Moscovian wrote:
What is certain is that we need to continue to hammer at it. I'm still iffy on a turn 1 arrival along with the turn 2 opponent's side arrival. Let's take a look at some of the special ways units arrive, pro's and cons.
Tunneler Pro - can arrive anywhere on board. Turn arrival is not disclosed. Not subject to fire while underground. Can activate optimally within that turn.
Tunneler Con - limited to turn 2+. Locked to a predetermined location. Subject to fire at beginning of turn 1. Location limited to turn 2/turn 3 my half/your half rule.
I didn't really know what the outcome was going to be when I started writing this post but the observations are pretty interesting. All four special arrivals have roughly equal pro's and cons, depending on how you weight them.
That depends on a lot of factors, but the closest similar analogy to the Tunneler is the Planetfall. And besides the rare "I drop my whole army", Slow and Steady ships don't seem to be taken. That was my biggest issue with the Turn 2/3 issue. I consider that penalty the harshest of all.
Moscovian wrote:
What strikes me as interesting about Morgan's changes is that they take away three of the Cons for tunneling, which IMO would make it the best special arrival rule in the entire game of Epic.
I'm curious what three you are referring to. The official rules, and the Dave rules and mine, both have locked predetermined positions, neither are subject to fire on Turn 1 (that's a potential thing with carriages, that doesn't yet exist AFAIK), and has location limited by turn arrival. The only real differences are how early it can deploy, and that it's as an activation, not at start of turn. That might come across as "out there". But as is stated in the first line of my rule, it's simply Free Planetfall, with restrictions. Initial design had me shifting through a whole bunch of concepts, and then I went with the NetEA principle of not reinventing the horse when something already existed.
Moscovian wrote:
I'm thinking the reason why you don't see tunneling more often is because there are a relatively small number of armies that tunnel, not that the rule is inherently flawed. We can still poke at this but I am becoming less convinced that the Morgan changes need to be implemented.
I'm all for dropping my rule, if an adequate system is introduced. But at the moment, the 'secret turn' of the Tunnelers is overstated (it's not going to be Turn 1 or 4, and unless you've rushed forward, start of Turn 2 won't be detrimental, and so you only have to worry about Turn 3.
Given the nature of the activation system, having a single or multiple formations locked up until Turn 3, meant I never considered using more than a minimum Blitz grab (and often not), and even then, not without extensive discounts. The value of formations needs to be factored in over several turns, and Tunnelers as written, tend to only be worth a single turn.
Morgan Vening
