Would it be possible to have an instinct like “Assault into Ambushes” or “When the lead flies, suck dirt”? How would they work mechanically? Would Assault into Ambushes allow you to attempt a free independant advance action into an opponant’s position if you lost contact? Would Suck Dirt let you take a free take cover action prior to the first volley?
Instincts happen only before the dice roll. So “assault into an ambush” would save you from nothing, really. If I wanted to frame a scene wherein you and I had a close combat, and I chose to do it during an ambush, (assume that we’re in the invasion phase, there are ongoing military operations, and the outcome of the ambush doesn’t matter, just the outcome of my fight with you and your bodyguards) then it would change the color. Instead of happening amid the burned-out wrecks of your convoy vehicles, it would happen up the hill from the wrecks. But that’s just color.
Basically, all that instinct says is “If I don’t explicitly say so, my first scripted action in an ambush will be Advance.” But since it’s scripting, you will inevitably say so, so the instinct is superfluous.
Hmm. But the instinct ‘If attacked, fry their brains’ allows Psychologists to pre-emptively cause a psychic duel before a ICHASHITF. Wouldn’t ‘Assault into ambushes’ follow a similar princible, and allow the unit to Advance before the first volley?
The difference is, when you Assault in firefight… you don’t assault -me-
Instead, you assault my unit.
In ICHASHITF, there is only “me”
Actually, the difference is that the first step of an ambush is Infiltration and then you roll Contact and THEN you worry about Advance. And, as it was mentioned above, Advance is something you can choose to do regardless, so it doesn’t tweak the mechanics in that regard.
It DOES, however, provide you with an opportunity to ignore your Instinct and earn some artha.
-L