EP '14 mechanics/balance

[Volcano Man]

You know, I am sympathetic to the digging-in issue here so I think I may make a small improvement in the next version:

First, I have to admit - despite the fact that I play EP14 and F14 myself, I had forgotten that F14's IP and TRENCH hexes provide higher defense bonus than in EP14. All this time I had that 20/30% from F14 in mind when talking about digging in percentages here. Also, anyone that knows the stuff I have made in the past, then they know that there is one thing I hate above all else: lack of uniformity.

Looking at my notes again, the difference here between F14 and EP14 was intentional, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense anymore looking back on it. I mean, why would digging-in in France be better than digging-in in East Prussia? Also, standardizing it would mean consistency in both games, and F14 could benefit from a little lower defensive bonus provided by dug in positions (because the front quickly gets "puttied up" to a continuous line), while EP14 could benefit from a higher probability.

So, the improvement here would be that I will standardize both games and make the digging-in probability be higher, but the defensive bonus will be lower (rather than lower probability with higher benefit) which would make both consistent. Essentially it means that EP14 will have a little higher digging-in probability, while F14 will get a higher probability and a lower defensive bonus (because EP14 was already lower).

Anyway, I may make this change. I am certainly leaning that way at least. That said, I am absolutely opposed to raising the digging-in probability higher than 2-3%. Keep in mind too that this is a base level, battalion sized units have 3x this probability and engineer units have 3x this again (so a company sized engineer unit can dig in at the probability of an infantry battalion, and an engineer battalion has 3x an infantry battalion's probability at digging in). So, 2% [or 3%] is essentially 6% [9%] per turn for infantry units (rather than 3% currently). Throw in some engineer units and additional battalions and then you will make things happen.