We are currently updating the Technical Codex, mainly by adding points values for the upgrades and adding some additional equipment and abilities.
While we were working through we realised that the rules for medics didn’t quite do what we wanted so we decided to see if we could make them better.
When we look at designing rules we think about what the thing (whatever it is) does in real life and how that might be applied to the game, or be effectively modelled.
Medics
Medics in real life treat wounded soldiers, but in intervention, individual casualties are abstracted - obviously this poses a challenge for incorporating rules for medics.
Our initial solution was to focus on increasing the survivability of the unit. Remembering that prompt medical care is vital for saving lives, we went for the following rule:
"If a unit goes from Unaffected to Knocked Out as a result of a single role, for example in an engagement action, the defending player may make the attacker reroll."
However, on reflection we didn’t feel this was the best way of modelling having a medic in a unit so we brainstormed some alternatives:
Medics increase the resilience of the unit.
Medics improve a unit's ability to recover their morale condition
Medics force attack re-rolls eg if an attacker rolls a 6
Some sort of bespoke mechanic or special action
We ruled out increasing the resilience of the unit as, although it was simple, it was a bit boring and didn’t really differentiate what a medic added rather than better tactical drills. Forcing an attack re-roll was tempting but the effect had a side-effect of unbalancing some combats, for example if a defending unit with a medic is considerably better than the attacker. We also didn't want to introduce a new mechanic as we are always trying to reduce the number of mechanics in the game. We decided to focus on improving a unit's ability to recover from a morale condition - the medic could stabilise or check on a wounded soldier, allowing the rest of the unit more effectively engage the enemy or manoeuvre.
We are testing 3 rules:
· "+1 to morale resolution rolls"
· "Pinned units that successfully resolve their morale become unaffected rather than suppressed"
· "Suppressed units receive +1 morale resolution, pinned units go through to unaffected"
We'll see which one works best and add it to the Technical Codex.
Thinking about the about medics also prompted us design some casevac rules to add to the Codex.