[Diaspora] Platoon Combat Confusion

[Buzz]

I am not one of the designers, but I can try to help.

>  1.  Unit v team v platoon
>  - representation on the map: If I am fielding the sample t3 Marine Platoon
>  (p. 196), how many markers do I need?  One for the whole platoon?  One
>  per team?  One per unit on each team?

One mini per unit: "A unit is the minimum element represented on the map
for each type: a single miniature or counter."

>  - action: Each unit takes an action, right?  So a single marine (unit)
>  could split off from his pals (team) to engage his arch rival (unit)
>  one-on-one.  A team could move away from the other teams in its platoon to
>  execute a pincer maneuver.  Right?  As long as they're within range
>  of their Platoon Leader's communication, they'd be able to use any
>  of the available actions?

Yes, each unit takes an action: "The Sequence proceeds in a fixed order around the table, with each player acting for 
each of her units in whatever order she prefers." Player A has all their units act, then Player B theirs, etc.

Units that are OOC can still act, but they have limitations: "Nonleader units that do not belong to a platoon (are out of 
command range) may move away from enemy units, may attack enemy units that have fired upon them, and may 
attempt to unjam and remove Out Of Communication (OOC) counters on themselves, but may take no other actions. 
They have no fate points and do not share a platoon’s Consequences. Hits on these units may not be mitigated by a 
platoon taking a Consequence. Units that become disassociated from their platoon do not change the platoon’s fate 
point total."

>  3.  Movement
>  - "If your movement places you in (or passes through) the same zone as an
>  enemy unit ... the moving unit ceases movement."  This is different than
>  the every zone you move through has the potential for a compel, right?

Yes. The moving unit stops and both it and the encountered unit get SPOTTED markers. Compels are a separate issue 
which may or may not cause the unit to stop movement.

>  4.  Platoon consequences
>  -  Typical Unit Stress Tracks, p.187, says "All units have a single stress
>  track, Morale.  A platoon may expend consequences to mitigate hits ... A
>  platoon has three Consequences to allocate and each can mitigate two
>  shifts."
>  -  But in Damage on p. 192, "A platoon can have a maximum of three
>  consequences ..." mild [reduce by 1], medium [reduce by 2], and sever
>  [reduce by 4].

I submitted this as an errata; I am not sure which is correct, though my assumption is that it is the same 1/2/4 as all 
the other conflict mini-games.

>  -  So if a unit in a platoon would take that deadly hit, its owning
>  platoon can "give" one of its consequences to that unit?  Is this
>  consequence free-taggable on the unit or the platoon?  Does it "occupy"
>  one of the platoon's otherwise-available consequences?

"Platoon Consequences are also Aspects that are effectively on all units of the platoon. They may be free-tagged 
once."

There is only one "pool" of Consequences: the platoon's. The Consequences apply to all units in the platoon. 
Remember, it's the units that do all of the acting, so it's the units that are benefiting and suffering from the 
Consequences that arise.

>  5.  Artillery
>  - Any suggestions on how to narrate the fact that my artillery card is off
>  the map?  I have a sinking feeling my war-gaming friends would say "well
>  hey, that should be somewhere on the map.  I'd like to capture your
>  artillery cannons and use them against you."  Is there a way to model this
>  (I'm thinking a small-scale concession of some sort?).

I don't have an answer to this, but:

"Infantry-based artillery (such as mortar or grenade launcher crews) should be represented by including an Indirect 
Fire Skill on an infantry unit. Artillery batteries that need to be represented on the map for purposes of the scenario 
should be represented by their attending personnel as lightly armed infantry units."

"Attacks on artillery in an off-map "battery zone" are at effective range 10 zones when attacked by on-map units."

I.e., I think that you can either let them live on the map, or else they are just really far away (10 zones). I'm not sure 
how you would model capturing their positions in that case, though.