thread: 2009-04-08 : Mechaton Area-effect Weapon Rules
On 2009-04-09, Mantisking wrote:
David Artman wrote "What if AoE was only available to mechs with two artillery attachments, rather than all artillery weapons? The two attachments wouldn't grant two attacks, ever—rather, they are like a "barrage" fire frrom coordinated artillery (which is seriously AoE, in reality).
This sounds like it would be a good optional rule.
Another tack is to make AoE take two full shooting rounds, with no move in between. One round spent "ranging" (i.e. doing nothing), the second round firing the AoE. Then it becomes a sort of push-pull: the opposition gets a round of warning ("scatter, troops!") and yet it lets the attacker possibly "feint" by ranging then aborting on the second round to move and fire normally. And then it could apply to any weapon type, up to and including HtH (whirlwind attack, or wind-up for a haymaker).
This on the other hand, in my opinion, adds to record keeping and complexity. I don't want to have to remember if I used an artillery attack from a specific mech on the previous turn when it's my go. Also, given the existence of the Doom Clock and the ability for multiple players to tic it down, there's no gaurantee of a follow-up shot.
Finally, I think one could do something with the "standard" measuring stick, to let AoE have some versatility, as to the shape of the area. Rather than merely 3 diameter, what if it could be any area that can be enclosed by bringing the two ends of the measuring stick together? Then it could be a rough circle-ish, a square, even a cone-ish shape. Might even warrant changing the way a measuring stick is built (i.e. make it all out of 1-unit rods).
There are some of us who don't use the ruler and have switched to tape measures.
