can't exactly remember those things you're mentioning
I can think of at least 4 skills that may become an issue if you take too long with finishing people off (though 2 of those I suppose are worse if you can't decide between killing and maiming)
First, the 2 abilities that the Dredge have with 1 turn casting time. The big sword guys, when weakened, simply summon another melee unit once one turn has passed. Now, that dredge mender guy if you remember, he has an ability where every injured dredge will explode and harm adjacent units for for as much HP as the dredge had remaining armor value. The first time I saw that and didn't have means to interrupt, the spell killed 3 of my units from pretty much perfect health. Lost that fight.
Now, the more immediate threats: those big dredge greatshield guys, their Kindle move dealt 1-4 armor damage to every unit around them, based on how knocked back they were. If that ability hits for full damage at 2 of your guys, then your army just became a whole lot squishier.
And finally, Thrasher human opponents have Bloody Flail, which will deal minimum 4 damage no matter how low their HP is, and it will deal +1 damage for every adjacent ally. A couple of injured thrashers clinging to each other can still deal quite a bit of damage and soften you for those archer Puncture blows late in a battle.
we both agree it's counterintuitive for a big slice of the game.
*nod*
it's also derived of the design decision of health and dmg being a shared stat, which i found kind of interesting in theory but not that much of a payoff in the end
Yeah, it's interesting but also makes for a very momentum-based combat system. Once things start going just a little bad they may spiral down easily. Kudos to Stoic for trying though, I've always wanted to at least mess with a game where low HP meant pissweak offense.