Re: (TFT) Turbo-destriers?

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

Did some more reading and thinking about this.


Option a): The discussion under "Continuing Spells", AW p. 7, makes 
it sound like one could cast Speed on a 2-hex creature just by 
doubling the cost (both to cast and to maintain). I note, however, 
the distinction for creation spells, where a multi-hex version is a 
whole different (but closely related) spell.

Re: training the horse - I might rule that the horse can go faster 
magically with no special training, but the *rider* would have to be 
an Expert Horseman and would require training to avoid falling off 
(else would have to make a 3/DX roll each turn, or fall off).

Option b): Had another thought on the old saw about "lead a horse to 
water....". I think if one used the "Control Animal" spell, one 
actually *would* be able to make the horse drink, so administering 
the potion should be do-able.

At 21:58 -0500 2/19/04, Dan Tulloh wrote:
> I could see a double-strength dose, but not a double dose (as in two doses).
> To me, this falls in the same category as having two Blur spells active at
> the same time.

It would seem reasonable to require development of a new potion.

Option c): Discussion on AW p. 31 is pretty helpful, once I found it. 
I'm now pretty confident a plain double- (or triple-) sized speed 
item would not work, because a horse could not be trained to "know 
what it is" in order to activate it.  However .....

Option c1): it says first that most items will work for "ANYONE who 
wears or carries it - including an animal ..." so I think the 
self-powered version ought to be OK. Again, though, I'd say the rider 
will need training to stay on board.

Application notes:
	Of the options, the potion and the self-powered item are the 
only ones I consider really useful. A warhorse is *already* faster 
than almost anything else on the battlefield, so the micro-tactical 
advantages are already there. However having a squadron of horsemen 
who can *sustain* high speed movement could be invaluable in flanking 
maneuvers, exploiting salients, quick reinforcements in critical 
areas, etc. That's where I see the real utility of accelerating 
horses to be.
	I agree about the physics; kinetic energy = 1/2 m v^2, so 
double the speed -> 4 times the damage. I'd prefer to forego this for 
play balance.

At 21:58 -0500 2/19/04, Stan wrote:
>  A non-activating/no ST item...possible, I imagine, but rather 
> costly.  Don't make it a horeshoe, horeshoes wear out far too fast 
> and get lost far too often.

Yeah, horseshoe has few advantages (not too noticeable is the only 
one I can think of) and many disadvantages. The item should be 
something like ribbons for the mane, or something similar that the 
rider can quickly take (and use to retreat rapidly) if the horse is 
killed on the field of battle.

At 21:58 -0500 2/19/04, Erol wrote:
> Rather, the expense is due to "standard" speed
> movement items costing 2 St to use IMC, and reducing the St required to zero
> would increase the cost by 100x (10x to reduce to 1 St, 100x to 
> reduce to 0 St)

YIKE! AW p. 30 says "...If it powers itself at 2 ST/turn, it requires 
20 times as many wizards..." so I was pricing a 2-hex, self-powered 
Speed item at:

$1500 (speed) x 2 (hexes) x 20 (for 2 ST/turn) = $60,000

which is steep, but I'm willing to contemplate it for a small, elite 
squadron of knights. But if it's x 100 for 2 ST/turn, that puts it 
out of sight, at
$300,000. Making a warhorse 3 hexes also drives its price pretty high 
- $1500 x 3 x 30 (3 ST/turn) = $135,000 (and forget about it if 3 
ST/turn costs x 1000)!

Hm. For those that have more money than they know what to do with ....

Turbo-Elephants! MA 24-32, palanquin better have 5-point harnesses.

$1500 x 10 (hexes) x 100 (for 10 ST/turn) = $1,500,000.

Rah, Rah, Rajah!
--
					- Mark
			210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
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