Re: (TFT) Jousting

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

You are absolutely right about not attacking horses. I sort of assumed that as self-evident but you're right it's not and should be included in the rules. It would be unvelievably unchivalrous for a Knight to attack a horse.

As for forcing plate armor, I prefer to leave that up to the combatants as part of their strategy. They do, after all, have a Dex advantage with lighter armor. Half of 22 average damage of a full lance charge is only 11, which when dropped to 7 with only chainmail and shield isn't lethal unless some combat's already gone on. You're right, though, in that I have had several knights die in play...one brutal lance charge did 34 damage before being halved, and the chain and shield of the target only reduced that to 13 after being halved, resulting in the instant death of the 11 strength knight.

Now, all that said, I've found in playing out the joust that in truth it's fairly easy to control that brutal 6+2 potential lance charge. Due to the barrier, you can position yourself in such a way that it's impossible for your opponent to get a perfect strike on you, and the best he can do is a "jab" with his lance for 3+1. So if you are a cowardly cur you can ensure your survival despite light armor. 

Such excercises in "strategy" would be disappointing to the spectators, however, who I am sure prefer two Knights armed with lances just going at each other with 6+2 charges. Now that is valiant, and the victor of such a charge would certainly be a fan favorite!

--- On Thu, 8/21/08, Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu> wrote:

> From: Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>
> Subject: Re: (TFT) Jousting
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 11:05 AM
> At 13:36 -0400 8/21/08, TFT Digest wrote:
> >(I've been fooling around with simulating medieval
> tilting, and have 
> >come up with the following system. I'm not sure if
> the map will 
> >format properly...hopefully it will come out if you
> read it in plain 
> >text mode. If the map works, I can post a sample joust
> to 
> >demonstrate how the system works in practice)
> 
> This sounds fun.
> 
> Can we add a provision that attacking the horse also means
> a forfeit 
> due to loss of honor? I think that's historical, and
> would seem like 
> a good idea. (Or maybe this is implicit, and I'm
> obviously a villain 
> for even bringing it up ;-) .)
> 
> However, with a lance, even half of double damage is still
> going to 
> hurt. I'd say either fine plate and shields are
> required or lances 
> are prohibited (have to go down to halberds or lesser
> weapons) if you 
> want to avoid some accidental fatalities. If requiring
> armor, that 
> puts quite a load on the horse and makes the idea of
> prohibiting 
> attacks on the horse even more important, so the jouster
> can leave 
> his barding at home as well.
> -- 
> 						- Mark     210-379-4635
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