Varible Turns

[Strider]

I remember seeing this mentioned in another thread, but I don't remember a response. Is there any special reason for 'set' turns? I see in the Dunkirk Campagin that some turns are less than six. It just seems that "knowing" the last turn, affects what you do prior to it, when maybe if you didn't know how many turns were left, you'd react more 'reasonable'(?).

Would it be possible to add varible turns, and still use the same Turn Indicator, but if more than 6 turns, then 'slide' the turn numbers to the left?

I can understand there would be instances where turns should be set, so this would be an option.

[Moon]

Less than six turns are always possible when bombers (mainly light and medium) are involved, i.e. campaigns as well as escort and intercept missions (which are not available in the demo). There is a random chance in such cases that the battle will go for 4, 5 or 6 turns.

I am not sure what would change effectively in your tactics if you don't know when the battle ends, however... got an example of "unreasonable" actions that you do because you know that the game is about to end?

Martin

[Strider]

Maybe "resonable" was the wrong word, and it should have just been "different"...

An example is that if I see I'm toward the end of turns, and I'm damaged, then I will discard attack cards (if possible) on the chance of obtaining defense cards 'just to survive', and attempt to get altitudes between me and my opponent (if possible). If I get damaged right at the beginning of turns, I attempt to get attack cards for a chance to turn things around.

If I didn't know I only had 1 or 2 turns left, in such a situation, I think I may very well remain agressive instead of the defensive mentality.

[Northstar]

On the last turn of the battle, the last player to go has absolutely no reason not to burn every reaction card in his hand to try to make his attacks strike home. His opponent won't have another chance to attack, so there is no point in trying to save reaction cards for the defense.

I'm not sure how much of an advantage this actually is, but there is certainly a difference in how you play when you know you are going last.

I don't know if there is really a good way of fixing this. Unless you make games indefinitely long -- which I think would be a bad idea -- eventually you would hit a known "last turn". However, even if you made the game end randomly on, say, turn 5, 6, or 7. Only on the occasions when you actually made it to 7 would you know it was the last turn. So at least 2/3 of the time you would have to consider the posibility of a counter attack, and play accordingly

[bartbert]

There are definitely pros and cons that would have to be weighed out with regard to having a random number of turns.

The original card game used six turns, so that was our starting point. We added the random number of turns for escort missions in order to help balance the game. We were finding that Light Bombers were getting chewed up because they have less defense to start with, and they typically flew at Medium or lower altitudes.

At the other end of the scale, the Heavy Bombers were extremely tough to kill because they started with lots of firepower, and typically flew at High or Very High. If your interceptors don't have turbo-chargers, good luck.

So missions with Light Bombers will usually be 4 or 5 turns long. Medium Bombers will usually be 5 or 6 turn long. And Heavy Bombers will always be 6 turns long (and maybe someday will extend it to 7 turns).