Re: [Epic] Blast markers

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:35:33 -0600

Alan E & Carmel J Brain wrote:

> Stephen Sheldon wrote:
> >
> > Someone was inquiring about the new blast marker rule earlier, and I know
> > John (Who I game with, who has FINALLY joined the list and is now a
> > lurker) wanted them too. I forget who originally wrote them,
>
> Me actually...
>
> I have
> > a digest of the new rules. Here goes
> > ----------------RULES------------------------------------------
> > Rally phase:
> > After rolling for blast marker removal, remove blast markers exceeding
> > the break value of the detachment.
> >
> > After blast marker removal, Detachments may be disbanded.
> > To disband a detachment, all remaining units are removed from the table,
> > and the number of blast markers remaining on the detachment are
> > immediately deducted from the army morale as normal.
> > War Engines may not be disbanded.
>
> --
> aebrain_at_... <> <> How doth the little Crocodile
> | Alan & Carmel Brain| xxxxx Improve his shining tail?
> | Canberra Australia | xxxxxHxHxxxxxx _MMMMMMMMM_MMMMMMMMM
> abrain_at_... o OO*O^^^^O*OO o oo oo oo oo
> By pulling MAERKLIN Wagons, in 1/220 Scale

  Yoyu missed the great BM debate, which raged for a good week if I remember
correctly. If you missed it. I don't like these rules because they make smaller
detats suffer less from shell shock than larger. ther may be some merit to
saying larger units are easier to disrupt, but it is also true that getting a
mob to hurl themselves at the enemy is easier than just a few; the "it won't be
me next" effect is reinforced when its 300 guys in a group rather than 40.

Aside from useless discussions of reality, I don't see why a unit which has
taken tons of FP should be let of the hook the next turn. The BM effects are
good, and can last the whole battle. The BM morale effects can be bad.

So I think that a unit can only suffer morale loss from BM up to what the units
morale loss would be if eliminated. Thus, if a unit with 4 morale has 6 BM's
after BM removal, it still only cost 4 to the army morale. This makes more
since; why should pinning a unit with fire cost more to a an armies morale than
destroying it entirely. It also allows you to swamp a detat with BM's to keep
it demoralized for a game without ending the game in 3 turns due to BM morale
losses.

A final suggestion was to treat BM morale losses as temporary; so you're morale
improved as the effects of incoming fire wear off and the enemies incoming FP
is reduced. To acheive this simply, the morale loss for BM's is subtracted from
army morale after all other morale affects from broken detats and objectives,
but not made a permanent part of the record (much like the objectives were
treated in SM/TL). So if your morale was 50 last turn, and you lost 16 points
due to broken units, gained 3 from objectives, and had 23 total BM that turn,
you would say your morale was 39 then modify it to 16 for BM. You'd say " not
at zero yet", and play another round. This turn, your morale is at 39 base.

Along with this, double the value for objectives except bunker; this makes them
valuable enough to be worth sacrificing troops for.

Looney hates these ideas, but I think they make the game much more intersting
and keeps the game from ending prematurely. We've played with the first system
and it worked well, but have not playtested the second.

Thane
Received on Sat Apr 25 1998 - 18:35:33 UTC