SMOKE

Roger said:

I have 6 soldiers: FP3.  I have four fire (d12) and, as my second 
action
have the remaining two drop smoke.  Any less abusive than the "not a
firing action" scenario?

[Tomb] No, moreso because I think it violates the rules. By my 
reading of the rules, you've used two actions for your squad 
(something and fire, or something and smoke). So you can't have two 
wait and pop smoke after the others fire. Legal, and ugly would be "N-
1 squadies fire, the Nth pops smoke -- spend 2 actions for the 
squad". 

How do you defeat this? Smoke becomes soft or hard cover instead of 
blocking LoF. Quality die required to get good placement/thickness. 
And of course a windy day just blows this to hell. 

Of course, overwatch and reaction fire tend to discourage this. You 
fire at one of my units. Before you pop smoke, I reaction fire or OW 
fire your unit. Then maybe you can't pop smoke.... (or not until next 
action anyway). 

Smoke in the game tends to be a magical wall - instantly erected, 
entirely effectual. Smoke in real life tends to be patchy, 
incompletely covering, obscuring to your fire and information 
gathering, and not known to stop bullets. It is useful, but not a 
panacea. 

You need to limit it in the game or cheesy moves become the norm. 

T.