This is a mild concern I had from the get go, namely the 6 green hit boxes. I don't think 6 green hit boxes on any unit is a bad thing, I just get twitchy when more than 50% of a unit's total hit boxes are green. Even that wouldn't be a red flag to me if we where talking about a highly specialized unit or even a super unit, but we're talking about core line units in the 200-300 point range (I'm rolling the Greek Mercs into this conversation). The fact that more than half of a unit's hit boxes are green makes courage stats less meaningful because you are rolling for those checks later than you normally would when playing other line units in that points range. Now it certainly is possible that the formula accounts for that.
I think it does.
Take this unit:
Swordsmen 192 pts
O:(5)5/5 D:2/2 Mv: 3.5" Rge:- Cge 12 4G/3Y/3R
If you add 2 Green boxes, the cost becomes 218 pts (+26 pts).
If you add 2 attack dice, the cost becomes 234 pts (+42 pts).
But if you add both, the cost becomes 265 pts (+73 pts).
Note how the combination of the two is worth more than the sum of its parts? The reason is because the formula takes into account that some things are non-linear. Namely, that the more green boxes you have, the more valuable things like attack stats become. Similarly, a unit's "defensive value" is an amalgam of its defensive skill, its toughness, plus its Courage and the number of Green/Yellow/Red hit boxes it has.
In short, yes with 6 green boxes you'll be rolling courage checks later. But that is accounted for in the formula.
The other thing that I know I keep harping on, but is something that we saw over and over in playtesting was that although those dice and hit boxes are scary, they don't come with a great set of stats. Those hoplites in the 200-300pt range are still just average humans in a lot of cases. The average Theban hoplites clock in at 254 pts, in the neigborhood of Dwarf Axemen and Orc Spearmen. The 300pt Corinthians are Toughness 3. They're basically Orc Swordsmen with +2 dice and +2 green boxes...for +63 pts.
For those same 300pts, you can get Orc Axemen (O:(5)6/6, D:1/3, Cge 13) or Dark Elf Duskblades (O:(5)6/6 , D:3/1, Cge 13). Plug both matchups into the simulator and the Corinthians lose both of them (48%-39% vs Axemen and 48%-40% vs the Duskblades).
Which is pretty consistent with our playtest results. Greeks will beat up on guys who are O:(5)5/5 D:2/2, but you expect that to happen because they cost 30% more than those guys. But against similarly costed units who have their points in stats, the hoplites have a tough time.
Heck, look at Theban Hoplites vs HE Battle Squads. Yes the hoplites win (like 90% of the time), but it takes them 4.6 turns to do it (vs the 2.8 turns it takes to kill the Umenzi). That's 4-5 turns (vs 2-3 turns) to kill a unit that costs almost the same as Umenzi Spearmen. And there's a 1-in-3 chance that it will take the Hoplites 6 or 7 turns to win! That's a 187pt unit pinning down 254pts for the majority of the game.
See, this is partially on us (meaning all players not in Corey's group) because the factions have been out there and we never play tested them. And now we're all squawking when we really should have been squawking a year ago.
Yeah, pretty much. The Alexander and Persia is so near to print that I'm incredibly resistant to making wholesale changes now.
