Fire when guard commander

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Two armies set to fire will have their missile troops close to melee range after their ammunition runs out.

Which is why we need a new "Fire and Hold" command for missile troops (rather than just the current Fire & Attack), along with Fire while Guarding.

[Yossar]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

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Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Two armies set to fire will have their missile troops close to melee range after their ammunition runs out.

Which is why we need a new "Fire and Hold" command for missile troops (rather than just the current Fire & Attack), along with Fire while Guarding.

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But then you could end up with two armies holding indefinitely at opposite ends of the battle screen. Which I guess wouldn't be so bad since auto-rout eventually kicks in.

[Zurai]

Originally posted by Yossar:
But then you could end up with two armies holding indefinitely at opposite ends of the battle screen. Which I guess wouldn't be so bad since auto-rout eventually kicks in.

Exactly. There's already a method for handling combats which take too long/are stalemated. No need to take away perfectly viable gameplay mechanics such as having Daoine Sidhe guarding your commander and throwing their javelins when something comes in range.

[Chazar]

Yeah, I do not see the problem either: I think its the Defender's right to sit and wait for the enemy to attack! And if the enemy does not attack, because he only got his guarding missile troops, then the defender should win after some, say 22, turns...

So discouraging cowardly attackers does not sound bad to me!

[Yossar]

Originally posted by Chazar:
Yeah, I do not see the problem either: I think its the Defender's right to sit and wait for the enemy to attack! And if the enemy does not attack, because he only got his guarding missile troops, then the defender should win after some, say 22, turns...

I believe attacker's troops rout at 50 turns, defenders at 60, and everyone left (immobiles, berzerkers, paralyzed troops) dies at 70. Could be a bit off.

[tinkthank]

If that is the case (which sounds very reasonable to me small defender bonus), then there is absolutely nothing wrong with having guarding commanders be able to shoot or throw stuff, even if the commanders just hang out in the back. The replays of two armies doing exactly the same thing with all of their commanders will be very boring, but who cares.

(On a side note: Ever watch a Star Child try to assassinate a non-summoning mage? It is much of the same thing. Both units sort of hang back and throw stuff at each other, usually ineffectually, until they fall unconscious, wake up, rinse, repeat. Boring, long. Sometimes one dies, sometimes the other routs.)

Back to the main point: I believe that people would use their "firing" guards in a creative way. I would FINALLY see a raison d'etre to those mounted bowmen in Tien Chi: Set my Noble on hold hold hold hold hold attack rear (as I frequently do), but this time with some mounted bowmen (which I otherwise NEVER get), who could fire a wee bit or otherwise do some guarding, then charge with him -- exactly as their description reads!

My plea: Nothing to lose, lots to gain. Variability is what makes this game great, let's cultivate the full potential of all the aspects of this excellent game!

[Chazar]

In the "new orders planned?"-thread, which extensively discussed these matters as already pointed out by st.patrick, IW promised to think about it again...

I wonder whether they are still thinking or whether they have already concluded on these matters...

(If not, maybe we should initiate a poll? I know that tweaking commands certainly raises dozens of balancing issues, but this one is just so annoying.)