Couple of Combat Questions

[Philistine2]

I'm trying to design units from scratch, so I'm struggling a little with some of the mechanics to figure out how to model them.

This thread was quite helpful.

First--Initiative.

What's the effect on game play? I understand that when attacking, a higher initiative means that unit will shoot sooner than one with a lower initiative. So AC (40/20), Heavy Tank (20/10) and Rifle (5/5)(Initiatives are Attack/Defense) would fire both in offense and in defense in order AC-->Tank-->Rifle. What are the ramifications? I suppose whoever goes first gets first crack at opponents, so combined with favorites tries and # attacked this would tend to result in high initiative troops arguably having an easier time targeting their preferred targets. Correct? Anything else?

Also, what do defensive initiatives mean? Also--I guess on defense, are counterattacks done after each unit has been fired upon or after all attacks in a round are done. If the latter, do destroyed or retreated units counterattack?

Second Issue--Counterattacks

As I understand it, all counterattacks "Defense vs. current type" value is further reduced by 50% (at least in the "standard" masterfile--though this number is modifiable in the editor). Thus an AC with a 30 Def value against Armour (per attack) actually has an effective value of 15 starting off before other modifiers. Correct?

If so, what's the reasoning behind this?


--Philistine