I had my reasons to think of this. And I wished that I succeeded by now. There is a lot to chew on, if I tell the whole story in one go.
I also have found a new strategy for the mechanic. Which is the reason why it makes me extra hyped.
Knowing that math is super annoying to most. I just figured, might as well ask if someone wants to know more of this. Or any portion on this of what I did and see.
I will give a bit of a super dense summary on the portions of this subject.
2 levels?
Most wargames have this mechanic:
An unit gets damaged and is flipped over. The other stats are now reduced as well.
I thought, I can use this mechanic for my hobby game as well.
-But how does it look like in my case?
Why?
I wanted to take a break from my "public" variant. And went back to the "hobby" variant for my own fun.
-I had plenty of reasons. Want me to name them?
-Want me to name the differences between the 2 variants?
-Want me to name the differences between the old and new hobby variant?
How?
This is a heavy math based subject. In short I kept using the same calculation as my "public" variant. Only for keeping the cover mechanic out. Let's say, I put 2 different designs together in order to act as one.
-What was the cover mechanic?
-For what more reason than just balance, did it exist?
-What did I do, in order to balance the game without the cover mechanic?
-Where does this balance calculation fail to please me?
Details?
-The new rules for damaged units; how are they applied?
-How are these rules NOT applied to "normal" units?
-How one particular portion of the rule, removes an imbalance of the extremes?
-Want me to elaborate any calculation that I made?
The fun afterparty?
Enter.... balanced splash damage.
In a game where you normally focus down on individual units.
-WTF happened during testing?
:)
No flipping in my games this time.
Public AND hobby game both will have a number in the stats. That tells which weapon is used at which health. Below this number means a weaker unit.
For some, it takes a long time. For others is it very fast.
I am experimenting with an unit that is a combination of a 4:9 and (8x) 1:16. And it a late bleeder in this regard.
Do you want to be possible to fusion half units together, or split units it two half units. Could be interesting if you are very limited in component, but it does complexify the rules.
Do you want supplies line and attrition. An supplied unit could be put on the reduced side, or not be reinforce-able.
Several factors are new here.
1. If an unit is damaged, it almost certainly needs to retreat now. Some are not even able to use their weapon anymore. The experiment right now even goes down by 2/3rd in fire power. Although, late. Still testing stuff, I am keeping an eye on balance too.
2. Depending on the game. But the recent public game has 1 to X (10) health for an unit. And the weakness can start at 1 to 9 health remaining. Obviously, the 1 health unit simply dies.
But having it being injured by 0.5 damage, does sound interesting. And flipping the pieces too, when a threshold is reached.
3. Hobby game has a ratio of 3 or even 8. That is 5 or 20 health for the infantry alone. I have the hobby game for testing here.
Do you want to have weaker wounded units. Sometimes it is desirable, sometimes it makes the combat stall, as weaker units have less firepower, therefore not triggering kills.
1. Less damage per damage roll.
2. Less accuracy per accuracy roll.
3. Less attack range.
4. Lower damage tier. This one is the most fun, since going from tier 6 to tier 2 for example, means the weapon is not penetrating armor, but still will kill an infantry unit with the same power. In fact, some designs might have a totally different weapon. And one of the designs already showed that a damaged unit actually has a stronger weapon in certain area's.
As you can see, it is a viable mechanics, it had different pro and cons, it really depends on the the experience you are looking for.
Well, the first effect we saw. Was having a high explosive dealing little damage to a lot of units. And all where damaged in a way that they all would deal way less damage in the next round. This meant, all of them needed to retreat in order to get repairs.
Yet a normal unit that didn't suffer from this effect, could easily defeat the high explosive unit.