[v5.0] Fliers & AA (long)

From: Jarreas Underwood <jarreas_at_...>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 23:21:53 -0400

>What would you like to see in a set of flier rules for net epic?
>
>Peter

I'd like to see fliers in the 'eggshells with sledgehammers' catagory, and
make anti-flier stuff a little more effective. If a player wants to field
fliers, go for it but be prepared to lose them.

First comes the question of how flyers relate to the Epic-scale
battlefield. My apologies in advance, but I need to establish some
background for my later proposals - skip the next two paragraphs if you're
only interested in the conclusions.

As far as I can tell by looking at the models, 1mm is roughly equal to a
foot. That makes a 5'x6' table about 1500' x 1800' - less than a third of a
mile square. Adding a fudge factor of three (1mm = 3'), the battle is being
fought in about a square mile. If something can't effectively turn around
in this distance then it can be treated as here-and-gone, and not placed on
the table at all.

A turn is long enough for a standard trooper to move 10cm (around 300 feet)
under battlefield conditions (noise, smoke, ducking for cover, getting a
few shots off and staying in contact with your buddies). Figure a minute -
that's an 18-minute mile and quite reasonable. That means a unit moving 60
miles per hour is off the map in a turn. If it can turn around in less than
a mile, or even ten miles, I'll accept that it can stay on an Epic
battlefield. However, the stall speed of an F-16 is 230 mph and it's attack
speed is 1,200 mph. Can you see where I'm going with this? :)

IMHO, any unit that can move and turn on an Epic-scale battlefield should
be treated as a floater. Anything like an F-16 dropping ordinance should be
used as another type of orbital barrage - you buy an air strike and call it
in when you want it. I object to the concept of dogfights on similar
grounds - they'd be maneuvering off the board in no time.

If anyone knows an actual scale for Epic, please let me know - I'm
guesstimating on the numbers above and I'd kinda like to find out how close
I am.


+++++ Now I get to the new stuff I'm proposing.

Let's scrap the previous definition of fliers and floaters and combine them
into one catagory - flier. That makes three types of movement:
          Ground: anything that walks, hops, slithers or rolls.

          Skimmer: ignores terrain, can make Pop-Up attacks. Ends movement either
grounded or at low altitude.

          Flier: ignores terrain, can't make Pop-Ups, counts as a skimmer for
pinning purposes. Ends movement grounded, low or high altitude.


And introduce a new barrage:
          Tactical Air Strike: A lot like orbital barrages but not as many barrage
points (maybe 2 or 4). Only an HQ or Elite unit can call one in. Not free
(maybe 25 points) and limited to one per company. Perhaps two types to
distinguish between anti-infantry and anti-armor ordinance. I'm open to
ideas here.


+++++ From now on I'll be using the term "flier" to refer to everything
that used to be a flier, floater or thruster.

As with buildings, fliers have a number of unique characteristics:

 1) Altitude: Fliers can be at three altitudes - grounded, low or high.
Skimmers can be grounded or low.
        Grounded: You can't land in woods or other inhospitable terrain, but you
can hover over buildings and such. If it's a transport, troops can get on &
off. You might not be able to fire all your weapons - see the unit
description.

        Low Altitude: The unit is somewhere between treetop and skyscraper high,
and gets LOS cover from forests and buildings. Only fliers, skimmers and
jumpers can engage it in Close Combat.

        High Altitude: The unit is a long ways up. Pretty much everyone can see it
but you add 25cm to the range of any ground units firing at it. Only other
fliers can engage it in Close Combat. Template weapons have no effect.


 2) All-around Firing: Even though fliers are in the vehicle size range
they don't have a limited arc of fire.

 3) All-Around Armor: Fliers are build to take fire from all directions and
do not suffer from side or rear armor penalties.

 4) Shoot The Thin Part: Flier attacks come from above and get that -1 TSM
'side armor' bonus. We can either put it here in the rules and try to
remember it, or just change all the unit stats when we go over the army
lists. I'd prefer to put it in the stats, with a note as to why the TSMs
are so good.

 5) Drop Things: Some fliers can drop template weapons during movement. The
attack is resolved immediately and the flier then keeps moving.


+++++ Fliers have a number of characteristics that used to be different but
aren't anymore:
 1) Close Combat: Now it's just like any other unit - if you can pin it,
you can fight it.

 2) Orders: No longer do they have different meanings. We might want to
specify that you can't change altitude on First Fire, but that's about it.

 3) Can't Shoot Me: Now anyone can target a flier normally. Like I said, be
prepared to lose fliers.


+++++ And since I'm revamping fliers, I'll go over AA units as well. Part
of my goal here is to make AA units attractive as a precaution, and useful
even if your opponent doesn't pick any fliers or skimmers.

Unit special ability: Anti-Aircraft (AA)

AA units are build to track and engage long-range, fast-moving targets.
They function poorly when trying to target something in a high
background-clutter environment (on the ground) but are highly effective
against skimmers and fliers. AA units have the following special rules:

 1) If they're on First Fire orders, they do not suffer a -1 penalty for
Snap Fire.

 2) They have a 360-degree arc of fire.

 3) Their shots have the ability "Damages Buildings". This is partly
because they really are limited area-effect weapons, and partly to make
them useful against something other than fliers.

 4) They suffer a -2 To-Hit penalty for firing at ground targets. This does
not apply to any really big target, like things that use a Hit Location
Template or buildings. Most To-Hit rolls will be 3+ and 4+, so this simply
discourages firing at ground targets instead of making them unhittable.

+++++ Let's not worry about "either ground or flying targets" - you can
split dice, but the shots fired at ground targets have that nasty -2 penalty.


Ok, feedback time. What do you think? Did I miss anything?
-Yar
Received on Wed May 01 2002 - 03:21:53 UTC