ME Second Edition Idea

mepbmlist
#1

I like this.

I play mainly FA 1000 games, but even in the 1650 games I've played, it's
the assassins/curse squads that do a lot of damage. I don't mind curse
squads so much, as it takes a while to get them up and running, but
assassins are a pain.

In FA1000, a nation that starts with a 60 agent w/10 stealth and +20 bonus
to kidnap assassinate is deadly from the beginning. I've seen them pretty
much wipe out/demoralize other nations right off the bat.

For example, an agent based nation recently had a huge army move onto its
capital. Rather than worrying about taking military action to remove this
threat, he move 4 agents into the hex, scouting army and characters. This
turn, a huge army will disappear. No other character type has this type of
impact on the game. Despite the guards posted on the army commander,
without a doubt, the assassins will blow through them, and whack the army
commander.

The changes I would like to see are the following.

Characters within armies harder to kidnap/assassinate. Perhaps -20% right
off the bat. Failure to assassinate a character with an army carries a
higher chance of capture/injury than otherwise.

Perhaps the same sort of modification to characters in pop centers would
stop the 3 agents moving into a capital and assassinating all characters
present, and stealing the nation into bankruptcy.

I think the 2 things that need the most improvement are the military and
agent aspect of the game. Military is too weak, and agents are too strong.
Assassination should be a rare occurrence, not an every turn sort of thing.
Buy putting the -20% modifier to assassination in enemy pop centers or army
commanders, you would raise the required rank of the agent.

This means 60-80 rank agents would still be able to assassinate in your home
pop centers (or your allies) but would be ineffective in enemy pop centers
or against army commanders. Flavor wise, that would mean only the best
agents would be capable of harming enemy characters and possibly reduce the
commonness(is that a real word) of turn 2 assassination.

In one game I am in right now, there are 7 name agent 40s, 6 bonus stealth
more likely and 5 double scout/recon amongst 9 players. That could be a
sign of just how important agents are(or at least are percieved) to the
game. Or it could just be random chance...

Well, hope this sparks some discussion.

Mick

···

-----Original Message-----
    From: corsairs game 101 [mailto:corsairs101@hotmail.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 11:49 AM
    To: mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: RE: [mepbmlist] Re: ME Second Edition Idea

    There have been a lot of great ideal floated. And I must
admit I've only
    read about 2/3rds of the emails under this title.

    However, of the one's I have read, I've not seen my biggest
concern
    addressed. ASSASSINS. As is, I spend many turns building a
great
    commander. I spend many turns hiring troops. Then, first
turn it is n the
    field, the enemy does a few ScoArmy orders, and kidnaps the
commander, the
    troops go away and I'm paying maintenance for the rest of
the game on a
    character I can't use.

    Look at what artifacts get located, recovered, and fought
over first.... It
    is an agent game, and all of the other stuff is fluff to
keep the agents
    nations going.

    I'd like to see the removal of the kidnap and assassinate
orders. Or at
    least, make it likely that a 1/2 rank agent guarding will
kill or catch,
    hold, and be able to execute an assassin trying to
assassinate.

    And the 2X assassin getting through a guard should top out
at 100. Even if
    the assassin is a 150A(with artifacts and stealth), my 50
rank guard should
    be very likely to keep my army commander alive, and kill
anyone that shows
    up to kill my commander. Assassins should have to deal with
guards, and
    guards of the guards, before going after other characters.

    Just my opinion.

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#2

I think the 2 things that need the most improvement are the military and

agent aspect of the game. Military is too weak, and agents are too strong.
Assassination should be a rare occurrence, not an every turn sort of thing.
Buy putting the -20% modifier to assassination in enemy pop centers or army
commanders, you would raise the required rank of the agent.

*** I wouldn't agree - we recently won a massive military campaign in game 77 (despite massive agent and curse squad superiority), and I have seen many teams win this (military) way. I think players get the wrong idea - characters are a commodity that is used to win the game. I have written an article for Bree as this is one of the most common "complaints" and one that I feel is taken out of proportion to the impact they have on who actually wins the game. Game 144 sees the FP pushing forward with massive military might and we are definitely on the back foot in that game on turn 5 despite the agent/weakness superiority I think we have. (Note this opinion is partially based on games that I see - as agents develop in the game they do become stronger).

This means 60-80 rank agents would still be able to assassinate in your home
pop centers (or your allies) but would be ineffective in enemy pop centers
or against army commanders. Flavor wise, that would mean only the best
agents would be capable of harming enemy characters and possibly reduce the
commonness(is that a real word) of turn 2 assassination.

*** This often happens - note FA is different please be clear here as this is what you are talking about.

In one game I am in right now, there are 7 name agent 40s, 6 bonus stealth
more likely and 5 double scout/recon amongst 9 players. That could be a
sign of just how important agents are(or at least are percieved) to the
game. Or it could just be random chance...

Is this FA or otherwise. FA has lots of big characters - we limit agents in many games due to this sort of game (NKA, LAS and even the Normal game only allows one CL agent nation per alignment).

Clint