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New Post 1/27/2010 9:54 AM
  jacar
47 posts
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Some rules ideas. 
Modified By jacar  on 1/27/2010 12:29:03 PM)

Hi,

I saw the recent activity and became inspired to do some tweaks and mods.  here are some untested ideas.

Pike (phalanx)

A phalanx is a group of 4 or more like heavy infantry.  These units are all armed with pike.  They may be of different grades but they must all be heavy infantry armed with pike.  So long as they are meleeing from the front, they get a +1 in melee combat.  They lose the +1 if the group falls below 4 stands.  they also lose the +1 while they are flanked or surprised.

Skirmishers

Taking ideas from another poster, here are my thoughts on skirmishers.  Once per turn, a skirmisher may evade.  They automatically fall back 1 move when contacted by an enemy.  The enemy may advance into the vacated space but must stop there.  If they are contacted again in the same turn by another enemy, they may not evade and must fight the melee.   Skirmishers may evade through friendly troops.

Historical note: The this tactic is exactly how the Spartans dealt with peltasts.  They would advance there younger lighter armed hoplites  and cavalry in close support in loose formation to run off the peltasts.  The cavalry would charge and run the peltasts down. 

Pilum, Agnon, Throwing Axe

I like the idea of the pilum doing a charge bonus.  Instead of adding a positive modifier to the attacker, make the modifier a negative to the defender.  this will give the same chance of victory but a greater chance of a slaughter. Give the Pilum etc a -2 to the enemy combat factor.

I would make Javelins short ranged weapons similar to bows with a range of 3".

That's all for now.

John

 

 

 

 

 

 
New Post 1/28/2010 12:11 AM
  Hubcommish
35 posts
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Re: Some rules ideas. 

John,

It's good to see some activity on the group! I've got a few comments on your ideas.

Regarding pikes, Mike included rules for them in the Mighty Armies Dark Ages playtest document. I'm not sure if he wants them posted here, so I guess we can wait for him to reply to this topic.

With regards to the skirmishers evading, I think that would be a great rule. We playtested a similar rule in our group's games when I came up with the skirmisher rules you mentioned. While I agree wholeheartedly that it's historically accurate, in a small and fast-playing game like MA, it added too many rules to skirmishers, and made them a little too powerful.

I like the idea of pila subtracting an amount from the defender's score. That would follow from the primary use of pila in damaging shields and compromising a victim unit's integrity immediately before combat. I'm all for it! I would ammend my rules suggestion from  a +1 charge bonus for the attacker to a -1 penalty for the defender.

I'm still kind of iffy on javelins being used as a ranged weapon. It doesn't seem to me that there could be enough javelins thrown to actually cause an enemy unit to be destroyed, only disrupted. As I see it, at the scale of MA javelins would be thrown only in close proximity of the enemy, immediately before charging in. That's why I included them as a combat bonus. Concerning skirmishers with javelins, the use of harassing fire is included in their ability to cause regular units without a skimrisher escort to move slower.

Scott

 
New Post 1/28/2010 8:11 AM
  outposteagle
295 posts
6th Level Poster




Re: Some rules ideas. 

Hi John,

We have included a rule in MA: Dark Ages for pikes but I think we should modify it to include your idea.  I like making it work if they are in a group of 4 or more.  On skirmishers, I agree we need to do something with skirmishers but I honestly have not played with the skirmishers yet, but i do like your ideas.  And after starting to play SBH I have found that adding a negative modifier to an oppenent works extremely well.  I will have to rethink the implementation of some of the special ability rules.  Thanks for sharing your ideas.

 
New Post 1/28/2010 5:25 PM
  Hubcommish
35 posts
No Ranking


Re: Some rules ideas. 

Outposteagle,

How is Dark Ages progressing? I haven't had the time to devote to playing any MA since before the Christmas season.

Scott

 
New Post 1/29/2010 7:57 AM
  outposteagle
295 posts
6th Level Poster




Re: Some rules ideas. 

Hi Scott,

I have not had time to play since Christmas either.  And I haven't heard from Mike on how his playtesting has been going.  Hopefully we can pick up where we left off and get some things nailed down.

Mark

 
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