Greetings commanders,
Let’s talk about the way support and flanking work in the game, and about our plans for the future regarding the basics of combat.
Support
Currently, characters provide support in offense if they're next to the target, and in defense if they're next to the attacker. But for that to happen, they must not be within another enemy's zone of control.
In the game, support is shown by the shield and crossed swords icons.
In the image above, 1 is the attacker, and 2 the target. 1 is supported by 4, but 5 is supporting 2 in defense.
Flanking
When the target is between two characters, they both get a flanking bonus to their attacks against it.
In our previous example, 3 has his support negated by 6, but as he's behind 2, relative to 1, he provides a flanking bonus.
Moving around zones of controls and pinning
Moving through enemy zones of control needs careful maneuvering. This is why such an action requires passing a pinning check.
When trying to move around opponents, support from both the starting and destination tiles is summed, and characters who can support both the starting and destination tiles have their support value doubled. This support counts as a modifier to the pinning check - passing it means walking through safely, but failing will stop a character in his tracks, prevent him from moving further this round, and apply combat penalties to him.
As seen above, the difficulty of the pinning check is shown by the number of skulls on a contested tile that you want to move through.
The future of formation combat
I think support and formations are a great way to make weapons feel different. Shields currently provide support against ranged attacks to adjacent allies, as long as the shooter is at the same distance or closer to the supporting shieldbearer than the target. Larger shields even provide their ranged defense support bonus when in an opponent's zone of control.
I plan to have halberds provide no support against adjacent opponents, but instead give it to adjacent allies against enemies at a range of 2 hexes. Being unwieldy, flails won’t be able to benefit from support, or provide it to adjacent allies (but they will have a very good attack and damage rating to make up for it). I'm also thinking about giving some sort of anti-formation bonus to greatswords.
Currently, bowmen also provide support to and against adjacent characters, but that will change as well.
Tacticon, Tabletop Gathering and Indiecade
I'm glad to announce that Zodiac Legion will be featured both at Tabletop Gathering (November 3rd to 10th) and Indiecade (November 4th to 11th).
Kormakrtv has just uploaded the LP and dev talk he hosted during the Steam Tacticon festival here:
P8OWTiIooO0
Until next time!
May the stars align in your favor!