UNSTABLE SIGNALS

The central design question after running Iron Line is whether Override Protocol is priced right. It costs 4 Signal, returns D6 Strain (average 3.5), and was the only reason Warden survived rounds 2 and 3. Both casts pulled the Siege Walker back from 9 Strain: first a 4, then a 6, for a total of 10 Strain healed across 8 Signal spent. On a unit worth roughly 600 points, that's the difference between a broken commander and a game-winning one. The second cast (D6=6) was the decisive moment of the entire game. Without it, Warden would have entered round 4 at 9 Strain and Steelback would have reached melee range while it sat there waiting to fold.

Possible alternatives to playtest: cap the heal at 3 Strain per cast; raise the cost to 5 Signal; restrict to one use per unit per game. Any of these still leaves EO a meaningful defensive EW option without one lucky die roll reversing 9 Strain of accumulated work.

The Siege Walker read as correctly sized for what it does, with that caveat. Monstrous Attacks at TN 2+ against a Close Order target produce 8-9 hits from 10 dice on average. No other unit in this game came close to that output. Pair it with the EW healing suite and the unit is essentially unkillable without sustained, coordinated fire from multiple vectors simultaneously. That's a valid design niche. The question is whether the price tag for the EW support is set right.

Two rules clarifications worth flagging:

• Chassis keyword in Decapitation Strike. The scenario awards 1 VP per enemy Chassis-keyword unit removed, and 5 VP if the opponent has zero Chassis units at game end. The Keyword Glossary labels the Hero[x] keyword as Chassis-type, and Commanders carry Hero by default. Relay Beacon units do not appear in the Glossary as Chassis-type. Ruling for this run: only Commander units are Chassis units; Relay Beacon units are not. That made the scenario a 5-VP race for one specific unit per side, which felt right and generated the correct tension. A single clarifying sentence in the Decapitation Strike setup would close this permanently. (Secondary question: if any unit buys the Hero keyword as an upgrade, does it become a Chassis VP target? Worth a ruling.)
• Jamming Pulse Fragile vs normal Fragile break threshold. Normal Fragile breaks a unit at Strain equal to half Integrity (rounded up), which is 5 for an Integrity-10 unit. The Jamming Pulse Fragile override reads: "the target only breaks if it accumulates Strain equal to its Integrity while Fragile is active." This means Pulse-Fragile uses the full Integrity value (10), not half, as the threshold, and only counts Strain accumulated after the Pulse was applied. Steelback ended the game at 5 total Strain but only 3 accumulated Strain while Fragile, which was far short of the 10 needed under that rule. Steelback was frozen 3 inches from Warden by Cowardly, not by breaking. The distinction had no effect on the final VP score but could matter in a closer game. The two Fragile flavors need a clear printed label (normal Fragile vs Pulse Fragile, or whatever the canonical terminology is) so the two break conditions can be looked up independently.

Dice read: mixed luck, as usual. The decisive roll was the D6=6 on the second Override Protocol cast. Without that, Warden breaks at 9 Strain in round 4 and the game result is likely different. On the other side, Warden's round 3 Monstrous attack against Goldenrod produced five natural 1s across ten dice, which is a terrible run for TN 2+ -- expected hits on that roll are around 8 or 9. Five hits was just enough to break Goldenrod at 10 Strain because Howl had pre-damaged it to 5. One more natural 1 and Goldenrod survives round 3 with 1 Integrity remaining and the whole game changes shape. The dice giveth, the dice taketh away.