Video Battle

[David Kuijt]

The most surprising change in 1.1 was distant combat. Maybe I need to play a pseudo-Plataea battle to really understand if/how they work differently from the legacy rules.

having a separate combat factor for defense from archery (and a separate combat factor for shooting) was a big step forward. At first glance it seemed like increased complexity, but it turns out not to be -- it's very easy to internalize shooting defense factors, very easy to remember shooting offense factors, and taking out the "combine shooting" strategy decision speeded everything up -- as many players agonized over that choice, since they didn't completely understand the probabilistic tradeoffs. But the biggest improvement was de-linking shooting defense from combat ability in melee against infantry -- which meant that all formations with similar armor defended the same against missile attack. The idea that Roman Auxilia (with mail to the elbows and thighs, helmets, and large shields) were much much worse defending against incoming missile fire than Viking huscarles (with mail to the elbows and thighs, helmets, and large shields) was an artifact of legacy rules that was a constant nagging sore on the face of the historical simulation of warfare.

[MarkusB]

[...] the mechanics now allow you to and even encourage you to spread your archers out along the line[...]

[...] de-linking shooting defense from combat ability in melee against infantry [...]

[...] having a separate combat factor for defense from archery (and a separate combat factor for shooting) [...]

Rod,
David,
thanks for your comments. Yesterday we tested the new shooting rules in a pseudo-Plataea engagement, and a line of alternating Achaemenid sparabara and levy (horde) elements did in fact cause considerable headaches to my metoikoi while closing-in, including a couple of direct archery kills by the pavisiers. We don't think the new rules bring any significant increase in complexity, because (i) all the shooting factors are very similar and (ii) all the target factors are both very similar AND have a strong internal consistency - we just had to check them exactly once, at the beginning of the battle. In play, the new distant shooting rules 'felt' in fact simpler and smoother than ever. Very interesting!