Post by Whiterook on Oct 8, 2023 11:19:00 GMT -5
Melee, also known more commonly in most systems as “Close Combat”, involves what it is also frequently refereed to, Hand-to Hand fighting. You’re up close and personal, up “…into the their [enemy] grill’ — bayonets, fists, gun butts, and handguns, and well, anything else you can get your hands on to beat your foe to death with. In game mechanics, this typically involves your either getting into the enemy’s hex (or immediate zone, in miniatures), or adjacent.
It is a form of combat that when applied to a wargame, is difficult to render. With regular combat for comparison, you are generally shooting at range, your position being farther away from the enemy, firing with a gun, cannon, arrow, catapult, Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, or some variant boom boom or pew pew device. In Melee however, it’s not as straightforward, and neither is winning that form of combat, so it has to be rendered with a form of outcome other than, a Hit (kill or wound)… this being either: indecisive, Locked in melee (no winner means you are forced to stay together and fight to the death); indecisive, Retreat (the player loosing worse, forced back); or Withdrawl, given an opportunity to try and skidaddle. In other words, it’s not as clean cut.
Now the problem with this as I see it, is though one would think the three options just given are good enough, they don’t always work as well with some combatants, nor the mechanics that govern them. An example of this would be, Command & Colors Tricorne, The American Revolution. You have various forms of Infantry, from army elites to citizen militias, cannons (artillery), and cavalry. The latter two are pretty straightforward, as there is only so much you can do in close combat with a cannon crew, for instance, yet do they not have the same chance as a Regular Infantryman? And on the former of Infantry as just mentioned, well in this system there are eight different types from elite to meh, the problem being again, you probably don’t have the chance for a successful kill with a Militiaman, versus British Grenadier or Guard unit which has a +1 die advantage. But where do you draw the line, as it were?
Probably an educated guess to start, and then playtesting will generally ferret out the answer to that last question!
In C&C Tricorne, the designer came up with a die result of Sabers allowing a Hit against the enemy in melee; however, he may have thought that somewhat top powerful for the lower ranked units, but what would be fair in excluding? How solution was, Continental Light Infantry, Light Rifle infantry, and Light Cavalry units. In these thee unit cases, ‘Light’ refers to units that are known for their flexible formations and ability to maneuver about the battlefield, this being given in mechanics terms as having the ability to move farther in certain circumstances…
When designing a game, one theoretical mechanic often impacts and/or supports another — you should keep this in mind as a designer yourself. Rolling a Sabers die result could theoretically take out any unit of choice in a hex, but in this design, Light units have the potential to dodge a kill through their superior mobility, so disallowing a Sabers die as a killing blow makes sense…it levels the o playing field and provides balance.
I originally thought, “Hmmmmm??!”, why so. Digging deeper in unit capabilities and considering balance, this appears the best explanation I could come up with. Truly, nothing is perfect, or necessarily simple in game design… you just need to try and maintain balance and judgement in how things work.
It is a form of combat that when applied to a wargame, is difficult to render. With regular combat for comparison, you are generally shooting at range, your position being farther away from the enemy, firing with a gun, cannon, arrow, catapult, Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, or some variant boom boom or pew pew device. In Melee however, it’s not as straightforward, and neither is winning that form of combat, so it has to be rendered with a form of outcome other than, a Hit (kill or wound)… this being either: indecisive, Locked in melee (no winner means you are forced to stay together and fight to the death); indecisive, Retreat (the player loosing worse, forced back); or Withdrawl, given an opportunity to try and skidaddle. In other words, it’s not as clean cut.
Now the problem with this as I see it, is though one would think the three options just given are good enough, they don’t always work as well with some combatants, nor the mechanics that govern them. An example of this would be, Command & Colors Tricorne, The American Revolution. You have various forms of Infantry, from army elites to citizen militias, cannons (artillery), and cavalry. The latter two are pretty straightforward, as there is only so much you can do in close combat with a cannon crew, for instance, yet do they not have the same chance as a Regular Infantryman? And on the former of Infantry as just mentioned, well in this system there are eight different types from elite to meh, the problem being again, you probably don’t have the chance for a successful kill with a Militiaman, versus British Grenadier or Guard unit which has a +1 die advantage. But where do you draw the line, as it were?
Probably an educated guess to start, and then playtesting will generally ferret out the answer to that last question!
In C&C Tricorne, the designer came up with a die result of Sabers allowing a Hit against the enemy in melee; however, he may have thought that somewhat top powerful for the lower ranked units, but what would be fair in excluding? How solution was, Continental Light Infantry, Light Rifle infantry, and Light Cavalry units. In these thee unit cases, ‘Light’ refers to units that are known for their flexible formations and ability to maneuver about the battlefield, this being given in mechanics terms as having the ability to move farther in certain circumstances…
When designing a game, one theoretical mechanic often impacts and/or supports another — you should keep this in mind as a designer yourself. Rolling a Sabers die result could theoretically take out any unit of choice in a hex, but in this design, Light units have the potential to dodge a kill through their superior mobility, so disallowing a Sabers die as a killing blow makes sense…it levels the o playing field and provides balance.
I originally thought, “Hmmmmm??!”, why so. Digging deeper in unit capabilities and considering balance, this appears the best explanation I could come up with. Truly, nothing is perfect, or necessarily simple in game design… you just need to try and maintain balance and judgement in how things work.
