Re: [Epic] skimmers and avoiding getting shot

From: Neil R. Thomason <n.thomason_at_...>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:09:44 GMT

Hi,

I said:
>Since the Eldar is going second,
>once he's finished firing, the phase ends (apart from war engines).

Eugene Earnshaw-Whyte <eug_at_...> said, with lots of HTML insets
(Grrr!):
>This seems wrong; the firing phase is not necessarily over as soon as the
>second player is finished firing. By way of example, imagine player A has
>two detachments and player B has one; all are in range to fire. Player
>A goes first. He fires a detachment, then player B fires a detachment,
>then the phase ends 'cuz the second player has finished firing.

I wasn't saying that. I'd allowed for the disparity in numbers of
detachments, but yes, the effect would be much as you suggest below. If
the Marine player has several more detachments than the Eldar, the Eldar
just keeps passing until the Marine also only has one detachment left to
fire. In my earlier posting, I'd assumed this had already happened, and was
only talking about this final exchange of fire.

Remember, the Marine player doesn't know when the Eldar player has no more
detachments to fire. Using your example of 2 detachments vs. 1, player A
(Marines) fires a detachment, then player B (Eldar) fires. Player A then
says 'No, I won't fire now; I'll wait'. But there's nothing to wait for;
phase over. That is essentially the 'double pass' you mention.

>It could be that you were thinking along the lines of a 'double pass
>ends the turn' rule, where the firing phase ends if both players pass.
>This is a quite sensible way to handle things.

Yes, I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but that's essentially what I
meant. Once there is only one detachment left to fire on each side, the
second player determines when the phase has ended.

>A minor variation is to, in the event of a double pass, give both players
>an opportunity to initiate firing with any of their detachments which have
>not yet done so.

I wouldn't permit this. If you decide to keep hanging on and hanging on,
eventually it's going to be too late; that's the risk of the passing option.
War Engines fire after other units because they're nominally slower, but the
enemy waits, they'll catch up!

Cheers,

NRT

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Received on Fri Nov 14 1997 - 15:09:44 UTC