Prone--options

[joshuaslater]

Can you deliberately place a model prone to reduce it's chances of getting shot with arrows?  I would think this would grant a bonus of 4 against the RC stat of the attacker, and stack with cover bonuses as well.  I thought of this after my Blood Bone Axemen were gettin' taken out by arrows from Orc Assault Warriors, and my opponent and I didn't quite know the cover bonuses from the terrain; now I know better, but I thought they could duck down even further.  Thoughts?

[Anomander_Rake]

That's a nice idea.

I remember having said something similar on the old forum... my idea has been to let some units with armor and shield walk in front of my archers and then making them knee or prone so the archers could fire over them, like you see in the movies...

Unfortunately getting prone is no movement action...so you can't do it. 

On the other hand what would it give you? It would be harder for archers to find a legal target and shoot it...on the other hand you would for example have to spend one action to get prone and one to stand up...with only 2 actions as most units have, you would never ever leave the deployment zone and one unit of archers would be able to hold against a lot of troops...

My advise would be to use more terrain...or more to give your enemy more targets to shoot at...

just my two cents...

Anomander Rake

[Southpaw]

Anomander is correct. Chronopia does not have the equivalent of Minimize Presence that you find in Warzone.

Though perhaps that is something that might be worth looking into, as I think it's more than a valid tactic, especially, as you pointed out, the alternative might be getting turned into a nice, Dwarvy pin-cushion....

But, you must admit, the picture would be rather cute though....

Heh heh....

[Coil]

While MP could be a possible addition to Chronopia I am not so sure it is neccessary (or a good thing).

While the core engine is similar for both games they do differ and for good reasons. UWZ for example does not have a Run action while Chronopia does. One game is focused on Close COmbat (and a need to get people into it) and the other has more of an emphasis on shooting (thus a need to hide more).

[Southpaw]

That's very true. The systems share a fundamental difference in their core aspect: CC as opposed to RC. The Range and Terrain Modifiers are already quite considerable when compared to Warzone, I'll grant you that.

I'm going to commit the Cardinal Sin here...applying realism to a fantasy game...(says 666 Hail Marys and locks himself upside down in the supply closet)....

To not even have the option of voluntarily going Prone is a detriment to some forces, some that might survive better if they had the option of crawling, ducking, whatever one might call it.

It wouldn't need to be a huge penalty to be cost-effective. Perhaps a +2 AR, and limited to 1/2 MV, or something like that....

Just a thought...

[Morfdoggs]

I have always thought that the ability to go prone would be awesome, It would be a great tactic to beable to move a unit of swordsman followed by some longbowmen and have the swordsman hit the ground, guarded missel fire. I always pictured the use for this in advaning like a center assualt with two killer flank attacks to follow.

[Coil]

One problem though is, like Anomander pointed out, that most units in Chronopia only have 2 actions. This would severely limit the usefulness of having a prone/minimize presence action.

Morf, one way of doing the screening of archers using the current rules would be to have the swordsmen spread out and create gaps that the archers could fire through.

If we created a rule that allowed you to go prone and thus get a bonus of some sort vs missile fire and allowed archers to shoot over friendly troops it could have unwanted consequences.

Such a rule would serve to protect missile troops (since you would still have to fire at the closest target which will be the prone guys) and would probably encourage static play. In my opinion that does not make the game more fun.

/Andreas

[Anomander_Rake]

As the game should be balanced and stay this way, adding a Special Ability or Rule like firing over friendly troops (not friendly fire ) there should be some counterrule or ability to rebalance it again.

It could be that archers would have more rights to search for legal targets, but as I read the rules anywhere on the board outside of 12inch range the archers can target any warband, so they could still fire at the archers behind the swordsmen as long as they swordsmen aren't within 12 inches from them.

By the way, when my absolutely powerful SOK Slingers are standing behind my Warhounds...can they fire over them? Will the hounds give them soft cover in return?

just my two cents...

Anomander Rake

[Morfdoggs]

Morf, one way of doing the screening of archers using the current rules would be to have the swordsmen spread out and create gaps that the archers could fire through.


/Andreas

That is about what I have been doing, just always thought the idea sounded good.