Flanking bonuses
Attacking an enemy that's being threatened from another direction — or from its side or rear — grants bonus accuracy or damage, rewarding coordinated positioning. Flanking is the positional heart of tactics games: it makes turns about maneuvering into angles, not just trading shots, and punishes clumping while rewarding pincer movements. XCOM's flanking negates cover entirely, making it the primary way to guarantee hits. Designers use flanking to give movement offensive value, to counter defensive turtling, and to reward multi-unit coordination. Key decisions: what triggers it (attacker angle, or the enemy being engaged on two sides), the bonus magnitude (cover-negating flanks are decisive; small bonuses are ignored), whether enemies flank the player symmetrically, and clear UI showing flank status before committing a move. Pitfall: if flanking is always achievable and always dominant, combat collapses into a race to flank first — cover, overwatch, and enemy repositioning must make setting up a flank costly and contestable.
- Dev effort: Small
- Timing: Turn-based
- Common in: tactics