(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #861

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

At 15:30 -0500 12/4/06, PvK wrote:
> * So why should any
> old figure get to use HTH as a way to shortcut the
> whole initiative system?
> I'd say it should not, and so I would advise just ignoring the idea of
> entering HTH during movement, and make it only be an action, because it
> solves these problems.

	Reasonable question. As a canon bigot, I tend to just shrug 
my shoulders and say "that's the way it was written!". I can offer a 
couple of rationalizations, though.

1) Xygor the elf left himself open. Had he been standing in the hex 
one south of hex 2, or one hex further back, or had the goblin had 
armor, the attack would not have worked (modulo Running talent). Had 
he had friends standing left and right of him, or walls, or whatever, 
the attack would not have worked. It's a somewhat unexpected attack, 
but one that Xygor needs to protect against. The specific example 
given really is an example of Xygor being careless, albeit one which 
would not have

2) It allows an unarmed character a lot better chance to contribute 
to a battle than he would otherwise have. (This is perhaps more 
"cinematic" than realistic.)

3) Pole weapons shortcut the DX-order system, so there's at least 
sort of precedent for short-cutting the normal order of 
movement/action.

4) Giving up any weapon but a Dagger or Main-Gauche (or cestus) 
really cripples the amount of damage your character can do, and 
unless there's some exchange, normally makes it a Bad Decision (TM). 
Making HTH more powerful makes this a bit more of an interesting 
decision, and interesting decisions are what make wargames fun (to 
me).

5) A combatant carrying nothing but a knife seems (to me) as though 
(s)he should be more agile than one with a sword, spear, javelin, 
etc. I can't see anything else in the rules that reflects that, other 
than the "flying tackle" rules (entering HTH during movement, if 
coming from behind/side).

	I admit, this takes a view of combat that says personality 
should be more important than hardware, because it does tend to 
enhance the utility of daggers compared to swords/spears.
--
                           Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer
                       (I haven't cleared my neighborhood)
                 210-379-4635 Dwarf Phone, 210-522-6025 Office Phone
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