Hi, First poster here.
I did a small experiment yesterday. Like some people, the all or nothing damage is something I don't really like in AS, and using the optional rule of variable damage I remember reading (I think you roll 1d6 per damage you would have done and actually deal 1 damage par 4+ ?) just adds to the length of the game, and suddenly a hit can turn into an absolute miss.
My experiment was to ditch the 2d6 for the to hit roll, used 1d10 per point of damage possible (so +1d10 if firing in rear arc). and lower the skill rating of everyone by 2 (so far only tried with old 4 so "new 2", for the old 0 and 1, I think getting rerolls would be better than going into negative skill rating, but I haven't tried it yet.)
Also a 10 is always a hit.
What this means is, if a mech with skill 2, firing M:3 at a mech with TMM 2 in a forest, the to hit number for the each of the 3d10 would be 8, giving you 30% chance per dice to inflict 1 damage, (90% to do at least 1, but about 3% chance to inflict the whole 3 damage), instead of the 10 needed with the "old way", which gives you about 16.7% to inflict 3 damage with the 2d6 roll.
That means that you are more likely to inflict some damage to hard to hit targets, but you are less likely to one-shot light mech with a lucky roll from a big guy.
That also means that mech can suffer more criticals before getting killed. Yesterday I did manage to get 12 on the crit table after inflicting the first structure point damage to a Cyclops with a Dervish (and a Cicada also vaporised a Jenner with a crit roll of 2)
The feeling of attrition is more present, but luck can still play its part too.
For now, all other rolls are still made with 2d6 (crit rolls and such).
We played a 12mech vs 12mech game (342pts vs 341pts, with base level technology) and it was done in 2hours. We played meeting engagement where the game ends when 50% of a force is destroyed/crippled.
