So 690 points of assault mechs vs 600 points of combined arms. The points for the 60 dead infantry will be slit beteen both sides because the Liao will kill some of them. So the loop hole 1 makes it pretty even I think.

Loop whole 2 is totally different than loop hole 1 so I don't know what you mean by that. They can't both happen at the same time.

I'm pretty much saying that without activating both loop holes, or activating either one of them, the game will be pretty even between good thinking players. So no need to change the rules.

I agree, between two good players who think about their forces it is going to be a very interesting and balanced scenario with a bit of a twist. Of course, to get a balanced scenario, WK could just set the build totals at 450 each and be done with it rather than adding an extra layer of cinfusion :-)

In reference to the second loop hole, I did have the thought of fielding a single mech that is about 70-100 points that is hard to kill, so something with Agility and Evade - the BR ForestryMech springs to mind :-) Everything else would need to be 104+, but gives the SS player of fielding 4 mechs around the 170 value. The way the math works out, when the ForestryMech defects, you then look for anything costing up to 103 points ( 200 - 97 for the mech ), but as long as everything is above that cut off, you keep it. Now you have 697 vs 653, but hopefully Liao has been working hard and expending forces trying to hunt the ForestryMech, which is likely because if it dies early enough, they end up with one of the more expensive units :-)

One extra point, has anyone thought about the turn sequence? The defection is calculated at the start of the 4th turn, not the start of the SS player's turn. Therefore, if SS is not the first player, Liao gets to use it. If SS is the first player, they can organise a nice easy target for their units to eliminate, suddenly creating a 653 vs 600 battle with SS having 97 VC1 points straight away :-)

Cheers

Tramapolean

Let me try to put my lawyer skills to work on the fine print here...

"If there are no units worth at least 200 points, the unit with the lowest point value automatically defects"

or, if you have no 201pt mechs, it is not random defection. it is lowest point cost first (if there is multiply units of this value, then randomly among them)

Also, if there are units biger that 200, then it is a completely random defection of units that are eligible. No eligible units? No defection.


"Once a unit defects, the Swordsworn player subtracts that unit's point value from 200, and then he or she determines if any of his or her remaining units have point values equal to or less than the difference. If so, repeat point A."

at no point does it say "add units point values together" so if the first defected unit is 11pts, ALL units under 190 (1-189) defect, with no respect to the 200pt limit. You might agrue that the first line of special rules limits this value to 200, but it does not fully explain how to arive at this vallue in all cases. So in theory, I could have 1 ss sft(11pts), and 4 ss pheonix hawks (110)and if the sft goes first, I lose 2 if not all pheonix hawks.

this is not observation, it is the letter of the writing.

just checking up to see if this is going to be changed again. I guess I should tell everyone to take 3 big mechs. with or without sft backup.

An interesting point Ralph, especially about the three cheap mechs. However, I think C clears it up by saying that once "200 minus the point value(s) of any unit(s) that have defected" sort of allows for a running total of what has defected.

Cheers

Tramapolean

Nothin' wrong with a good 600 point HtH scenario.

I'm betting that everyone at my venue shows up with Liao armies, and we end up doing HtH anyway.

This scenario is a mess. Maybe the next FAQ will be devoted to clearing it up ;)