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[Cthulhu]

Yes, there'll be a waiting list.  I'm going to go through and mark down everybody who got in first.  First come first served.

Looks like Canalan is HQ, bdthemag is 1st, Strife is 2nd, and Powder Miner is 3rd.

Everyone else is on the waiting list and will be cycled in as reinforcements when and if players die.

Also, Zomara.  I really, really, really strongly suggest changing your rep.  You don't need to determine it randomly.  Not only will R2 make your character completely useless and incompetent, US Army soldiers can't actually be randomly generated with R2.  It's really only used for local VC and CIDG troops.  If you must use random generation, a better roll would be 1d6, with 1-2 being 3, 3-4 being 4, and 5-6 being 5.

[zomara0292]

In that case I will more than gladly bump it up to three. It would be easier to rp that way because of my own 'green-ness' when it comes to military strategies and concepts.

[Strife26]

Military concepts 101.

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."

[Cthulhu]

The first two missions are ready.

The first one is a perimeter patrol mission.  The units assigned must prevent penetration of friendly lines.  The terrain is rugged hilly forest.  Troops can expect moderate friendly support, while VC presence in the area is poorly organized.  Don't expect major resistance or enemy reinforcements.

The second one is a combat patrol.  Troops must reach the center of the zone and hold it.  Terrain is very rugged rocky forest.  Troops should expect below average support, don't count on reinforcement.  VC in the area are well-supported.  This one has the potential to get very rough.

Once the platoon commander has decided who goes where, we'll get started.  There'll probably only be one or two updates per mission, per day.

[Canalan]

I want 1st Squad on perimeter patrol, with 2nd and 3rd on combat patrol.

And can I requisition specific things at the end of the month?

[Cthulhu]

What things are they?

[Canalan]

Helicopters and tanks, flamethrowers, LAWs, etc.

Also, what are the outside things I can call in?  Like, napalm, Agent Orange, Air Cav, artillery, the like.

[Strife26]

We're an infantry platoon. Choppers and tanks would generally be attached at a higher level, after all, if we had those, we wouldn't be an infantry platoon any more. Flamethrowers and LAW's I can see, but they'd probably be a weapons squad type dealio.

Now, I'd personally rather have a Ma Duce to haul around. Mmmmmm.

[Cthulhu]

If I give you guys a weapon squad (I probably will eventually) you'll be able to add elements from it to squads for missions. 

As for calling stuff in, that's mainly something the people in the field will do.  Squads will generally be supplied with a radio, probably on the Jr. NCO, and they can call stuff in on it.  If you think they need it you could assign your platoon RTO to a squad, he gets bonuses to certain things.

Reinforcements and off-map support are the two main things that can happen during a battle.  Reinforcements are 100% random, determined by a somewhat involved system which I'm not going to detail unless people really want to know, I'm keeping your end of the game rules-light.  Just know that each side has a support level which I allude to in the mission briefings, which determines how likely they are to receive support.  This could be anything from artillery to a gunship to elements from other units.  It works hard to capture the fog of war and chaotic nature of the battle.  One turn you can be routinely mopping up local VC when suddenly half a platoon of well armed main force VC move in or a sniper you didn't even know was on the map kills your radioman.

You don't have any control over reinforcements, you just have a vague inkling of how likely you are to get some.  If you're not satisfied with that, you can call for off-map support using your squad's radio.  This is basically a series of rolls based on stuff like weather, your radioman's rep, your squad leader's rep, etc.  You can call for artillery, an air strike from a plane, or gunship support.  Artillery's pretty easy to get but lower rep squad's are less likely to be trusted with the bigger stuff.  Calling for support could get you a big fat no, in which case you can't try again for the rest of the mission, you might find out something's on the way and'll be there in a few turns, or the support could already be up there and you only find out when the clouds start puking tracer rounds everywhere.

Be very careful with off-map support.  Most of the missions aren't going to take place in exceptionally large areas and a lot of fire missions will be danger close.  Some of the bigger ordnance can cover a very large chunk of the map and you really don't want that shell going short.

Similar to reinforcements, off-map support isn't determined by you, but by the circumstances.  You tell them what you want but you can't decide what's available.  You might get lucky with a Cobra gunship, or you might get stuck with something shitty.

I'm worried the HQ position is going to be boring.  You don't actually really get to do anything.  Sometimes big shit will go down and the whole platoon will be in the field, in which case you get some action, but aside from that...

If I add the weapons squad I might just give it to the HQ so he has something to do, although that raises the question of what happens if the commander or weapons squad leader dies...

[Strife26]

I figure that HQ would be really interesting, trying to keep the maneuver squads alive and all.

[Powder Miner]

Do different weapons make differences in gameplay?

[Kashyyk]

I'm expressing interest. And watching. And stuff.

[Cthulhu]

Yes, different weapons do different things.  Each weapon has a range, a target rating, and an impact rating.  Range is self explanatory.  Target rating is how many shots you can take per round.  Those shots can be allocated in any way you want, with the restriction that you must expend one shot for each empty inch of space between targets. (A single character takes up an inch of space)

So if you have a grease gun with T3, and there are two Vietcong soldiers with an inch between them, you can shoot each soldier once.  If they're adjacent, you can shoot one of them twice and one once, or one of them three times.  Impact rating determines how deadly the gun is.  Most guns are I2 or I3.  If you successfully hit the target, you roll a d6.  If it's below the gun's impact rating, the target is dead.  If it's above the impact but below his rep, he's grazed and knocked prone.  If it's above the Impact and his rep, he's incapacitated and can no longer act on his own.

That reminds me, do you guys want Larger than Life and cheat death?  Keep in mind what I just told you.   If you're standing in the open, a rep 3 main force VC with an AK-47 has three shots, 50% hit chance each.  Each hit has a 50% chance of killing you.  This game is extremely deadly, and no one will call you undorfy if you decide to use the optional survivability rules.  Of course, not using them is still very dorfy.  When I think about it the above example is more of an encouragement to use cover (Use cover.  Cover improves your survivability to a huge degree.  That rep 3 VC actually can't hit you at all if you're under sufficient cover)

[Strife26]

I say lets do it without 'em.


Is there any particular reason why 2nd is so short on guys? I figure that it'll affect how their sergeant will act.

[zomara0292]

Agreed. Optimal strategies for preserving life only appear in life-or-death situations.