Encouraging Dropped Weapon Use

[Philip Villarreal]

Originally Posted by Magesmiley

I'm not looking for devastating. I'm looking for on par with. Or at least in the ballpark with. And I'm coming up way short for most of them compared to direct fire weapons of similar cost.

As far as leaving yourself vulnerable to rams, it may be that my group is more aggressive in seeing the value of shoving people into their own weapons. (Look, bonus effect if I ram!). Doubly so as the rammer has a fair bit of control over the closing speed and impacting sides.

And group size matters too. Two player games aren't as prone to the shoving problem as 3+ games are simply by the virtue that the person doing the dropping is the first player more often.

More discussion from Sam:

"I may just be facing a fundamental disagreement in how we value weapons in this game, but here's the best explanation I can offer:

1) Unlike all other 1BP weapons, players *cannot defend* against dropped weapons. This is huge.

2) Aside from one-shots, dropped weapons — which, again, can't be defended — mathematically hit harder than other 1BP weapons, and you get 4 shots per dropper.

3) There are enormous hidden benefits in incentivizing (or forcing) your opponent to maneuver when they otherwise wouldn't, and those effects must be factored in.

- While dropped weapons are relatively easy to slide around, the slide maneuver forces a driving roll and covers significantly less ground than driving straight.

- Any player that chooses to ram you into your own mine has also decided to take the same collision damage in order to do so. Your mine is influencing them to take an enormous risk.

- If you drop a weapon between your car and an opponent, that opponent has to maneuver all the way around you to push you into it, constituting additional risk on their part.

--- Games with larger player counts *should* require different strategies.


If anything, I still believe dropped weapons are too strong, but they are heavily tempered by their situational utility."

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Philip Villarreal

- If you drop a weapon between your car and an opponent, that opponent has to maneuver all the way around you to push you into it, constituting additional risk on their part.

It isn't That Player who is the problem -- the problem is The Next Player.

Player 1 drops DW to fend off Player 2; then Player *3* comes along, and shoves Player 1 into his own DW. For the cost of the ram, Player 3 gets a "free" DW, courtesy of Player 1.... (In chess, this is called "making material": I move a pawn; you take the pawn with a higher-ranked piece; I then take that piece with one of mine.)

[Sam Mitschke]

My forum access seems to be working now — yay!

In games with 3 or more players, dropped weapons become more nuanced and opportunity-driven, which does make them more difficult to use...but the increased opponent traffic on the table also increases their potency.

The turn order and entire array of possible moves any opponent may make is open information, right there on the table. If a player makes the choice to drop something where they might be shoved back into it, they are free to do so.

It's decidedly not a good idea, but the rules won't stop them OR protect them from the consequences of a poor decision.


~ Sam