Some Chainmail Questions from a Newbie

[davidbrodeur]

Greetings all !

Did a game of Chainmail with my wife today, and sometimes I go back to the book to check stuff and I'm unsure about some of the rules. Here are some question you might be able to help:

• I still have trouble clearly understanding how Fantasy Creatures deal with normal troops (or actually, the other way around). If my opponent has only (let's say) foot troops (let's say 10 000 heavy foot), and I only have 1 ogre, can he in theory wipe everything since they cannot act on the Fantasy Table ? Or does he need to receive 6 simultaneous hit and be killed ? If so, how do you count those ? 6 in the same turn, or 6 in the same phase, or 6 in the same attack ?
• Same kind of question, but with regards to missile. How does it work with missile shooting at Fantasy Creatures ? Wizard have protection from normal missile. Does that extend to all since they can't be targetted ? If so, that means a bunch of elves with enchanted arrow are really really really strong in an army to deal with all of those ? Do each of them shoot on the Fantasy Table ? 
• Is it me or the Wizard fire ball / lightning bolt is really strong ? Since catapult one shot kill, this thing is the same kind of beast ? Can you counterspell his projectile in the magic phase, or is it considered a normal missile attack ?
• If some troops are stuck in melee and they can't attack (either against cavalry or fantasy creatures), what do you do ? Do you just let them there until they die, or you have some kind of houserule to automatically remove them from the board, or even disengage them ? I know basic Chainmail rules (AFAIK) doesn't have any disengage mechanics. 

Thank you !

[derv]

When normal troops like heavy foot enter melee with an ogre you would use the regular combat table to resolve it. Ogres are treated as 6 heavy foot. Perhaps two to three figures can engage it during the first round when in base to base contact. So, that would be 3 HF vs. 6 HF. The heavy foot would roll three dice and a score of 6 is a hit. They will have to accumulate 6 hits to kill an ogre. They do not have to be consecutive.

Missile fire works the same way, but you would consult the missile fire table and roll a single d6, consulting the number of figures firing. Two ranks are permitted to fire under normal circumstances.

If the rules state a figure type is immune to normal missiles or melee, normal troops will have no effect. Each fantastic type is different so you should refer to their description.

Elves armed with magic weapons may attack those fantastic types listed under their description with target numbers listed there. They will defend as heavy foot on the regular combat table. Elves fire missiles as Hero-types on the FCT. roll 2d6 = or > (see note at top of table).

Your final question needs a little more context. An example would be helpful. Don't forget the morale rules when normal types are confronted by fantastic types. Often they will first have to pass morale (see note under Hero/Superhero for example). Heroes and Supers must take simultaneous hits (consecutive) or it is as if they were not injured.

Hopefully that helped.

[davidbrodeur]

Thank you very much derv !

So basically, I had read badly: it's not because you are on the fantasy scale that you are "out" of the normal scale ? In other way, the fantasy scale is just a "parallel" way of taking care of things ? The wizard can still be killed in melee, or the giant in missile. Got it, makes much more sense. My wife was mad at my ogre not being able to be killed lol.

For my last point, I meant for example you have 1 light troop against a heavy cavalry. Because of the fraction of dice to roll, he doesn't roll anything. If, by pure magic, he stays there multiple turn, what happen ? Do you just consider him automatically dispatched because he can't kill the mounted knight anyway ? Or you play it normally ? 

Also, regarding heroes/superheroes taking simultaneous hit, I see it's a case by case basis: some fantasy creature have this feature (or the equivalent), and some doesn't. So it's all about knowing abilities of each of them. Gotcha. 

[retrorob]

... and an Ogre would roll 6d6 against these Heavy Foot. Every "6" is a kill, so HF virtually can't kill an ogre in the 1st round of melee.

[derv]

May 11, 2020 8:05:48 GMT -6 davidbrodeur said:

For my last point, I meant for example you have 1 light troop against a heavy cavalry. Because of the fraction of dice to roll, he doesn't roll anything. If, by pure magic, he stays there multiple turn, what happen ? Do you just consider him automatically dispatched because he can't kill the mounted knight anyway ? Or you play it normally ? 

In general Chainmail is meant to be played with units of figures. So you aren't usually dealing with solitary figures of light footmen and heavy cavalry. Typically you'll want a formation of, let's say, 8-10 foot figures and 4-6 horse figures as a minimum unit size. The game was intended for even larger groupings, but this will work.

What this grouping assures is that the units will always have the minimum for effectiveness on the combat table. The reason is because of morale. Light foot/horse will only be able to sustain 50% (25% + 25%) losses before being removed from play. Heavy foot, armored foot, medium horse can take up to 66% losses. Heavy Horse (knights) will stay in play if they pass their first morale check at 50% losses. Check out page 17 for Excess Casualties Loss Table to see what I'm talking about.

Now, if you want to forgo all that and play Chainmail with single figures (1:1) I would simply allow a figure one die roll where a "6" kills regardless of minimums. The game becomes totally uninteresting when figures have no chances. If this seems too generous in certain circumstances like your Light foot vs. Heavy Horse, perhaps you give the HH an extra die or even double his dice. Or how about an extra die for each man the LF is short (+3 dice). Your call.

What I'm describing above is for "normal" figures. Once you introduce the Fantasy Supplement you will have a mix of normal and fantastic types. Fantastic types are the ones that can melee each other using the Fantasy Combat Table and are often (not always) single figures that need not fight in formation.

[davidbrodeur]

Thanks ! That answer my question. I understood that it's meant to be played in squad, but since "technically" it can end up with a single figure, I wanted to know. It actually happened last game against my wife. I was killing her dwarves one after another but they made their morale roll. So I was wondering what would have happened in a melee against Heavy Cavalry.

[clownboss]

For the most part if I understand, units tend to come in stacks of 5, so anything that numbers in 5, 10, 15, or 20 is standard fare. It's just easier to count. Of course you can deviate from it, but if you have regular units that number less than 5, they start to feel dubious and CHAINMAIL begins to show cracks in its ruleset that it wasn't meant to contend with.