Shift after Disengage

[JustAnotherJarhead]

That is a Really good point and solution, maybe it'll make it to an official rework of the combat actions.

Shield rushes didn't traditionally get much play in my games, but I suspect historically they were more common and/or effective, even against high DX opponents.

[ecz]

In my games the disengage option has been often used, but never (in my memory) to negate sistematically any contact with a higher skilled foe. The nature of combat in small rooms and tunnels and the presence of allies and missile weapons usually make this tactic ineffective in the long run. In any case the HTH option is a working way to hold the enemy long enough to have an elegible target in the action phase. Also the jab attack, as said above, is perfect to hit elusive opponents when allowed. Not counting that sometime the battlefield is full of corpses and obstacles that make difficult, if not impossible the move in another hex.

In other words our group never had a problem with the rules about disengaging as written.

[RobW]

Originally Posted by ecz

In my games the disengage option has been often used, but never (in my memory) to negate sistematically any contact with a higher skilled foe. The nature of combat in small rooms and tunnels and the presence of allies and missile weapons usually make this tactic ineffective in the long run.

Yes, exactly the same for us.

We briefly tried changing the disengage option, to simply allow a 1-hex move during the action phase. This meant that a high DX figure who disengaged could be re-engaged by the lower DX figure taking the "disengage" option on that turn. That seemed fine as well, and in some ways felt more equitable (why should you have to be engaged to get a 1-hex move option?) but it was basically revising something that wasn't a problem.

[Skarg]

Yeah, we also added an option to use an action to shift one hex, mainly just for logical consistency and to allow people to mitigate some otherwise-gamey situations.

I had forgotten about it till I was GM'ing a few months ago and an experienced player not from my original group actually just declared they were doing that for their action (i.e. a figure who wasn't engaged but had nothing to do, "Disengaged" for his action and moved a hex). Suddenly I remembered that made sense to us and we used to allow it.

Because, why would being engaged by someone in melee combat be a requirement for a figure to simply step a hex, and a disengaged figure not be able to also step a hex as an action?

However it does tend to remove the ability to get away to flee unless your opponent does some other action, so that may be a problem, or at least require some house-rule exception.

[ecz]

Originally Posted by Skarg

Yeah, we also added an option to use an action to shift one hex, mainly just for logical consistency and to allow people to mitigate some otherwise-gamey situations.

I had forgotten about it till I was GM'ing a few months ago and an experienced player not from my original group actually just declared they were doing that for their action (i.e. a figure who wasn't engaged but had nothing to do, "Disengaged" for his action and moved a hex). Suddenly I remembered that made sense to us and we used to allow it.

Because, why would being engaged by someone in melee combat be a requirement for a figure to simply step a hex, and a disengaged figure not be able to also step a hex as an action?

However it does tend to remove the ability to get away to flee unless your opponent does some other action, so that may be a problem, or at least require some house-rule exception.

Good idea easy and effective. But there are tons of house rules easy and effective to improve bit by bit the game. So I prefer self-limit the house rules to what really is needed to fix errors/obscure points in the rules. Otherwise I leave rules as written as much as possible.

The action I have always imagined as the "disengage option" is a last-second jump out of the attacker's range "while" she is preparing the blow. Hence the reason the low DX figure cannot act in her turn.

[MikMod]

Originally Posted by ecz

Good idea easy and effective. But there are tons of house rules easy and effective to improve bit by bit the game. So I prefer self-limit the house rules to what really is needed to fix errors/obscure points in the rules. Otherwise I leave rules as written as much as possible. .

Skarg's ruling is RAW imo - you just switch to 'disengage' later in the round since you have nothing else to do.