How not to fix piling on
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2003 8:56 pm
Hi all,
whenever there is talk of the "new" piling on, and how to make it slightly less powerful, someone always mentions that it should go back to the way it was, since it used to be just fine.
Well, I've played under the new rules for a lot of games now (50 personally, 800 on league basis), using the _old_ piling on rules, and in my opinion this is not the right way to go.
Sure, old piling on used to be OK, but that was under different rules!
I'm referring to the fact that you can no longer use rerolls to affect armor (& injury) rolls.
This means that a piling on player is no longer backed up by team rerolls or pro skill, leaving him at the mercy of the dice. Old piling on is a very extreme skill: You get a huge bonus, but a bad roll will actually leave you in a worse position than your opponent.
Now, with rerolls out of the equation there will be some very good games, and some very bad ones - and in the bad ones your poor luck will actually be intensified by piling on.
This will make the bashing of the basher teams wildly erratic, as I've experienced with my dwarfs. It can be utterly game winning, and downright game losing.
IMO, something a little less fluctuating, and a little more stable would make for a better game mechanic.
I think that a good way to fix piling on is allowing piling on after the roll, but with a reduced armor modifier. It would leave less to a roll that can not be rerolled. You'd get less chance of an armor break, but also avoid scr*wing yourself over.
A fair trade - IMO.
My "vote" is with a +3 bonus for the ST4+ players, and a +2 bonus for the rest - but some other kind of reduction could also work. With such a change I would definately switch to piling on after the roll.
Martin
whenever there is talk of the "new" piling on, and how to make it slightly less powerful, someone always mentions that it should go back to the way it was, since it used to be just fine.
Well, I've played under the new rules for a lot of games now (50 personally, 800 on league basis), using the _old_ piling on rules, and in my opinion this is not the right way to go.
Sure, old piling on used to be OK, but that was under different rules!
I'm referring to the fact that you can no longer use rerolls to affect armor (& injury) rolls.
This means that a piling on player is no longer backed up by team rerolls or pro skill, leaving him at the mercy of the dice. Old piling on is a very extreme skill: You get a huge bonus, but a bad roll will actually leave you in a worse position than your opponent.
Now, with rerolls out of the equation there will be some very good games, and some very bad ones - and in the bad ones your poor luck will actually be intensified by piling on.
This will make the bashing of the basher teams wildly erratic, as I've experienced with my dwarfs. It can be utterly game winning, and downright game losing.
IMO, something a little less fluctuating, and a little more stable would make for a better game mechanic.
I think that a good way to fix piling on is allowing piling on after the roll, but with a reduced armor modifier. It would leave less to a roll that can not be rerolled. You'd get less chance of an armor break, but also avoid scr*wing yourself over.
A fair trade - IMO.
My "vote" is with a +3 bonus for the ST4+ players, and a +2 bonus for the rest - but some other kind of reduction could also work. With such a change I would definately switch to piling on after the roll.
Martin