Re: Qm said
The current system is the trampler does 10 + (2xsize) of armor piercing damage to every unit in the square it "tramples". Actually, the defender gets to escape if they beat a defense check vs. 10 with fatigue penalties to their defense, but absolutely must take at least 1 point of damage no matter what. Assuming units have a defense of 10 (which is the game's baseline), they'll get trampled roughly half the time. And with an elephant trampling, thats 22 ap damage, which is death for most infantry.
Beyond the game imbalances that such a system imposes, it just doesn't makes sense to me that a unit can ignore a wall of spears (the most effective military formation through out ancient history) and attack with impunity. And I see Length 6 weapons as being as long as an elephant itself. 3% may be a bit low, but it still makes sense and makes the system very workable.
I considered making the defenders pass a morale check to see if they'd stay "in formation" (including a "chicken game" check where whoever rolled the lower morale would "flinch" and loose, but the reward for the trampler winning was being impaled upon the sticks, so no good there), but ultimately I decided such systems were too complicated with out providing a real improvement for the gameplay. As for fatigue, how would you calculate the fatigue distribution over multiple units? And for that matter, does the defending unit being tired somehow make a row of spears seem less intimidating? No, fatigue will still come in play when a trampled defender attempts their "attack of opportunity" while being trampled.
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