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Epic charge-across-the-board armies

 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2005 10:33 pm 
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Hi!

Are Space wolves really close combat?

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2005 11:01 pm 
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Space Wolves are very close combat these days... I have never liked the close assault orientated marine armies (BA, SW, BT, and Khorne) myself.

Something I think is true in both epic and 40k is that close combat armies need lots of cover to work! My tyranids have died horribly in both epic and 40k on barren battlefields (The worst involved hundreds of epic nids trying to storm across a bridge over a Lava flow on a forge world in epic :().

40k specifies 25% of the table must be cover - though not what sort of cover unfortunately. I wish there were better rules for terrain layout in both epic and 40k. Epic40k had nice terrain tables for different worlds, though many thought they resulted in not enough terrain. There is a delicate balance between battlefields where there is too much and too little terrain IMO. One gives too much of an advantage to assault armies, the other to shooty armies.

I always thought the big problem with the 'cityfight' 40k rules must be that some armies must not have a chance versus others - guard trying to survive against nids for instance.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 1:44 am 
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Hi!

I agree on your terrain analysis. Play on a barren field and ANY close combat army will be decimated. Play on a terrain packed with trees and mountains and you probably cant avoid losing to a close combat army either.

Thats why I like random terrain placement rules. At least players can't plan ahead with terrain features they dont know before hand.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 11:38 am 
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I have never thought that the rules accurately reflect the courage required to stand and face a chitting horde rushing at you intent on devouring you...

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 2:37 pm 
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Hi!

Morale rules are something highly abstracted in all GW games. In Heresy I used a DSII like morale system which would require such checks.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 4:01 pm 
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Terrain is a critical factor in wargames (and the real thing !).  Mixed to Closed works for us.  We are looking at morale/leadership rules and SM1/SM2E40K all had weaknesses ... I'll be studying E:A more closely ...

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 5:14 pm 
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Hi Peter,

Primarch: Morale rules are something highly abstracted in all GW games. In Heresy I used a DSII like morale system which would require such checks.


And yet, I find that the DS-II system doesn't differentiate troop quality and morale status very well either... ???

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 5:29 pm 
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I think the whole troop quality and morale staus in wargames can never be more then an abstract attempt to capture something we can not even explain now.

How do you quantify Audy Murphy? How do you quantify the fact that a man will stay at his post one battle and run the next.

I believe most wargames either ignore it or over focus on it.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 10:29 pm 
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Quote (Tas @ 30 2005 May,11:38)
I have never thought that the rules accurately reflect the courage required to stand and face a chitting horde rushing at you intent on devouring you...

Well historically, troops have often fought to the death - IF they have no option to surrender, and no route of escape.  That's why in "The Art of War' Sun Zu recommends always allowing an 'escape corridor' so that the fleeing troops may be massacred with little danger to your own troops.

Certain death if you run (bugs go faster), versus a chance to live if you stay and fight...

The 'fighting like a cornered rat' reaction applies to all animals I am aware of, including humans :)

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 10:59 pm 
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Hi!

True Maksim, it does not differentiate. I remember one debate with Kenneth Peters with whom I created the original game and my main beef with two separate stats is adding needless mechanics. I found that one unififed stat was just as good and created the right effect.

Then again, DS-II is the only game I can remember at this scale for sci-fi that even attempts to address morale and unit quality. While not perfect, it's pretty good.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 12:21 am 
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Hi Peter,

Primarch: True Maksim, it does not differentiate. I remember one debate with Kenneth Peters with whom I created the original game and my main beef with two separate stats is adding needless mechanics. I found that one unififed stat was just as good and created the right effect.


The two are related, but I do see troop quality and troop morale as two different things.

E-A has troop quality ingrained into unit stats and uses BMs to indicate morale.

Primarch: Then again, DS-II is the only game I can remember at this scale for sci-fi that even attempts to address morale and unit quality. While not perfect, it's pretty good.


It is laudable for a 6mm sci-fi game, but there are some wonderful morale and troop quality systems availible from microarmor, Napoleonic and ancients games...

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 12:41 am 
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Does anyone remember the computer game Close Combat?  From Microsoft?  It is the only game that I can remember that I felt like the troops actually acted 'accordingly'.  You would have alot that would dig in under fire, refuse to move, or simply break and run away.  And then you would have the occasional hero, who would charge the enemy and lead his men to victory!  That game tracked EVERY bullet, wound, casualty, etc, and factored them all in.  Very nice.

my 2cents,

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 1:48 am 
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Hi!

True Maksim. Historical 6mm gaming has sci-fi beat hands done in mechanics for these things. Its high time some designers import those ideas.

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 2:05 am 
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Quote (iblisdrax @ 31 2005 May,00:41)
Does anyone remember the computer game Close Combat? ?From Microsoft? ?It is the only game that I can remember that I felt like the troops actually acted 'accordingly'. ?You would have alot that would dig in under fire, refuse to move, or simply break and run away. ?And then you would have the occasional hero, who would charge the enemy and lead his men to victory! ?That game tracked EVERY bullet, wound, casualty, etc, and factored them all in. ?Very nice.

my 2cents,

iblisdrax

Yep it was well done... although I often had difficulty with the terrain and telling whether or not I was actually getting cover from it - especially with the hills etc.

Also the historical nature of it could make it very frustrating to play... like the Eastern Front scnearios early on as Russians ... or later on as Germans  :;):

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 Post subject: Epic charge-across-the-board armies
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 4:44 am 
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At the sake of painting a target on my back, I want to say something about the "need" to import rules from other systems.

One of the truest games I have ever seen for "realism" had details for weapon, skill, condition of weapon, weather, wind (yes seperate), ammo load, fatigue count of shooter, etc. It took us more then 10 min. to play out one shot. We sold the game on our junk table at the next con.

In our desire for "realism" in a game, let's not loose sight of playability. I would be very sad to be playing a game where both my opponents and my troops both ran because some "moral" chart said so. Talk about a bore. :(

One of the reasons that many games either have little extra rules for moral or even ignore it is for the same reason most of our armies have "Full" TO&Es or why we allow Orks and Eldar on the field. We play these games for fun and not for "Realism".

OK, now that my rant about balance between rules and playability is over, please return to your rules addition talk. :D

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