Friday, September 29, 2006
Official Word: The Odds of Battle
The latest post on the official DoW blog continues the discussion about basic game concepts, with an emphasis on the Battle dice and varies melee abilities.
After reading the earlier post about the Battle dice, it would seem on first examination that the chance to hit units with a banner colour of red, blue or green is the same.
This post puts those assumptions to the test by pointing out the following factors: the number of dice a unit rolls to attack varies; some units have the chance to do damage on a Bonus Strike roll, and the Lore symbol can also affect damage.
Interestingly, we discover that Lore symbols can do damage when combined with a Bonus Strike symbol roll—for example, a magical Long Sword. This surely opens up a huge range of possibilities.
It is mentioned that the units primarily fight in melee combat, and that ranged weapons are usually limited in effectiveness. Melee also features a number of Follow-on Actions. In melee combat (ie. adjacent hexes), a unit that destroys a unit or forces it to retreat can Gain Ground and move into the vacated hex (similarly to Take Ground in M’44) and a cavalry unit doing the same can Pursue by moving an additional hex and attacking again—which makes cavalry particularly mobile and deadly.
A new concept, at least to M’44 players, then enters play: a unit that can ignore a Flag symbol is also Bold, and Bold units may Battle Back, (as they can in C&C:Ancients).
Therefore attacking a powerful unit exposes you to the risk of being immediately attacked right back!
The next post will discuss Morale, and how to boost and keep it.