Something I Don't Like

Scott Turner (srt@sun-dimas.aero.org)
Thu, 8 Sep 1994 09:40:42 -0700

Here's something I don't like about the Oly combat system. I didn't
like it in Ancient Oly and I still don't like it.

Suppose I cruise into a province with my Big Killer Stack and I want
to capture/kill the Unfortunate Victim Stack. If I expect to win this
battle and I'm smart, what I'll do is issue 10 or so attack commands.
If I win the first battle, I'm very likely to win all the ensuing
battles, and in those ensuing battles I'll capture anyone who escaped
the first battle. And if I lose the first battle, my force is
probably in tatters anyway, so I might as well kill it off with the 9
subsequent attacks before the next turn, when the Unfortunate Victim
Stack is going to retaliate before I can flee the province.

A second problem is that it takes a long time to leave a province.
Even if the Unfortunate Victim Stack somehow manages to avoid capture,
the Big Killer Stack is going to hammer it again at the beginning of
the next month unless Unfortunate Victim Stack just happened to be
leaving the province the month of the attack.

The result is that it is very difficult to flee from battle.
Occasionally you'll see someone accomplish it, but for the most part
battles are to the death.

I don't have anything useful or constructive to say about this. Maybe
the system is fine as it is, but I don't like it. It seems to me that
there ought to be some reasonable, realistic chance for survivors to
flee from a battle.

-- Scott T.


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