The easiest way I can think of to balance this sort of mechanic is to have certain actions only be available at certain momentum levels.

In particular, you could introduce a class of "desperate actions" for cases when the momentum is too far in your opponent's favor. Obviously this would depend highly on exactly what sort of game you're designing here and exactly what sorts of units are involved, but this could include things from suicidal attacks to simply overextending a units own abilities. For example,

• Aircraft can perform kamikaze attacks
• Ships can accelerate to ramming speed
• Soldiers can move further or take extra actions at the cost of his own health
• Guns can fire hotter rounds to increase range/damage but 50% chance of gun exploding^{(i think this is how guns work right?)}

The important thing is that, while powerful, these actions would also come with a very serious cost and/or risk; the side that's confident in their overwhelming power is unlikely to resort to these when they can just play it safe and still probably win, but the side that's being overwhelmed would be more open to such ideas when the alternative is losing outright.

A cornered animal, as they say, is at its most dangerous because it has nothing to lose.

The easiest way I can think of to balance this sort of mechanic is to have certain actions only be available at certain momentum levels.

In particular, you could introduce a class of "desperate actions" for cases when the momentum is too far in your opponent's favor. Obviously this would depend on exactly what sort of game you're designing and exactly what sorts of units are involved, but this could include things from suicidal attacks to simply overextending a unit's own abilities. For example,

• Aircraft can perform kamikaze attacks
• Ships can accelerate to ramming speed
• Soldiers can move further or take extra actions at the cost of their own health
• Guns can fire hotter rounds to increase range/damage but with a 50% chance of exploding in the gunner's hands^{(i think this is how guns work right?)}

The important thing is that, while powerful, these actions would also come with a very serious cost and/or risk; the side that's confident in their overwhelming power is unlikely to resort to these when they can just play it safe and still probably win, but the side that's being overwhelmed would be more open to such ideas when the alternative is losing outright.

A cornered animal, as they say, is at its most dangerous because it has nothing to lose.