shield mechanics
 

how does this work. specifically, i was looking at ulmish black plate with tower shields.

if the shield is protection 20, and the armor is protection 22, how do you ever hurt this unit in melee? does a melee strike have to get through the shield and the armor?

if anyone tries to explain this, please dumb it down


because i am dumb

Shield parry adds to defence. Imagine a unit with 10 base defence. If a shield adds 4 parry the unit's information will say 14 defence. Any attacks that land at 11 to 14 will have to get through the shield's protection as well as the armor's. 15 attack and above only has to deal with the armor.

I think armor piercing attack halfs the shield's protection as well, which makes shields much less effective against such attacks.

The way random rolls are made works a bit different though and saying "11 to 14 as a result" is a gross simplification, but it serves well for illustrating the situation.

Re: shield mechanics
 

What about arrows, please? Assume parry irrelevant, do arrows always have to by-pass shield protection??

Re: shield mechanics
 

dont know the mechanics, but i find that tower shielded ulm troops are virtually impervious to conventional arrow fire

Re: shield mechanics
 

It's actually shield protection that's irrelevant when dealing with projectiles.

For an arrow to hit someone with a shield it needs to beat the shield's parry in a straight DRN roll, which for a 4 parry shield is equivalent to an attack 10 unit attacking a defence 14 target. The protection of the shield doesn't matter, if the attack doesn't beat the parry roll the target takes no damage.

Magical arrows get +2 to the roll to beat shield parry.

Re: shield mechanics
 

Wow! I thought the rule was that protection was what counted with arrows, while defence is melee-only and ignored. And I thought parry was part of defence. What you're saying (and I'm sure you're right!) is that it's the other way round for shields :eek: Why is it that way?

Re: shield mechanics
 

I figured it is because large shields are supposed to block more than small ones.

It is a bit funny now because a shield blocks a stone thrown by markata as well as it blocks a crossbow bolt.