A Trivial Chainmail Scenario - Query

[kent]

Chainmail is one of those games that would be much easier to play if you saw it in action for just one evening.

I would appreciate if someone could describe two turns of the following set-up. The set-up is 160 Riders of Rohan have caught up with an Orc party of 120 on foot. The two turns I am interested in are:

1. Closing to melee with some missile fire from half the riders. After the movement involved - do you melee the next round?

2. The first round of melee

How many figures would you use for this? How many dice rolls. Are kills in groups of 10 or 20 men all at once?

[Deleted]

How are the units arranged? Is it just two enormous blocks of figures? How many of the Rohirrim have bows?

In 1:20 you'd use 8 figures for the Rohirrim, or 160 at 1:1. 6 orcs at 1:20 or 120 at 1:1.

You always remove figures. So "Heavy foot vs heavy foot, 1 die per man, 6 kills." For each 6 you roll you remove an enemy figure, which represents (usually) 20 men. You don't keep track of "partial figure" kills.

[kent]

Jul 29, 2013 10:45:26 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

How are the units arranged?

Jul 29, 2013 10:45:26 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

You always remove figures. So "Heavy foot vs heavy foot, 1 die per man, 6 kills." For each 6 you roll you remove an enemy figure, which represents (usually) 20 men. You don't keep track of "partial figure" kills.

That sounds very fast. 1:10 scale would probably be best for the numbers I gave.

Do figures only melee against those they are touching, so:

HHHHHH
-------OOOO

would result in 2 horse figures against 2 orc figures?

And is it possible to break up formations to get all six horsemen attacking the 4 orc figures?:

--HHH--
-OOOO-
--HHH--

How many turns would it take to for the horsemen to move from skirmish I to skirmish ii above. Do the orcs get a free attack on the horsemen as they move around them?

[Deleted]

1) First round, 2 versus 2. After that they may overlap. Page 16

"After the first round of melee excess troops (figures unopposed by an enemy
directly before them) from the flanks or from rear ranks may be moved so as
to overlap the enemy formation's flanks and even rear if movement at onehalf
normal will allow."

The actual melee would look like this:

--O
-HHO
HOO
-HH

as the 2 orcs on the right move to overlap, and the 4 Rohirrim on the left move to overlap. Engaged figures may not move.

The free attack question does not apply.

Also, don't forget the orcs will have to check morale to stand if the Rohirrim are charging, see page 18.

Basically, the orcs are going to get slaughtered any way you figure it.

[kent]

Ta. Your diagram is very useful to me because I didn't realise movement was so fluid.

[Deleted]

Medium Horse move 18" per turn, heavy foot move 9" per turn. The orc on the far right has 4 1/2 inches of movement to flank the right hand horseman, and the orc next to him has 4 1/2 inches to get behind the horsemen. The horsemen on the left have nine inches of movement to get around their foes.

It's all right there in the rules.