All Forums  Dashing Dice Games  Witchfinder General: Days of Revelation.  Thoughts on Pikes in the game

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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by ffoulk[/i] [br]Pikes in skirmish games have always given me pause because essentially the pike was a defensive weapon for use en masse, they were far too unwieldy to be manoeuvred with the speed required in one-on-on combat. Even the famed Landsknechte relied on their short sword when fights became up close and personal, (there is a train of thought that says the name of their short swords - Katzbalger - derives from hand-to-hand fights which were like feral cats fighting) Anyway, the pikemen of England's green and tricky land were nowhere near as well trained as the European mercenaries of a century earlier and they very much relied on mass rather than skill. I can see a lot of thought has gone into being able to bring the pike into WG:DoR and I like a lot of what's been done but for me it's still too much of an anomaly to have individual pikemen being able to perform the way they do in the game. However, like many folks, I do want to be able to see some pikes on the table and to this end I introduced the idea of CLOSE FORMATION whereby in order to gain the benefit's of the pike there had to be at least six pikemen (rather arbitrary number and definitely still a fudge to history) within 1/2" of at least one other man in the group. Essentially the pike can only be used in a group - otherwise the pikemen rely on their swords (the pike would be discarded completely although there's no reason it couldn't be picked up later) There is one exception to this - individual pikemen can still attempt to HOLD BACK troops mounted on horses (horses were notoriously reluctant to approach sharp pointy things) but when applying the result of the pikeman's attack, killed results become wounded results and wounded results are ignored apart from being able to HOLD BACK the enemy. When in close formation all movement is halved. If you're now thinking 'there are werewolves in the game and he's worried about the historical use of the pike?!' I fully understand your point, but if you want to see your brave militia standing shoulder to shoulder as they quake in their boots at the horrors they are witnessing you might want to give these modifications a go. [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.