Re: house rules (was Re: [Epic] General Enquiry)

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 17:53:28 -0700

Andy Skinner wrote:
>
> Thane Morgan wrote:
> >
> > Stephen Sheldon wrote:
> >
> > > > 3. Blast markers: I don't like how the number of blast markers that come
> > > > Instead of removing d6-1 blast markers, roll two dice and remove
> > > > a number of blast markers equal to the lower die. (Maybe double
> > > > 6s should count as 0.)
> > > >
> > > I like this.-------------------stephes_at_...--------
> >
> > I hate this. BM's already prematurely end games too much as is; cutting
> > the number removed will only reduce the actual number of kills you need
> > to win.
>
> Actually, my original proposal actually slightly increases the average
> number of BMs removed, from 2.5 to 2.52777. Probably because you always
> remove 1 (which Elias doesn't like, but I do, 'cause I think you ought
> to have to keep applying fire to keep up suppression), and can remove
> 6. But I think I'd like a limit on how many points come off because of
> suppression, like no more than morale value per turn.
>
> Or did you (or whoever proposed something similar) prefer that you don't
> remove more than morale value total for the game? I guess it does seem
> a bit odd that you do more morale damage by suppressing them one turn
> and killing them next turn than blowing them away first turn.
>
> andy
> Actually, I came up with a solution to two problems I have with the
game. No longer deduct ANY morale for Blast Markers, and double the
value of objectives.

This will get rid of some of the absurdities involved with BM's; I
figure that for most of the games I've played over half of the morale
loss has been due to BM's, and the very last game I played over 2/3's of
the morale loss came from BM. Many games have ended before either side
has lost %50 of our troops. While this is not unusual in real warfare,
it makes for crappy wargaming, and is very inconsistent with all other
wargames I've seen.

Likewise, this makes objectives worth something again. Most games I've
played, objectives have affected morale by less than %10 of total
morale, even if we were willing to take risks to get them. The only one
which may need to be changed is the bunker, since it is really easy to
kill with DR's and AT's.

One of the problems I see with the dramatic affect BM's have on morale
is that you regain no morale back for removing BM's; i.e. on a really
suppressed unit you can continue losing morale for several turns after
they have stopped being fired on; it seems army/unit morale should
recover as the suppression is recovered from.

So maybe the final solution would be to make BM morale loss temporary;
add and subtract morale as normal due to breaking units and objectives
(still doubled); then calculate the effect of BM's, but dont write BM
affects down in a permanent manner. Thus each turn, you can use BM's to
put you "over the edge" of victory consditions, but suppression affects
from previous turns will not accumulate.

Thane
Received on Sat Mar 28 1998 - 00:53:28 UTC