[SG] APCs and whatnot

The case Adrian was referring to was what SG2 
calls a non-penetrating hit. A hit was scored on 
the vehicle, but it did not disable nor destroy 
the vehicle. As a non-penetrating hit, you check 
for other effects - a systems down hit (need to 
get backups online) or an immobilizing hit to 
the suspension. In the case in point, an M-kill 
was scored by a GMS punching through the 
skirting and ruining the lift chamber (maybe 
broke some fan blades). No crew injuries 
occured and the vehicle could still shoot. 

The crew, however, bailed out. It seemed to us 
the infantry should either auto-bail or at least 
have increased odds given the bail-out of the 
crew (and one presumes they know the APC 
fans went offline and the vehicle is immobile). As 
a former grunt, I myself NEVER liked the idea of 
riding around in a tin-can with "shoot me" 
written all over it - the sooner one could get on 
the ground, the happier I was. But that might 
just be me....

As for "APC as part of the squad", keep in mind 
how you divide up "squads" in SG2 bears (of 
necessity) no particular enforced ties to nominal 
unit organization. For example, with well trained 
forces like the NSL Pzgd, I often run a squad as 
two four man fireteams. They are still "a squad" 
but they run as two fireteams that can operate 
fairly independently (though I encourage people 
to keep squad components together for mutual 
support). So an APC which is organizationally 
part of the squad may still operate as a 
separate vehicle (rather than as a detached 
element or something wierder). 

As to why I embark/debark as I do: Yes, Adrian 
is somewhat correct. It does break the 
activation rules. I view it as somewhat of a "joint 
activation". The total number of actions 
executed is 4, but two are consumed by 
"embark" or "debark" and that really only 
leaves one action for the squad and one for the 
APC. In practice, this isn't all that potent. 

As to the problem of having an unactivated 
squad beside an activated tank and not being 
able to get on.... I sort of view the turn as a 
continous thing with some simultaneous 
aspects. It occurs to me the APC may actually 
still be driving over. We can't activate all the 
units at once (physically) which is why we have 
an alternating turn sequence. But the fact the 
infantry can't board the APC doesn't distrub me 
a whit as the APC spent its actions driving over 
to the infantry. What I would allow is this: APC 
activates and says he's going to pickup infantry, 
spends one move action, then spends an 
"embark" action. The infantry then spends a 
move and embark (or just an embark if they 
are close enough). Now, for bookkeeping 
simplicity, I activate both units at once. If, OTOH, 
I wanted to be different, I could just note the 
APC had spent and embark action, allow the 
other side to activate a unit, then spend the 
embark action on behalf of the troopies in their 
activation. Yes, this would mean tracking who 
had activated, but considering I track ammo for 
all GMS or IAVR on the board, decoy counts, 
original squad sizes, etc., tracking this small bit 
of (usually obvious) data doesn't really add 
much complexity (at least by our standards). Of 
course, YMMV.

Tomb. 

---------------------------------------------
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