No he didn't. He gave your point a nod with the qualifier: "In my opinion, a minority of players. [utilize such tactics]".
Ovatha's point being that it's a much more difficult problem than may appear on the surface. Considering his informative email, what would you perceive is a solution? Did Laurence address this in his 2nd Edition compilation?
He gave a good background to the issue, I agree. But, that doesn't change
the fact that the system makes no difference between 99% fed and 0% fed, yet
can be "fooled" by a minor manipulation.
A secondary effect of this is that players routinely consider food supplies
to be totally expendable and an easy way to supplement their income at the
expense of their troops.
Now, we know that GSI will never change the system unless high level
pressure is applied and that will only occur if the Tolkein estate thinks
that the name of ME is being damaged, so I suppose that any idea I or anyone
else might have is totally superfluous. However, if I were designing the
system, I'd allow for troops to be fed for a duration and then forage if
needed. It wouldn't be an "all or nothing" calculation. For example, an army
with 75% of its food needs would have 9 movement points in full and three at
a penalty rate. The check would therefore be done just before movement. This
would mean that combining an unfed army with a fed army would have a
detrimental effect on the fed army. That makes sense as they are now having
to share their food supply with the new arrivals.
Oh, and notice, by the way, that even though you get no benefit from the 99%
food supply, it still gets used up! I assume they must be out partying or
something...
No he didn't. He gave your point a nod with the qualifier: "In my opinion, a
minority of players. [utilize such tactics]".
Ovatha's point being that it's a much more difficult problem than may appear
on the surface. Considering his informative email, what would you perceive is
a solution? Did Laurence address this in his 2nd Edition compilation?
Well, one that involves an additional character and a couple of orders,
which is not necessarily "small". Just think of it as the local army
commander and his loyal buddy making "local" food arrangements instead
of relying on shipments from the imperial granaries
(An ideal system would involve armies automatically taking food from
the areas they march through. One could argue that this is already
reflected in the different MP costs for varying terrains.)
Tony Z
···
On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 05:14:24PM +0200, Gavinwj wrote:
He gave a good background to the issue, I agree. But, that doesn't change
the fact that the system makes no difference between 99% fed and 0% fed, yet
can be "fooled" by a minor manipulation.
--
Though no man can draw a stroke between the confines of day and night,
yet light and darkness are upon the whole tolerably distinguishable.
--Edmund Burke
