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	Archive through October 02, 2020	25		10/02 09:21pm
	Archive through February 06, 2022	25		05/10 04:48pm

I use what I call the "Opportunity Dirdam Rule".

Player scoring the damage chooses to direct or not. He let's it fall. Player taking the damage chooses to cripple three ships. Then the scoring player gets a 2nd option to direct damage, and of course there are now three juicy crippled targets to choose from.

This keeps the dynamic of the player choosing to direct or not, and also keeps it from being simply the option of letting the smallest ship die. If you're taking damage and cripple a F5L, F5S, and an E4 from your battlegroup, I then get to choose whether or not to direct on one of them, as well as which one to target.

It's particularly nasty in major assaults, because every three cripples per round give yet another opportunity direct option. Instead of the capital assault crippling all 12 of your ships but killing none, now it cripples three, one dies, cripple three more, one dies, cripple three more, one dies (and that was probably a cruiser or bigger). Or, player might choose to not opt for the direct damage options, because he wants every ship crippled and out of action.

But it slows down damage allocation. More emails or text messages back and forth. Might not work for all groups. Works wonders for me.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Tuesday, February 08, 2022 - 11:59 am: Edit

Kevin, this is an interesting house rule.

Question: If after the first three cripples none is selected for DD, would they still be in the potential pool after the second group of three cripples are crippled?

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Tuesday, February 08, 2022 - 12:03 pm: Edit

Steve, after rereading the posts, I agree it's a style issue. The same 1 ship lost:1 ship lost affecting the Alliance more than the Coalition percentage wise also pertains to DirDam.

I said it was a thought, not a great one.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Tuesday, February 08, 2022 - 02:25 pm: Edit

Steve, what's your ideal autokill rule? I think I'd be interested in an aggressive autokill rule even if it never makes it into the rulebook.

By Joe Stevenson (Ikv_Sabre) on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 - 04:48 pm: Edit

We have specific cases where vulnerable units can be directed upon, in addition to the standard directed damage attack. I think that's what we should stick with, specific exceptions based on vulnerability.

There are a few units that I think should be added to the list, but I think making it standard could be very problematic.

It favors the Coalition in open space , and the Alliance defending bases in the first half of the game. But that still doesn't mean it'd be balanced.

That said, I think the idea of disallowing directed damage if the BIR was very low (say 0-2). At 2 or less, both sides are at standoff range, and the likelihood of picking your target to kill isn't very good.

By Jamey Johnston (Totino) on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 - 06:25 pm: Edit

*Unless you are Feds...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 - 11:55 pm: Edit

I have not seen enough to change this rule. It's good as is, so far as I can see.