MEL equipped Mech house rule?

[Fin-man]

Disclaimer:  Our group only plays AS with the 'multiple attack rolls' optional rule.

We're a group of BT players, coming over to AS.  After a few games, we've been discussing the idea of letting Mechs equipped with the MEL special rule (and only those units) perform a physical attack as well as being able to shoot another (not base-contact) unit.  We thought it would encourage more MEL equipped Mechs, as right now with the rules as they are not really that great to melee a unit vs. shooting them.  (Yes, the damage is on one roll, which can be good or bad depending on roll.)  However, we don't want to make it universal as most units would just get into base contact and physical attack as well as shoot someone else. 

So, having said that:

1)  Has anyone tried this idea?  If so, how did it work out? 
2)  Is there a glaring reason NOT to do this that we haven't considered? 

Appreciate the extra constructive brainpower that anyone would like to add.


Fin-man

[Kerfuffin(925)]

House rules, so this will probably get moved to the fan rules area.

In AS there is no weapon placement restrictions, so there is nothing to stop alpha strikes combined with a melee attack. Missing (like a kick in classic) has no penalty.

There is no separate phase to stop it. In classic you can fall in the weapon phase and lose out on making your kick.

A medium mech like the hatchet man do 3 damage, plus another 3 can one shot or easily cause crits on larger mechs. It gets crazier with heavy/assaults, doing 4-5 damage plus their weapon damage.


Melee damage is also inflated in AS. A regular melee attack from a light does 3-7 damage. From a assault it’s 10-20. In AS it does 1(10) up to 4(40). Plus an extra one (ten classic damage) for MEL and TSM.

[DevianID]

Yeah I always assumed that in the abstraction that is alpha strike, melee attacks still include some shooting.  Like kerfuffin said, that hatchetman is doing 30 damage in melee.  We know the harchet does 9, so the other 20 should be comming from guns in the abstraction.

I think a houserule might be to let you add +1 damage to your shooting attack if you have a melee weapon in range.  So a 3 damage short range hatchet man could do 3+1 shooting damage in hatchet range, or do a melee attack for 2+1.  This way, units with big shooting numbers won't miss out of their superior shooting to use their melee weapon, and the melee weapon just adds 1 point to either the size for melee or short range for guns.

[Kerfuffin(925)]

There are also SPAs that allow this or give similar.

I think Fist Fire is one.

[Fin-man]

Thank you both for the responses.  (And apologies to the mods for not knowing the correct place to put this.)


This is why I wanted to put more eyes on this thought to poke holes in it.  I think the fist fire SPA is a better option. 


Thanks
Fin-man