Slitherine

Hi,

Just returned from the latest batch of games. Only 2 real points of interest arose apart from me losing again

1. Scythed chariots - seem to be a little too good. Consensus amongst the players is that they shouldn't have a +POA in the melee phase. So far whenever they ahve gotten into combat they have smashed their opponents on the charge and had no disadvantage in the following melee phase.

2. I mentioned this 2 weeks ago - a issue which was mentioned afterwards and prompted some discussion was the lack of elephant rampage. I'm not in favour of random stampedes personally but I wouldn't mind an additional modifier be built into the CT when testing for routing/destroyed Ellies. Perhaps an additional -1 if to the rear and within one base width of the routing destroyed unit to simulate the rampage?

Thanks
John

malekithau wrote:1. Scythed chariots - seem to be a little too good. Consensus amongst the players is that they shouldn't have a +POA in the melee phase. So far whenever they ahve gotten into combat they have smashed their opponents on the charge and had no disadvantage in the following melee phase.

Interesting, I thought they might prove useless.

If they don't rout their oppoenents in 1 turn (1 impact + 1 melee) they are destroyed. How often are they likely to drop the enemy 3 cohesion levels in 2 rounds of combat, bearing in mind that this means that the enemy must score 2 or less on a cohesion test in one of the rounds and also fail cohesion in the other? It is hard to follow up the chariot closely enough to finish enemy off without risking being routed through by the chariots, so any BG that isn't actually broken by the chariots is likely to have time to recover before it has to fight again. (Although I suppose that LF archers/slingers following up behind might be able to shoot off another cohesion level before the enemy can be bolstered).

Of course the historical counter is to rout them with LF shooting before they get to you.

2. I mentioned this 2 weeks ago - a issue which was mentioned afterwards and prompted some discussion was the lack of elephant rampage. I'm not in favour of random stampedes personally but I wouldn't mind an additional modifier be built into the CT when testing for routing/destroyed Ellies. Perhaps an additional -1 if to the rear and within one base width of the routing destroyed unit to simulate the rampage?

We are really not in the market for adding extra CT modifiers. In earlier stages of development we had several (perfectly justifiable) additional modifiers but we ruthlessly excised all but the essential ones to keep the game at the desired level of simplicity.

So you are right, your suggestion would be a nice piece of flavour, but it doesn't quite make the grade as essential. Another idea that got dropped as inessential was to make troops drop 2 cohesion levels if burst through by their own elephants or scythed chariots.

I posted before Roll Call about elephants and generals control. Only to discover that I had little or no control over them. They certainly had no trouble stampeding (routing) in my games.

I think the rules have elephants just about right. (Sorry Richard not allowed to agree with you completely )

As I have only been playing 15mm and have no scythed chariots in 15mm, have not tried them out. But as Richard says, it is hard to take advantage of the disruption caused, with an alternate move system the enemy always has a chance of recovering.

Don

I support the view that the Elephants are working well. I have only used a single BG with the Dailami. However the elephants are not easy to manouver, so they have to be in the right place to start with. They also need to be protected from enemy shooting. When in combat, there is always that doubt that they might be destroyed and achieve nothing. This all seems right, and it is achieved without a lot of special extra rules.

Have used Schythed Chariots twice.

In both cases much excitement but absolutely no results!

Mind you if they hit anything they really like then I imagine it can be messy.

Si

I've used them 3 times now. Each time they have doen well. This weekend they fragmented a 6 stand Superior Legion unit on impact. 6 hits.

[url]I've used them 3 times now. Each t ... t. 6 hits.[/url]

What were the other chariots hitting and what factrors. I would like to figure outt he odds as a check.

Not too worried about the one you mention 6 all part of the volatile fun.

6 hits is a 0.5 to the power six chance - aroun a 1.5% chance. Even then the Romans are Sup so need a 7 with 3 minuses and a re-roll, rear support and a general one assumes. So needing a natural 8 with a re-roll, so even then the odds in favour of apssing and goodbye Shythed Chariots. So if you get the 1 in 200 result then don't bank on it happening again.

course you may not have had all the support in place and that may be the difference - each time we have stacked the defenders in anticipation of a tough crunch coming. My last one had - Poor Speramen with a general fending them off.

Si