jaldon454 wrote:
(a) How are the two formations BMs transferred?
All BMs are kept. A broken formation counts as 1BM/unit as normal.
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(b) What is the accepted range for the Merge?
Consensus was that normal formation coherency would be the simplest and require the least amount of measuring.
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(c) When does the Merge occur?
At the end of an action. This makes it take place during the turn so the enemy can, at least in theory, take it into account prior to end phase issues (victory conditions and such).
It also makes it more difficult to merge a broken swarm. Only the unbroken swarm can take an action.
Neither formation can activate again once the merge is completed. The reasons are obvious and this has precedent in the WE Transport rules as a simple way to handle it.
The ability to merge served as a counter-balance to the Achilles Heel that is synapse units. Merging was a way to protect your point investment in all those brood creatures if your synapse units happen to bite it.
Did you ever have a formation loose all of its synapse creatures early in the game? Without merging it's pretty harsh to hamstring an entire formation for the rest of the game based on the loss of a few units. Giving the player the choice between keeping an extra formation around or allowing them to make use of their point investment in another formation was a pretty fair shake.
Merging was one of the polls that had a pretty clear indicator. Going against it and dropping merging based on the reasons you gave doesn't sit well. Especially since all of those apprehensions were addressed in the merging mechanics thread. A rule for it wouldn't be terribly complex or wordy at all.
