I too am fond of percentile die - that should come as no surprise since
after all I was also a contributer & playtester to the original
Runequest back in the mid 70's (and its variants such as Call of
Cuthulhu) and that is a percentile based game.

With the Runequest or any RPG model you have lots of decision points
requiring single die rolls & the odds even out over a relatively short
period of time. In comparison Command Horizon requires fewer decision
points so they flatten the "percentile curve" and make things less about
a "lucky roll" and more about tactics. The many dice technique is
probably the most common & least convoluted methods of doing that. Where
as I am not trying to make you love this mechanism, perhaps it helps if
you understand the whys & what-fors.

Also the scenario you played was a bit skewed - Those 4 model walkers
are a real odds buster and will saturate anything in close range. They
have more models on them then are allowed in the current rules. I've
just been hesitant to break those nice bases apart. My bad. Yes, you did
even comment the evening of the game that you felt there were too many
die even for the other types of bases such as Grav-Effect vehicles &
infantry. Additionally it was probably foolish on my part to put walkers
into a convention scenario since they take some experience to figure out
how vulnerable they are & how to crack them wide open.

The problem with a percentile solution to this is you would end up with
too many "Lucky" or "Unlucky" rolls and results that border on certainty
depending on how you model the percentiles, or you end up with weird
kludgey sorts of mechanisms such as the "number of successes" mechanisms
used in games like the unreleased "Black9 Ops". A great game except most
of the playtesters hated the mechanism even though it merely models
large numbers of die being rolled in a percentile. It just is clumsy &
requires rudimentary math in the middle of a game. If you are feeling
particularly sadistic you can ask me to describe the whole mechanism &
how it worked & you calculated results.

I will continue to advocate to the writer for you regarding some sort of
compromise on the numbers of die - perhaps limiting the way gun-die are
calculated by making it 1 die per three light guns, 1 die per 2 medium
guns, 1 die per 1 heavy gun - similar to the classic game Koenig's
Krieg. No promises - I'm not the writer, just a playtester. However Igor
seems a very nice gentleman in my experience & actually listens to
people so keep up some hope for a compromise. I have discussed your
concerns with him from shortly after Enfilade.

Ever Onward & please keep your thoughts & input coming!
Skal,
Sven

Ray Sams wrote:
>
>
> Sven,
>
> Thanks for the response to my first post on this site.
>
> As the author of the rules states he's in love with buckets of dice.
> Me, I detest this style of gaming. Although I do have to admit it does
> get the young ones involved as they appear to enjoy this particular
> style. There is also an elegant simplicity about it. But I just can't
> stand the GW feel of it.
>
> Still when it all comes out in the wash, I prefer minimal die rolling,
> theres less damage to painted figs' and well formed terrain from
> errant dice and much less clutter. I firmly believe that a good
> wargame should look like a moving diorama. The more terrain features
> out there add so much more to the game both visually and estheitically.
>
> In Sci Fi gaming I think that if you are in line of sight, no matter
> what the range, then you're probably going to end up dead quite
> quickly, whether you're using a laser rifle or the main gun on some
> grav effest vehicle. Sorry can't quite call them a tank, although the
> word does suffice as a description in a pinch. Hence the need for good
> looking terrain features.
>
> However I digress, I think in the long run the game could be better
> served with less die rolling. As I mentioned earlier, I am a great fan
> of percentile dice.
>
> A couple of questions I have. What is the games ground scale? What is
> the time scale? I flipped through the rules and could'nt find a
> reference to either. I see the operational unit is a Battalion, so I'm
> thinking that each turn must be around half an hour to a full hour.
>
> Ray, in Calgary
> ...snip...
>


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