It MechaStellar we wanted to have a few different options to pursue that would give you a tactical advantage over your opponent. We started with five different categories each with a different benefit, but after significant play testing we opted to consolidate down to three categories. Next we gave each one the same effect, to make it easier to remember on the fly.
The three tactical advantages are as follows: Blindside! High Ground Advantage and Point Blank Shot.
The benefits of such have gone through many revisions, the most recent one involved rerolls, but after stacking 3 rerolls on a suit with +2 ATK we soon realized it got a little silly. Here is the current incarnation of the rules.
Tactical Advantage
- Each conditions provides +2 ATK, +1 PEN & costs +1 Cost for Skill Defense
- Remember: Melee and AOE attacks cost +1 for Skill Defense
- NOTE: These advantages do not apply when using Indirect Fire.
Here are the restrictions for each.
- Blindside! Moving behind your target’s 180 degree facing arc
- NOTE: To Blindside the unit when activated must already be behind their target’s 180 degree arc or LOS cover. You cannot walk past an opponent who has LOS and blindside.
- You can only Blindside the first melee attack. The Defender spins around after that.
- High Ground! The feet of your figure must be higher than the enemies head.
- NOTE: Jumping does not enable High Ground, they must be standing on terrain
- NOTE: High Ground does not apply in space battles
- Point Blank! Attack with a Ranged (not Melee) weapon within 6”
The advantages are quite significant. The Attack bonus allows for suits with low ATK to have a better chance to hit suits with higher EVADE. PEN means non-beam weapons now get a chance to punch through heavily armored suits, especially if you can stack advantages. Ex: Shooting a Machine Gun point blank and blindsiding gives each shot +2 PEN. Lastly, +1 Skill cost means that your Ace pilots should be going for flashy moves like going for high terrain or boosting around the cover for a sneak attack, since many grunts do not have more than 1 or 2 skill, that +1 skill cost means they won’t be able to auto-dodge an attack.
Tactical Advantage is a player favorite but we’re still fine tuning it. Now that we’ve covered all the main rules we’ll do a turn-by-turn match in the next post.
MechaStellar 