Hey everyone, How often do you get to see Assault rule used on the table? I bet, not very often. The main reasons for that are: - Close Combat is generally not as effective compared to shooting; - It requires LoF to the target at the beginning of the order and being close enough for the move (and it's not a common very common situation); - Since it requires an entire order, target can react in the most beneficial way available (showering you with a direct template, for example) - It can only be used in the Active turn as an entire order, so you can't move out to see your target and then assault; also, you can't do it in response to someone getting too close in Reactive; - Troopers that can use are usually not the quickest to get around the board and start in your deployment zone. So, wouldn't it make sense to buff this rule a little bit, so people could start considering it, at least? And I think there is a really easy and intuitive way to do that with minimal intrusion: Make Assault Short Skill / ARO instead of the Entire Order Skill. And let the text be: How would that work? Well, you could spend first half of your order moving out to see your target starting from behind the nearest corner, and then declare Assault after seeing that your target wants to dodge your chain rifle, making it a proper face-to-face roll (alternatively, you could shoot your pistol, but often Assault wielders simply don't have a good BS, do they?). Or, if you see that the target wants to shoot a direct template, you could use your Engage to do dodge the template and get into CC at the same time, instead of just dodging in place, as it works right now. Much more flexible, isn't it? Additionally, in ARO you have a very real and potent threat in your engage range that allows you to punish anyone who comes too close by moving into CC and attacking (with -3) at the same time. In ARO, no less! That would make impossible the stupid kind of situation when Domarus, Krakots and Galwegians simply won't engage in their reactive turn ever, since they can get pummelled in CC against their dodge. And thematically, that would make a lot of sense as well, I believe.
I don't see melee much at all, but when it comes to Assault it's mostly the LOF component that does it - most berserkers really don't want to end their turn in LOF of an enemy. It looks a bit awkward continually referencing the second MOV attribute, but otherwise it looks pretty decent and also allows mixed links to function somewhat less terribly with it, which is a big positive. The ARO component does have the serious consequence of probably being too good considering when and how movement is conducted and considering what kinds of troopers have Berserk. The so called "stupid situation" where they fail dodges in ARO is intended, I'm fairly sure. You're supposed to avoid ending up in a situation where you need to rely on dodging, you know.
We already know that Engage is going away, along with it's associated interactions with CC Attack. I wouldn't be all that surprised if Assault was another rule sacrificed on the altar of simplicity.
Second MOV value in there is because you have supposedly moved your first MOV value already by this point. But actually, if you did some other kind of Short Movement skill like Discover, it would make sense to move the first MOV value instead, I guess. Alternatively, it could always refer to your dodge distance - to buff guys with Kinematika. Discover+Assault, heh. Imagine a Samurai gazing into the emptiness to suddenly run towards a piece of camouflaged coward and rip it into shreds with his katana... As of the ARO situation - I was addressing the fact that you can't move into CC and attack on ARO at the moment, and engage (dodge after the update) allows your opponent to hit you with their CC weapon, so it's usually a bad idea to use Engage.
Or Idle (in Cover) and then Assault or Dodge or Shoot depending on what your opponent does. The Engage issue will get resolved, thankfully, by removing Engage. What I mean with how it is an issue in Reactive is that since it's a Movement skill, you would by necessity and simplicity Measure and Move your trooper during the ARO step which would have the potential to capture and lock the enemy trooper - additionally, this interferes somewhat with the All At Once mechanic that is kind of depending on that only one "side" is allowed to do proper movement per order to avoid Situations. That said, they have made something kind of like it with the Guard skill and I can see some great thematic space for an iaijutsu slash-dash move (which notoriously doesn't really need to end up with the attacker and target at arms length) to replace the Assault mechanic. And to be honest, Dodge is sort of usurping Assault as it is.
Discover + Assault would finally give it some real use. One of the core problems of CC has always been garbage efficiency. This iteration of Assault would have to deal with DTWs, with unnesting, not everyone would have it just because they have Berserk either.
I've only ever really Assaulted with Asawira who failed to take down a target within 8" with their spitfire. Even then I usually only went for it when I needed the CC combat for an objective or something.
i used assault a lot on Mac murder the dogface in my last game (as its entire order mode) though we both forgot to take smoke into account for LoS. also from the last update: berserk is still there
The domaru profile is an indicator that assault may be removed completely as it is doubtful that it would be nested under berserk and not it's own thing. I've used assault with Domaru before - coming around a corner and dropping a BS attack. If the target survives, or there's another nearby, and I know I'm out of 4" - assault.
i think assault would have been a more effective rule if it did not require los. just double move + cc attack at -3. this still allows everyone to aro shoot as normal. but can get quite a distance to do so. and assaulting a supressive firing model would be quite dangerous.
Not that it matters. But originally all models could assault if they wanted to (hate to learn ive been doing that wrong forever). Thanks for the confirmation!
Not that i used it or anything. but I thought assault was a generic long order. Nbd that I was wrong lol
