Re: Missiles/Grazers

From: Robert McArthur <rjmcarthur>
Date: Tue Jan 24 04:00:44 2006


buserian_at_juno.com wrote:
> Having die roll charts for spirits might work, but easier to just define
> spirit cups. But then, you have to have a bunch of different spirit pots.
> Either way, it's messy. Limited to only a few scenarios, though.

This huge difference, IMHO, between DP and NG in game terms is the size of the support versus your own troops - the tribes are painfully small compared to the enourmous power of the spirits you can find. Now this is somewhat compensated for by the size and usability of the entire map and the lack of magician units. I think that bringing such huge spirits into DP is a very dangerous move without some serious playtesting. I can understand small(er), more specific spirits, such as the spirit of movement, but I really worry about Oakfed, Malia et al. Look at the current spirits - SoM and Twin Stars are the two I can think of immediately. Both are indivudally small and can be baked by the Red Emperor or tought Sartar magician. I'd like any added spirit to be of similar size, or at most be the subject of only one or two specific scenarios (but then there's the question why they aren't always available in the herowars - the main game 14/28 turns is supposed to give the players access to pretty much everything and I'd like to keep that feeling).

> Well, right now, three phases of combat use the same table -- Physical
> Magic, Spirit Magic, and Melee. Only Chaotic Magic and Missile Fire are
> resolved differently (discounting Exotic Magic). I see no need to keep
> Missile Fire different.

The only reason I can think of is to have some other result other than kill or disruption - ie. something special missile units do. I can't think of anything, so I'm in favour of a single table.

> Well, I am also in favor of limiting the number of normal units that can
> be in a fertile hex, too. I've said it before -- I don't think you can
> reasonably get 10 hexes worth of soldiers into a single 30 square mile
> hex (or whatever it is) to allow for anything other than passing through.
> Once you're there, even overnight, there just isn't room for everyone and
> all their stuff, at least not in any way that would let even some of them
> fight.
>
> OK, historical military buffs will now bring out many examples of how I
> am wrong.

Well, no examples but I one could certainly add to the rules to make it less *likely* that big stacks form rather than being proscrictive. For example, for every non-individual unit above (say, arbitrarily,) 4 in a hex then, at the start of the next turn in the random events phase, there's

  1. a 25% chance of plague happening that turn in that hex; and/or
  2. a 33% chance that in-fighting takes place and each non-individual unit has to roll a 4-6 or be disrupted. The chance goes down to 20% with a hero in the stack, and 10% if a superhero. The chance is 0% if there is a superhero and best friend [essentially it's the number of leadership which does this, so Ethilrist==superhero for this rule] How would that be?

> Also, it has occurred to me JUST NOW that the support rules are a bit
> whacked, too. You have to have support in a chaparral hex, even if you
> just end your movement there, right. So that means you have to bring an
> entire herd of cattle with you _just to sleep overnight in a hex_ before
> you move on? Sounds like myth dictating game rules, which is not always
> the best way to do things. Maybe support should be rethought just a tad.

I always thought so :-) I just don't know quite how!

> Sort of, yes -- something to make missile fire a bit more effective. But
> I still favor eliminating missile fire as a separate set of rules, and
> just use one combat results table for everything except Chaotic Magic,
> adding Disrupt and Retreat options to that table.

I quite like simplifying it as well to one table. Any thoughts on how the new table would look?

Rob

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