Sgt. Brassones
Mongoose
Offensive and defensive, flash-bang, white phosphorous, smoke. Why are there no options on the unit cards for grenades? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't each U.S. Marine issued two frag grenades as standard?
weasel_fierce said:There's also the issue of range. If a rifle can only shoot 24 inches , throwing range would either be miserably short, or seem strangely long.
weasel_fierce said:more to the point, in modern combat, how much time do soldiers spend chucking grenades, compared to spending the same time making several reasonably aimed shots ?
There's also the issue of range. If a rifle can only shoot 24 inches , throwing range would either be miserably short, or seem strangely long.
Rabidchild said:The grenade issue comes up in many systems. There are two primary reasons not to implement them: 1) They are so good that you end up with squads running around doing nothing but lobbing grenades. 2) There are invariably deviation rules that slow the game to a crawl.
That being said, what are the reasons to use grenades in a game? What are the reasons to put anything in a game? To give tactical options within the framework of the game. So let's look at the options that grenades could give and stay away from the above 2 reasons not to use them.
The primary use of grenades is against located enemies that cannot be seen so what about letting them be used without LOS? This gives an option not available yet in the game. In keeping with the framework of the game (modern combat) let's limit how many can throw. This not only is in keeping with fire-team tactics of having your mates cover you, but would also stop people from running around with 10 soldiers grenade-spamming. As far as range goes 4" seems reasonable considering the blast radius of the weapon. This may not be a realistic simulation of real world grenade range but doesn't pretend to be. It's for the game, if you need a real world reason for it, think of it as the effective range rather than maximum range.
Fragmentation Grenade
Range: 4" Damage D6
As part of a shoot action two models may opt to throw grenades instead of firing their weapon. Fragmentation Grenades will roll extra damage dice (but only 1D6 with no penalty to armor save) against each model within 1" of the center of the first model its damage die is allocated to. As an exception to the shooting rules neither the first model allocated a damage die, nor the models within 1" of it need to be in Line of Sight. It may only be used once per turn and never as a reaction.
As an aside, I do realize that a fire team with only two members left could opt to both throw grenades and so break with the tactic of having a mate cover your back. But really, if you're down to two soldiers you might be desperate enough to both lob some grenades. Also I realize that a squad could be split into fire teams to multiply the grenades thrown. I don't think that would be much of a problem as splitting fire teams comes with its own drawbacks, but if it becomes a problem it's easy enough to say that only one model may throw a grenade as part of a shoot action.
Thoughts? Comments?