Horned helmet

[quantum_mechani]

I use the horned helmet a fair amount, often you simply don't have any other decent helm options.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

However, while +5 fear affects more places, it doesn't have an equivalent +5 morale check. It simply goes from rolling against ten to rolling against 11. Not to be laughed at with the area increase, but its only one point jump for a morale check, not 5.

[djo]

The horned helmet is the Wyrm's favorite headgear. He's got good strength to boost the attack, good hp and regeneration to not care about the loss of defense, and he can wear two. Plus, with his lack of other body slots, it's the only way he can express his individuality through clothing.

[Jazzepi]

djo said:
The horned helmet is the Wyrm's favorite headgear. He's got good strength to boost the attack, good hp and regeneration to not care about the loss of defense, and he can wear two. Plus, with his lack of other body slots, it's the only way he can express his individuality through clothing.

I disagree. The wyrm wins battles almost exclusively through fear routing. Giving -2 defense just makes him that much easier to hit, and wound, especially when he's likely to get surrounded by smaller units. He also has issues with the 0 length letting him get repelled by everything.

Jazzepi

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Certainly, fear can win battles... but do you always want your opponent running? Sometimes you want defeat in detail.

As Agartha, or other no-cavalry races, lots of fear is pretty much a guarantee you'll see that army again soon enough, unless you can push forward NOW.

Let's check out the manual - it would be good for me to see the worm in practice with this setup, but I haven't tried it yet, so I'm a paper jockey.

"If the result is a hit, the attacker must make a morale check or abort his attack." Don't pretenders have 30 morale? Not quite 50, but more than enough to continue their attack.

So, the only consequences of being repelled is one point of damage taken by the attacker per attack, but the attack goes through anyways, so the short length shouldn't be a problem on a Wyrm. Besides, the worm attacks fewer times than his regen.

On the other hand, a unit gets a penalty to its defense for being swarmed, and apparently also gets a repel penalty each time it has been attacked, as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't tested it.

[Jazzepi]

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
Certainly, fear can win battles... but do you always want your opponent running? Sometimes you want defeat in detail.

As Agartha, or other no-cavalry races, lots of fear is pretty much a guarantee you'll see that army again soon enough, unless you can push forward NOW.

I can't imagine a battle I wouldn't want my opponent to route in. Routing is such a huge advantage for the attackers with the -4 to defense. Strategically it is better to win battles than lose battles. I would also like to note that you don't route the /entire/ opposing army at once with fear from the wurm pretender God, they route in squads. So it'd be great if you could route one squad of their main forces early in the battle with fear and split them off from the rest.

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
"If the result is a hit, the attacker must make a morale check or abort his attack." Don't pretenders have 30 morale? Not quite 50, but more than enough to continue their attack.

This isn't really important, with the 30 morale you're guaranteed to make the strike with your low length weapon, but that isn't the issue. The problem comes because when you have unit A attacking unit B and unit A has a shorter weapon (such as the horned helm) then they get hit by unit B during the repel attempt. This is just one more chance that you're going to have each round to get hit and one more chance to take a wound.

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
On the other hand, a unit gets a penalty to its defense for being swarmed, and apparently also gets a repel penalty each time it has been attacked, as well.

You're reading it wrong. The -2 repel applies to the defender with the longer weapon.

Really my issue with the helm, more than anything else, is the -2 to defense. I just think that the wurm can't handle getting hit anymore than it already does even with Awe. I know I wracked up 4 afflictions on my wurm in Starfall just by chewing through indies.

Jazzepi

[Micah]

Given the abysmal base 8 defense that Wyrms have the 2 points isn't going to make a whole heck of a lot of difference. Early game Wyrms survive combat through the awe/fear combo, regeneration, and a bit of natural protection. Their defense might save them from 1 attack out of the 20+ that will hit them if they're surrounded by size 2 units, which isn't at all a significant value.

The repel damage is also fairly insignificant, as the repel has to hit and penetrate the Wyrm's protection to matter, and even then it only does a single point of damage. The increased kill rate will generally be well worth the few points of damage, as it helps cause the assailants to rout and flee before they have a chance to kill it.