Re: [GZG] [SG] IAVRs

On 12/8/05, Adrian <adrian@stargrunt.ca> wrote:

> You could keep the rocket launcher as a standard part of the platoon's
gear
> - soldiers like to have something that goes *bang* to take out
bunkers,
> tanks, enemy gun emplacements in buildings, etc.

I disagree from a doctrinal standpoint.  If you tell a troopie that he
can use a weapon against anything he pleases, then he will.  If you
tell him it's for shooting down aircraft then he MIGHT use it to shoot
at aircraft instead of blazing away at every bunker he finds.

Personally, I'd punish anyone foolish enough to shoot off their only
anti-air asset at a stupid bunker by having an airstrike show up on
the next turn whether my scenario called for it or not.

Besides, I don't think systems using mere eyeballs as a target
acquisition system are terribly effective vs. modern aircraft, much
less futuristic ones.  I'm inclined to keep anti-air assets in
anti-air batteries that fight as integrated systems, rather than
handing yet another complicated piece of kit to some poor infantry
schlub.

> That doesn't help the attackers much against armoured vehicles since
the
> impact of a squad's fire is based on the impact of the rifles and not
the
> support weapons.

Unless you fire them at the vehicles as support weapons, and I would
permit (based on real-world doctrine for these things) firing two of
them as a single activation so long as it is at a single target.

> I've tried giving one IAVR per trooper in games in the past, and had
> "canny" players dump all of them in a single round into a (troop
squad)
> target.  So, out of the 8-trooper squad, you have one rifleman fire
and add
> in the SAW and six IAVRs.  That uses them all up, but makes for a
really
> devastating round of firing (against infantry)...

Canny my ass.  I'd force a reaction check.  TV+3, +6 if there are ANY
vehicles on the board at all.  If it fails, the squad looses an
activation while the squad leader tactfully tells the platoon leader
he's a damn fool, shut up and let him run his squad.

> Now, your mission objective is to eliminate 3 vehicles, which means
that
> the focus will be on them, but giving one IAVR per trooper means that
the
> attackers will have 14 to 16 IAVR.  That's a lot of rockets - four
firing
> per turn for four turns.

I wouldn't give one to the squad leader or team leaders.  We carry too
much crap already and are too busy directing fire and leading to be
bothered with firing support weapons.  Often a squad leader will fire
his weapon 10% as much as his troops will.  That cuts it down to 4 per
squad.	Given that the modern doctrinal answer is to fire two per
target, that's two armored vehicles per squad, which means if one
survives, they still win the fight.

> I've run ambush scenarios like this a few times, and it usually seems
to
> work out best for the ambushee...

Ambush is a specialized form of attack which requires the ambusher to
have a certain force ratio (GMs frequently misjudge)and to have a good
grasp of the basic principles of conducting an ambush.

John
--
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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