Some of the earliest conversations in development were about the board game's system of which Legionaries die during an attack. In that, the defending player chooses which Legionary gets killed for each casualty the attacker inflicts. While this presents a wide range of tactical options for the defender, it creates a pacing problem when you're in a multiplayer videogame match. Handing play priority back and forth across networked play requires a lot of player signaling that can feel a little nagging.

So we want to automate the process of how individual Legionaries die. The big question becomes, how do we automate this while staying true to the essence of the board game? To answer this, the place to look is the decision making process of a defending player.

Say the defending unit has a Boltgun, Flamer, and Missile Launcher, and one of them is going to die. How does a player choose? Typically the first thing to do is weigh the Shoot value of these weapons, as raw firepower is fairly important. The Boltgun clearly loses out here, but the Shoot value alone doesn't tell the whole story. We need to look at Critical Effects with the following questions in mind: Which one of these is the most important to my current situation? To future situations? Versus my opponent's playstyle?