There are a lot of ins and outs of fighting in the Genesys Project, and veteran playtesters will attest to tactically hitting a tough opponent from multiple squads and maintaining your Command Value to get the most of it.
Lets talk a little bit about Melee Combat.........
Each time a squad is activated.. once a Game Round, you are allowed a movement and action. Either or both of these may be held just in case you need them later in the Game Round. Since your Command Value determines how many squads you can activate each player turn (they alternate back and forth until each squad has activated), moving your squads together for support and flanking the enemy in melee combat are important.
In melee combat, any squad that has already completed an action, is now exhausted. What this means is that you will not be able to attack back. For example...... a squad of machine gunners sees a soft target they want to kill, and ignores the squad running up on them. (a very familiar scenario in many games, because they know they will get to fight back if charged). However, in the Genesys Project a squad that has used its action, like shooting someone else, is now exhausted and will not be able to fight back. They could of chosen to shoot at the more threatening squad, or even interrupted play when the charging squad is activated (assuming they have their action).
An Exhausted squad has all of it's characteristics lowered by 1. This means they are easier to hit, And easier to kill, plus they do not get to keep fighting back as their action is spent.
What this does in big melee combat situations is that you can use your cavalry or other nearby squads to charge a melee combat that has already taken place. Essentially blindsiding them, flanking, and hopefully run them down.
Melee Combat can be a very dangerous place to be.
Lets Look at Charging.......
Movement bonuses are very easy to know. Any squad moving 7-12" gets a +1 movement bonus. 13+ grants a +2.
Movement bonuses can mean different things.... like giving an evasion bonus to your ranged target number (making you harder to hit). It also grants a charging bonus, which gives your attack a strength a bonus. The most fun part of this is that your movement bonus does not go away immediately, meaning that if you are charging forward and your opponent is doing the same, both of you will receive your movement bonus either one of you reach melee combat.
Attacking..... To get your movement bonus you must reach base to base contact (this is called being engaged), although you can still attack if your threat range is long enough.
The first round of combat is done in the order of the longest threat range first. This means long weapons like Pikes, or even Pistols will be able to strike first in melee combat! Watch out for large models, as they have extended threat ranges simply for their model size!
Deflection, Two Weapon fighting, Two Handed Weapons
There are a lot of ins and outs of how to win up close and personal with the enemy. Here are a few interesting things.
- Deflection bonuses (like with a shield in hand) allow you to reduce the die roll result! So having a Deflection 1 would reduce the result by 1, and depending upon the shield type allow to stop coordinated or full directional attacks. Body Shields, Bucklers, etc.
- Two Weapon fighting can allow for bonuses to hit your opponents by sacrificing an attack to focus on a single target.
- Two Handed Weapons allow for you deliver powerful blows to a single opponent by sacrificing an attack.
