After a damaged shoulder I have taken a break. Together with lots of things to do at work it has been pretty rough. But I really want to keep this up. So here is part 4 in my competition between games.
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| So how should morale rules handle stuff like heavy tanks? |
Morale
I love morale in a wargame. And often it is a weak point of a game. Mostly because it doesn't exist. Or have lots of rules just ignoring it. Classical 40k in earlier editions are good examples of entire armies just ignoring it. And many rules have been created to work around morale instead of accepting and using it. Fearless in 40k 3rd (I think it was third) was a good example. You just didn't roll morale for fearless units. And I have a huge problem here. For me (and that edition), morale was a system where the soldiers take their own decision or are broken to fall back and loose cohesion in formation/strength. A fall back was a tactical move representing the soldiers wish to actually succeed in their objectives instead of needless dying. For 40k it meant that I thought only units that couldn't take orders would be truly fearless. But any sentient unit with a goal in mind would not die trying to get the objective done - they would fall back and work around it instead. In other games it feels more fitting to have it represent broken soldiers or weakened state of mind.
I think one beef I have with it is that many games have thoroughly complicated morale-rules and then doesn't utilize it. Though I feel in our competition it is not the same problem.
Legion Imperialis have the most "Full morale". You roll for squads when taking half casualties. Also the formation in total is considered for this and makes morale tests much harder later on. The issue I have with Legion is that you have different ways to handle the connected movement of broken units depending if it is from shooting or assault. Completely unnecessary complex. Epic Warpath goes more easy on this. Taking half a squads casualties from shooting means a token is placed making them weaker and not as strong to hold objectives. Also the looser takes morale in assaults and units die off if failing. Simple and effective. Dropzone commander have fortitude that almost only comes into play during fights inside buildings. Basically it doesn't exist otherwise and could technically be removed without loosing much. Or drastically changed to be easier and we would hardly notice it.
But the absolute best morale system I have ever played with is the blast marker system in Epic Armageddon. A blast marker is placed when a formation is being targeted plus for each unit destroyed. If the amount of blast markers end up same or more units in the formation they are broken. They get to make a double move anywhere but if they end to close to the enemy it will be much harder to get it under control and each marker placed on the formation automatically kills a model. The voluntary movement with the negative side of not coming back if you don't move away enough is brilliant. The system works perfectly and very fittingly for a small scale massive battle game.
So I think it is easy to have the order. Epic Armageddon: 1. Epic warpath 2. Legion: 3 (it is awkward but do affect the game a lot) and last Dropzone. 4.
Missions
How the missions are created can make or break a game. We need sensible things to do on a battle field and it need to come down to doing the mission instead of destroying the opponent's armies to give the wargame a purpose.
When it comes to type of missions Dropzone commander wins by having the most variation. Sometimes it is infantry inside garrisons. Sometimes the infantry have to jump around between bildings. Sometimes you have to hold certain areas and sometimes tank points. Both Epic warpath and Legion Imperialis uses objectives as a base. So are kind of similar. They are sticky in Legion and not in Warpath. Sticky tend to mean the gave is over earlier. Legion uses secondary missions but they are kind of mute. Epic Armageddon basically is only played with a single tournament mission. That mission is a solid and good one though. Hold certain objectives. Hold one specific objective. No enemies in a certain area. Destroyed largest enemy formation. And some more. If the game is not clearly won in turn 3 it comes down to turn 4. I like the mission but it is the same of the same.
In Dropzone commander 2, Epic warpath and Legion Imperialis the game tend to be over before playing the full turns of the game. Dropzone commander v1 was much better in this case. Epic warpath seems to be much better than Legion Imperialis but still suffer the same problem of no point in finishing the game because we know the result turn 2-3. Epic armageddon has a natural end in turn 3 so no matter what you tend to play that to it's natural conclusion.
It is hard to put points here. Dropzone commander have the best variation in missions. Epic Armageddon have a strong main mission but no other. Legion Imperialis and Epic warpath have so high numbers in objectives' points and I don't really like the 48-12 point-level-system. Saying things like 4-1 feels better instead of 48-12. It is a lost chance because you can do a lot in missions with objectives. I myself wrote a very good (purely objective as I am of course) where the player being down in points turn 2-3 in legion Imperialis could choose to bombard and thus destroy any objective on the table. Worked well. I'm actually eager to write some extra missions for Epic Warpath to get the most out of the objectives as well.
I would in the end say Dropzone commander gets the 1. It has the most varied objectives. Second will be Epic Armageddon due to the fantastic main mission. Third Epic Warpath due to the variation in deployment zones and greater chance to actually finish all the turns. Fourth Legion Imperialis.
Extra
Each game offer some unique things. Like Dropzone Commander having command cards that can be utilized to boost own units or situations or sabotage the opponent's actions. Was missing almost all of second ed of Dropzone but just got a come back - finally. Ironically, Epic Armageddon basically have nothing special outside the normal rules. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Epic is a sound game anyway and the formation system, order system where some factions do certain type of actions easier and the blast marker system makes it quite unique. But it has no official support sadly. Legion Imperialis have its turn sequence which is awkward but also gives the opportunity to make certain "aha" experiences as something suddenly opens up tactical options. Epic Warpath have the Command dice you roll at the start of the turn and use to activate tactical options during the game.
I think that Epic warpath wins this. It is a elegant system. Second the command cards of DZC (though not utilized effectively in ver 2 until late. Third I would say Armageddon as the basic rules are so massively well done. Fourth then Legion Imperialis due to being pretty weak on the amount of activations in a turn.
Due to broken shoulder I didn't include any pictures.
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