Making melee more usefull

[Thorin]

Yah, so Mr. A. explained to me that you fellas play the advanced rules, and that the advanced rules don't seem entirely balanced at the moment, almost as if they weren't playtested as well...

Which means I shoulda kept my mouth shut

[Ustauk]

The balance and strategy involved in ranged vs melee units shifts from map to map, depending on the terrain.  In some respect, its similar to how the US rolled over most of Saddam's forces in the beginning of the Iraq War through the use of tanks and air power (ranged weapons) in the open desert, and how they are slowly being eaten alive by the resistance fighters and terrorists (melee equivalent)  in urban areas.

[TheDruid]

For the most part it’s not bad when you consider that there’s been 60+ unique units released so far for the game. The balancing is pretty good and there’s defiantly evidence of a lot of play testing. We were actually discussing this last night, and we tried to name chars that we feel are totally useless and only one or two came up. We even tried to name chars you can’t live without and again only one or two came up. For the most part they are easily balanced by minor point value tweaking.

It’s just that unlike a video game, Heroscape can’t just patch its mistakes. Sometimes at first glance a character may seem over powered, then when you go back and read the details of their cards closer, there is often little gotchas that knock them down a few notches.

But your are right, the map has a lot to do with the gameplay, and a poorly matched draft to the map could spell death to your game. Not to mention missing tiny details on your drafted characters cards can also spell death to your game (like what happened to me last night)

[Lazybones]

Also as with all random dice games there are no streak breakers.. You can keep rolling well or keep rolling badly. No matter how many die you have they can all come up blank..

As shown last night. Statisticly the characters seem balances save a few, but when you are getting steam rolled by a player with lucky roles there isn't much you can do.

[Shayne]

I couldnt miss on a dice row late game; thats for sure.

The map we played with lastnight was a rather good melee map.  Even though you guys went heavy range, we managed to take our time and plan our movement, and by the time we got there, it was an army of many which makes a big differance for ranged.

One of the better games we've played (perhaps because I kicked ass, i lost only 4 units (2 McDirks & 2 Knights) the ENTIRE game).

[TheDruid]

No doubt, I was getting mashed by Shayne’s roles. Statistically I was probably rolling near average when you consider the whole game, (although I think my roles dropped below average near end game). There was nothing I could do against Shayne’s roles no matter how many dice I was holding.

I cant believe you cut through my samurais like a hot knife though butter. But I distinctively remembered that you rolled 2 PERFECTS  almost back to back with 4 attack dice, Not many roles can defend against 4 sculls.

[TheDruid]

-- Edit, doh wrong thread!