Extreme assault?

[1925frank]

That's precisely it. No matter how the mechanics are structured, it's a sure bet someone will figure it out and use that information to gain the maximum benefit for gameplay. Once one player figures out a successful tactic, other players will follow suit because it works. That was one of the problems with the regular assault rules. It didn't take long before players learned that assaulting disrupted units was a no-risk, high-payoff proposition, and that aspect of play went on to dominate every other aspect. That gamey aspect of Campaign Series did not kill the game, but I'm certain there are countless other games out there were the gaminess effectively destroyed the game and its following. That gamey aspect of Campaign Series did leave a sour taste in a lot of players' mouths, and it is one of the aspects Matrix is wrestling with.

As a designer, I'd think you'd want to head off at the pass gamey applications of the mechanics and neutralize it within the game's own mechanics as best you can.

With the defender-wins-10-percent-of-the-time-regardless-of-the-odds aspect, I can see that if we're talking about an aborted assault due to the complexities of launching an assault and due to Murphy's Law being ever present. If that's the reasoning, though, I think the game should say "Assault aborted" rather than "No effect."

I'm having a tougher time with the assaulter winning 15 percent of the time regardless of the odds. If I've got a trench, bunker, or a pillbox, I'd hate that rule, because there's no way to defend against it, and statistically it's only a matter of time before you lose the hex on the basis of a random dice roll and not on the basis of the superior tactics of your opponent or on the basis of your own inferior tactics. I suspect, though, that the 15 percent rule doesn't apply to certain terrain. I don't know.

The way to discourage the multiple-assaults-at-low-odds tactic is to have the assaulter take some SP losses due to the low odds. However, if 25 percent of the time the odds are irrelevant, of which 10 pecent means "no effect," that is, no penalty other than expending AP, and of which 15 percent means taking the hex, I'm thinking players will be willing to gamble on losing SP when the die role actually incorporates the odds into the result.