When thinking about these rule proposals, I wonder why WizKids never considered creating new special attacks. These are wholey independent of current rules and have great flexibility to fix the imbalances. Not only can these more easily balance the game, they would make the game more strategic, and therefore more fun, and ultimately more a game based on skill, not dice (not saying it's that luck-based now, just the further away from the dice you get, the better). Remember, you don't have to limit these to a Special Attack FOR a unit, you could have some AGAINST a particuler unit.

Just to list a few I thought up: Point-Black Fire for 'Mechs, Point-Blank Fire for Artillery, Kamikazee, Dodge, VTOL instant-death, Trample, Crush etc...

To this day, it boggles my mind why they didn't make AA an SE!

It just would have been so much cleaner. If you put AA on a Mech, does both the primary AND secondary weapons get the AA attack? I bet they do.

I guess they wanted to leave the piece open to having other SE's like armor piercing... Still... I think there were other ways around this.

-BAR

What I don't understand is why the don't put double SEs on units with double attacks. For example, the DF M1 Marksman has 2 Ballistic attacks, at the beginning, AP, after, Streaks. Why not have both at the same time and use them on different attacks?

New attacks could lend a new flavor to the game. The difficulty is in not making older units obsolete in comparison. This is common in games like Magic, and some see the proposed changes as causing the same thing here. For example, people who have invested heavily in certain cheap (in points) uber-artillery pieces see the change as the death of their armies. On the other hand, I see the changes as being very beneficial to some of my current shelf-garrison.

I think WK is trying to maintain balance while injecting new life into the game. Every change is bound to creat griping because every changes forces a change of tactics. Artillery has forced people to change tactics. Turtles? Thing of the past. Then VTOLs forced people to protect artillery, transport it, etc. Change of tactics. Unfortunately, those items also made mechs difficult for some folks to use.

The bottom line: New rules, SE, and unit types are good when kept in balance. They make us reevaluate our armies and tactics. Sometimes they cause us to shelf units, sometimes they allow us to use shelved units. (Not that I'm going to necessarily use it, but could we now make a case for the Mobile HQ, anyone?)

Now, what SE would you like to see introduced? SE should be simple to understand and implement. Consider the Beagle Active Probe. It gave mechs extra sensor range. What if we implemented it 1) as a way to target a unit that was in base contact with a friendly unit, possibly damaging the friendly. Or it could be implemented 2) as a SU only SE that allowed a unit to move/shoot, thereby taking a little damage itself. In this way, the BAP should only be put on scout units and light mechs.

Well, I was speaking mostly of new Special Attacks, but new SE wouldn't be that bad either. But new SE can only be applied to new units. Special Attacks are universal.

maybe BAP could add a little to your max range when you rolled high enough on a D6.

i'd love to see C3- formations without base contact, but maybe max 2-3 members.

For a special attack how about "Vehicle Point Defense": Any non-VTOL vehicle may target one infantry figure that is in base contact with it with a ranged attack, even if outside the front arc. If successful, give that infantry one click of damage.

This is to reflect that virtually all tanks and the like (if not all, I haven't checked) have some little guns attached to them that clearly aren't their main weapon. They must be there for something, and presumably its to give them some minor defense in case something gets too close.


For an SE, I've wanted to see for some time TAG: If a friendly artillery token is within this unit's firing range, the roll for that token gets the +4 bonus, as if the line of sight to the artillery token were clear.

Basically, one unit acts as the spotter for the artillery pieces so they land more accurately. Perhaps it should be "if within 6 inches," instead of the variable range. And maybe it shouldn't work if you get based.

I think, as far as multiple abilities on the same stat is concerned, that they could easily just write in abilities that the mech has for it's entire dial next to the appropriate stats.

For new abilities, I'd like to see some sort of homing missile. Maybe a token that targets a unit in LOS upon firing, then is attached to that unit. The homing missile will keep attacking until it hits (using the stats on its 'pog'), or critically misses (explodes).

Hmm. Maybe some sort of move-and-vent ability. A SE that allows a walking mech with it to vent after moving and resolving all heat effects. A quick-cooldown feature.

Perhaps mine-laying. When this unit makes a move order, it may place two face-down mine token in base contact at any point during the move. One of these mine tokens has an attack value, an area of effect, a damage value, and possibly SE listed on it, the other has all of these attributes set to zero (a bluff mechanism). When an enemy model's center dot passes within 2" of a mine token at any point during it's move, it is flipped over, and resolved if not a dud.

Maybe make the no-heat walk rule proposed all over into an SE for certain units.

How about a variant on infiltrate, where instead of moving inward before the first turn, you are left in reserves, and can come in on any turn beyond the first from one of the two unused sides, as though those sides have normal, tourney-sized deployment zones.

Anti-artillery guns. This weapon may fire at a pog or pogs within range and arc, regardless of line of sight (the shell is way up in the sky), rolling to hit the pog's printed defense value. If the anti-artillery gun hits, the pog is removed from play. Give these things moderate damage (2), and really good attack values, and very nice range (14"+), with moderate to poor defense, with the usual array of camoflage, decoy, ECM, and armor these kind of support vehicles have. Don't need much speed either. Plus, you can tack this SE on to the long-range weapon of a mech to give it some nice utility.

just off the top o'the head :).

Yeah, TAG could be really useful, esp. for HL Long Toms!

Is C3 already reflected in the IT of Dragon's Fury units? I know it cost 5 tons for a master unit and 1 for each slave; since points wouldn't exactly come out right if they applied C3 as a strict rule, they just gave DF a bunch of IT. Right? Maybe? Because if they did it the CBT way, you would have to field one unit in each army that had a master unit, and a limited number as slaves, and one unit would have to have line-of-sight to the target, etc. Way too complicated for MWDA.

And Phreke, with the new shake-off rule being proposed, infantry may be weakend as it is. We might start seeing cheap vehicles used to base mechs. Making vehicles stronger vs. infantry may shift the balance too far. So - infantry vs. vehicles; vehicles vs. mechs - mechs vs. anything. If you take out infantry vs. vehicles, infantry lose almost all value, destroying the whole combined arms thing WK is trying to achieve. I could be wrong.

How about that Kamikaze special attack? ICE mechs explode when they die, dealing two damage to averything within 5 inches. Armor ignored. Ha! I might get out my Tonka of Death for that one! Although it's not really an "attack" in the strict sense of the word.

want new se/special attack, try a narc beacon

Work it like a beeper seeker from crimson skies. You could either set it up so any unit with streaks or balistic can fire a narc beacon instead of damage. Put a token on the unit if hit. All units firing balistic weapons on the effected unit for the rest of the game get +2 to hit.

Or just set it up as a new se, like streak it does one less damage and gives all balistic units a +2 to hit the effected unit.

How about TAG, then you could set it up to work that a unit can recieve an order and 'tag' an enemy unit. All other units count as line of sight for firing on that unit/spot.

Or what about Inferno srms? A balistic attack that does one less damage but does heat (+1 or +2), does a bonus vs vehicles and infantry like flamers.

Mine layers - a mine layer could lay out a strip of mines for the distance it can move, give them a couple pogs, or small strips. Anything walking/moving onto a mine field or through takes damage.

Mmm.... infernos.