit. That's what bugged me. 

> 6. If you have shaken infantry, and they 
want to CA an
> enemy, do they make both their 
"reaction test for being
> shaky" and a "close assault initiation 
test"? 

I've always assumed it was covered in the 
TL+3 for the CA
test.

[Tomb] I might have missed something... 
will look again. 

> 7. What happens if you are shaky and try 
to do something
> and blow your reaction roll? (moving 
towards enemy)? Do
> you do nothing or just can you not do 
_that_ and instead
> do something like fire? The Reaction Roll 
rule says you
> don't follow the order... but what does 
that mean?

I've always treated it like blowing an Under 
Fire test...
you can't do that CA or move. If it was a 
move action and
you haven't already done a combat action 
and you have valid
targets then you could still do a combat 
action.

[Tomb] Okay, is this how it is commonly 
done by DS2ers? (Or is there some errata 
that clears up how this is meant to work?)

You'll find it plays a bit different once 
you've done
that... less CAing with infantry unless 
they're dug-in ;) 

[Tomb] My infantry never saw combat. 
They debarked about 20" out from the 
objective, their APCs ended up getting 
vaporized, and the only things that got to 
CA were the PA because a double PA move 
+ 2" is 14" and a double infantry move + 2" 
is only 6" which is a huge difference. So my 
7 stands never saw combat (neither did his 
conventional stands) and only the PA 
moved/assaulted (it is hard to kill, moves 
fast, and forces huge penalties on those it 
CAs). 

---------------------------------------------
Thomas Barclay
Co-Creator of http://www.stargrunt.ca 
Stargrunt II and Dirtside II game site

No Battle Plan Survives Contact With Dice.
-- Mark 'Indy' Kochte