Undead

[zellak]

Has anyone playtested undead .

If so , what special rules did you use ?

I am going to run a test game soon , the idea being this:

Undead cost as Elite troops.

Undead count as poor troops when fighting.

Undead don't take morale tests...the only way to remove them is destroy them.

[zellak]

50 lurkers and no comments.

Time to add a few thoughts.

Taken that a BG has a thousand men ( or skeletons/zombies) .
How could one necromancer control an army of 10 BG ?

Lets guess that each BG is led by one of the Necromancers henchmen (an apprentice necromancer ?)
And when the BG is reduced to one stand ...he teleports off the field and commands the remnants of the BG to scatter.

Just a bit of fluff to cover the BG removed when reduced to one stand.

Here is another thing that comes to mind.
Does an undead army need a General, as they never take morale tests ?

[zellak]

We tried this out today with 700point armies. Beastmen vs Undead.

One thing we added, after a bit of dicussion before the game was that the auto-break of the undead would be as Elite troops , i.e. 60% losses.

It worked well, and seemed to be fairly balanced , neither side showing to be totally overpowering.

I took some pictures so will show them when they get uploaded to our club website.

[zellak]

Here is a picture.
http://northayrshirewargamesclub.co.uk/photo

note we were using the bases on their 3"side (see other topic)

The orange D8 behind the lines denote spells still to be cast.

[GreyhawkGrognard]

I've not tried it in play, but I've thought about forcing a cohesion check when confronted with cleric hero-types. That cohesion check could, in turn, be countered by other, friendly, cleric hero-types.

I think undead would also deserve a bonus of some sort when performing their own cohesion checks as a result of normal combat. Assuming they're "mindless" undead of the skeleton/zombie sort you see in D&D, what you're really checking for is the morale of the necromancer/evil high priest commander of the unit, rather than the troops themselves. Such a commander might be more inclined to "fight to the last zombie", as it were.

Still, nothing actually done in play as of yet. I will keep you posted, however.

GG

http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com

[zellak]

Great stuff...let us know how you get on.

[SirGarnet]

Last year we tried a game treating Undead as plain Superior without capabilities. They don't do a great deal of damage, but they do tie up the opposition for a variable but often significant length of time. If you make them unbreakable, they are basically flypaper that locks down the opponent for the whole battle. It gets frustrating - and without the chance of a morale break there is no suspense.

One thought is to omit normal melee combat against the lowest grade of Undead - they just take death rolls counting all enemy melee dice as automatically hitting. This should wear down the undead in a reasonable number of turns and speed play, so less frustrating. Better Undead would force their opponents to take a death roll on a 1 (so the loss ratio is disproportionate, but there is some risk).

[willb]

Last year we tried a game treating Undead as plain Superior without capabilities. They don't do a great deal of damage, but they do tie up the opposition for a variable but often significant length of time.

That would be http://iranistan.blogspot.com/2009/04/f ... ytest.html

Most of the figures used in that battle are better painted now.

[zellak]

Last year we tried a game treating Undead as plain Superior without capabilities. They don't do a great deal of damage, but they do tie up the opposition for a variable but often significant length of time. If you make them unbreakable, they are basically flypaper that locks down the opponent for the whole battle. It gets frustrating - and without the chance of a morale break there is no suspense.

We played them with no capabilities either.
They got battered...but wouldn't run...we didn't find it frustrating, they can still get a good dice result and turn the tide.

Next time we will cost them as Superior and count them as poor.
Also we will make them drilled.
And restrict them to 4 bases a battlegroup.

Just to see what difference it makes. Thats what playtesting is all about.

[ravenflight]

Has anyone playtested undead .

If so , what special rules did you use ?

I am going to run a test game soon , the idea being this:

Undead cost as Elite troops.

Undead count as poor troops when fighting.

Undead don't take morale tests...the only way to remove them is destroy them.

I like this idea, but do they autobreak?

Regarding command and control, how about this:

A necromancer 'general' costs the same cost of a 'normal general' but 'undead and poor' troops will only move if within his command span. The 'poor troops' being living henchmen who really only follow commands 'under threat'