Questions/Clarifications from a hex wargamer who has played a small bit of WRG miniatures
POINT COST
Light Infantry costs 1
A Bow costs 3
So an Archer costs 4, or the same as a Medium Cavalry?
Yes, the math looks correct: Adding a bow costs 3 additional points to whatever the base cost of the figure. And adding magic arrows would cost 10 extra points above that... I should probably repeat the costs for magic weapons in the "Additional weapons costs" table too.
My mistake! I copied that sentence from
Goliath, where you actually do roll one die for each of your attackers HTs, and then simply calculate kills as a score of 6 vs Heavy AC, 5+ vs Medium, 4+ vs Light. This method produces statistically similar results to
Chainmail. And there's no ugly table lookups required to use this alternative method.
But anyway, as you say, this sentence in
Grognard should read:
I will fix this in version 0.9, sometime over the weekend, and add your name to the Acknowledgements section!
As stated in the man-to-man section, melee range is 3". This applies to mass combat too, and should be repeated there.
But just because troops may be drawn into melee at a range of 3", doesn't mean they necessarily do melee at this range... Units within 3" may melee
if desired. However, there are some exceptions where collisions occurs even if
undesired, for example, Orcs from different tribes will attack each other automatically unless they pass an obedience roll of 4+; and, similarly, knights will charge any enemies within range unless they pass an obedience roll of 6, preferring enemy knights over light troops and peasants.
While things like weapon size/reach don't effect melee range, they do effect initiative and how many attacks and parries a figure gets if you're using the the man-to-man rules.
And pikes allow more than just the front rank to melee in mass combat (which is why pikes cost 1 additional point per figure). Please see the Wikipedia article on the
Pike Square which has great pictures of Swiss Pikemen in formation. 3-5 ranks of pikemen can actually defend against a charge, if each rank gets into the correct position!
Actually, HI attacking HC gets 1 die per 3 figures on the MCT. (This corresponds to AF vs HH on the Combat Table in
Chainmail.) So in this case, no, the HI cannot attack the HC. This is why you want normal troops to fight as
units consisting of lots of figures, at least if you're using the mass combat rules and the MCT.
One exception might be if your HI figure were actually a Hero (or Super Hero), rather than a normal HI figure, then the tables would be turned. The Hero could attack a normal HC figure but not
vice versa. If both figures were Heroes, you could of course use the FCT, rather than
Grognard's MCT or H2H tables.
That's the thing about these rules -- they're hierarchical -- so there's either a lot of qualifications and the rule is long and difficult to parse; or else the rule is short and easy to understand
but there's a ton of exceptions. If these rules were a computer program, there would be lots of levels of nested IF/THENs. Ultimately, lots of clarifications and examples are going to be necessary so that
Grognard is digestible to newcomers.
First consider a square: It offers protection from flank and rear attacks. It was very important for infantry to rapidly form a square to protect against cavalry units performing flanking manoeuvres.
You could also imagine a line marching straight ahead with a friendly column on either side. Perhaps there's also some longbowmen inside who can give indirect fire. This configuration has some defensive advantages -- the columns can spend half a move doing 90 degree turns to defend the flanks. Such a configuration could also easily surround an enemy that's packed too tightly together.
And that's because only troops in the front rank will melee. Weapons with reach (pikes, lances, spears) are exceptions (as discussed above). Also,
Gary played it so that only Magic Users in the front rank may cast spells.
Formations are also important because troops control the space 1" on either side of themselves to stop infiltration. This is called a "zone of control" (ZOC) or "area of control" (AoC). It prevents enemies from passing through your lines, even if your lines are spaced out a little, as long as they're within an inch of another.
Even though only the front rank usually melees, you'll still want units that are 2-3 ranks deep, so that troops in the back can step-up and fill-in any gaps that form in the front rank, so that you don't lose your ZOC and let the enemy get flank attacks!
You can change direction, but there are movement penalties: 180 degrees costs 1 move, 90 degrees costs 1/2 move, and 45 degrees (= oblique) costs 1/4 move.
In the future, I plan to add some diagrams to help explain facing and formation. I think a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Here's a picture of a right oblique march from slideshare:
Thanks for the correction and questions! Like I said, I'll add you to the Acknowledgements. After I upload version 0.9 with these corrections and clarifications, I'll post back here in this thread. Might be a few days -- I hoped to finish Siege rules. Maybe add Jousting too.
