thread: 2006-02-21 : Adding Objectives to Mechaton
On 2006-02-27, Vincent wrote:
J and I played this, with the inevitable couple of tweaks, and it ROCKED HARD. Wednesday night we play with a third player and see if it ROCKS HARD under those circumstances too.
Rule notes:
We set the doomsday clock at 5+2per=11, and it was just right. That is, 11 was just right; 5+2per might be totally wrong for players>2. We didn't roll against the doomsday clock, just ticked it down.
A result of 4 or 5 on a damage die is a move. 3 moves can be either 3 moves or a knockdown. If you're knocked down, a) it takes 3 moves or your whole move, whichever's smaller, to stand up; b) a result of 5 or 6 on a damage die damages you, not just a 6. Involuntarily hitting a wall knocks you down too.
It might be called for to scale the penalty for fielding the more heinous army - but it might not. J's army doubled mine, but going into doomsday minus one the game was still undecided. J won but I made at least one dumb mistake - it was a close game even with me shooting at half his mechs and him shooting twice at each of mine.
If you're the only one standing within arm's reach of a flag, it's yours. Rolling, dropping off marines, messing about - uncalled for.
We reversed initiative from the nonsense it says in the existing rules. High die goes first and always should have.
It took us two hours to play 6 turns with a total of 9 mechs on the field. We'll trim that down even further once we're quick with the rules. Not bad a'tall.
This makes VB go "'a result of 4 or 5 on a damage die is a move...'"
Good call, Wilson.
This makes NinJ go "Infantry..."
We were using little chits to mark the Goals we'd gotten. If we'd used infantry pieces, it would have been identical. Now, if we'd been using different numbers of infantry, I think it would have been a pain in the butt.
Now. Cover.
This is how we played it: If you're clearly on the same side of a wall, no penalties. If you're behind a little shaggy piece of the wall, or a bush, or another mecha, the defender gets to roll a blue d6. If sie's clearly hidden behind something hard, the target gets a d8.
The problem with this is that it winds up with weird issues, like determining what, exactly is hard and soft cover, and how I get a d8 (let's say I rolled a 7, so I have a Current Defend of 6) against the guy who's standing right beside me with a gun in my ear. The issue is, you can force the target to have a better defense, depending on who attacks a piece first.
I suggest this: cover doesn't work at, I dunno, 3 hexes.
This makes misuba go "So 5 of a damage die damages _and_ moves you?"
This makes misuba go "of = on"
This makes VB go "no moving when you're down."
So no. When you're up, a 6 damages you and a 4 or 5 moves you; when you're down, a 5 or 6 damages you and a 4 does nothing.
This makes misuba go "Missed that context. Thanks"
This makes NinJ go "I'm of two minds about that 4."
Mind 1: it's a pretty serious disadvantage to be knocked down. You can't run away effectively and you get damaged a bunch until you get up.
Mind 2: You're knocked down! Of course it sucks! A 4 when you're knocked down means you're, I dunno, knocked down more! It takes more oomph to get up!
Mind 1: But that's already represented by the fact that you're probably taking more damage. Plus, it's lame to have your guy knocked down. It's game-lose-worthy.
Mind 2: OK, so what if it just reduced your Current Defend by 1?That way, it makes sense to knock someone down to wrestly with them, and that's cool!
Mind 1: That seems doable, and not as bookkeeping-intensive as other sollutions you've suggested but not mentioned out loud. Not that it wasn't already happening.
What do you think, V?
I'm inclined to think that there was a lot of knocking over in that last game and in one case, the mech that was knocked over was pretty much eaten by my bugs.
Maybe... maybe the knocking is in a random direction unless it's in HtH (in which case it's at the attacker's discretion)?
This makes VB go "about that 4, my mind is clear and my resolve is pure."
Being knocked down is already bad enough. This is not meant to be a game about how the best tactic is to knock your enemies down.
This makes NinJ go "Take that, mind 2!"
Mind 2 is a jerk.
What about randomizing the direction of moving so the answer isn't "you always get smashed into the wall!" unless in HtH?
