Re: [Epic] Problems with the old system

From: Brett Hollindale <agro_at_...>
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 11:08:11 GMT

At 11:38 AM 17/1/97 -0600, you wrote:
>At 10:17 01/17/1997 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>I've talked to other gamers who pretty much believed that
>>winning the game depended solely on winning initiative more
>>than your opponent.
>
>>shupes_at_...
>
>I would be one of those gamers. The group I played in at TN Tech were
>die-hard. We had about 6-8 regular players and at least that many who would
>occasionally pick up a game. Almost all were college students, and the
>competition was fierce. Rarely did anyone make tactical errors, and stupid
>errors (not placing orders, etc.) just didn't happen at all. By the time I
>left, most battles (unless someone was trying an experimental force) went to
>whoever won 2 out of 3 initiative rolls. If someone won all three, there
>was no hope. We even tried adding +1 to the loser's roll on the following
>turn. Most of us refused to play Ragnar Cheesemane because of his
>initiative bonus. It is not true so much at games I've played in elsewhere,
>though.
>
>Love and laughs,
>Tempest

This hasn't been my experience I'm afraid. As I said (much earlier), we
USED to use a system where whover lost initiative moved one company and its
support and then the other player moved one company and its support and so
on until all units had moved.

After extensive play testing we have gone back to the rules as written (one
side moves their whole army, and then the other side moves their whole army)
because it doesn't seem to make that much difference.

We rigidly enforce the rule that you must close assault the nearest
(unengaged) unit when charging (unless you are a flyer or a skimmer) and
this allows us to deploy Close Asault troops to screen things we don't want
close assaulted...

Other than choosing who close assaults who (which you can pretty much do
with sound tactics anyway) the initiative advantage isn't all that
overwhelming unless you're facing the bloody squats and their bloody Cylopses...

(Of course, since Warp missiles will now kill them stone motherless dead, I
don't suppose they will be much of a problem in future :-)

Agro
Received on Sat Jan 18 1997 - 11:08:11 UTC