Overwatch and Scouts |
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nealhunt
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Post subject: Overwatch and Scouts  Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:25 pm |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:52 pm
Posts: 9617
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
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With the "no need to activate" what would prevent formation from doing so anyway?
Nothing. A formation on OW can activate. Neither retaining OW status nor requiring it to be re-checked each turn would change that.
Maybe I don't understand your question...
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Neal
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nealhunt
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Post subject: Overwatch and Scouts Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:16 pm |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:52 pm
Posts: 9617
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
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Ah. I think I follow now.
Quite some time ago, I stated that I disliked the idea of reactivating because it allowed for stalling. Then I realized the book rules allow for the option to reactivate and thereby tall whether you go with the mandatory activation or automatically retaining OW. Apparently, I never posted that realization.
In any case, that means that it is theoretically possible to "stall" even if you can qutomatically retain OW. It's just a bad tactical idea to use a reactivation to "stall" in most cases if the option to retain OW is present.
Activating the OW formation offsets some of the gain of the "stall." That OW formation no longer has a choice for the rest of the turn. You might fail to activate. The question becomes whether the tradeoff of the stall is worth the risk and loss of flexibility. If you pass up the reactivate stall for the entire turn, you get an added benefit of a guarantee you can stay on OW. Basically, it better be really important to stall if you want to risk reactivating an OW formation.
On the other hand, if you know you will be required to retain the OW, those factors aren't as important. You will have to roll and risk failure either way, so there is no added risk. Likewise, there is no payoff for waiting until the end of the turn without activating. The downside of using a reactivation stall is much less if you are forced to activate anyway.
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Other points in favor of auto-retain OW are that I think it's the original intent of the rule and it's the way the experimental CAP rules work. In fact, I think Jervis wrote the experimental CAP rule to reflect the intended mechanic for OW.
All that said, I'm not married to this particular call. I don't think it's a big deal either way and I can see the point about how the activation rules read. I don't mind revisiting it but for now there are enough real issues still unresolved that I'd prefer to let it sit.
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Neal
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