Re: (TFT) thrown weapons

[raito@raito.com]

Quoting gem6868 <gem6868@verizon.net>:
> Since thrown weapons are a "regular attack", you can move half and throw
> them, right?

Yep. 

> My experience with trying out a thrown weapon in Melee Arena Combat is that
> the low likelihood of a hit unless you are right on top of someone, combined
> with being close to them and having to switch weapons almost always gives
> them a free attack. 

Only if the combat is one on one. In many-on-many battles, it's 
different. As well, it's usually not a good idea to throw your only 
weapon, unless it ends the fight. So you're usually going to have 
something else in your hand, and the opponent doesn't get a free attack. 

> Historically, these heavy short-ranged weapons were
> considered pretty dangerous, especially in the hands of practiced users like
> Romans, Franks, et al. 

You may wish to re-visit that assumption. In those cases, the weapons 
were used as volley fire. There's far less doucmentation for their use 
in single combats. 

Which might lead to another question about how to resolve volley fire 
in TFT. The roll-to-miss mechanic is fine for aimed shots. But what 
about volleys? I'll just throw something out there, and you guys can 
point out how I haven't thought it through. 

Volley fire is unaimed missle fire. When an archer does volley fire, 
they choose the hex they're aiming at, and roll to hit. Failures are 
counted as normal, and there is no automatic hits, or doubled/tripled 
damage. If the combat roll succeds, the arrow strikes the hex that was 
aimed at. If the roll misses, then the missle lands a number of hexes 
away from the target hex equal to the number the roll missed by, in a 
direction determined by a D6, where 1 is along the nearest stright hex 
line from archer to target, proceeding clockwise. Any figure in a hex 
struck by volley fire must roll their DX on 3 dice to avoid being hit, 
-1 for every subsequent volly fire hit in the hex in that turn. 

Example: A the Archer makes a volley fire shot at T the Target in the 
target hex. If A makes his roll, T rolls to avoid getting hit. If O the 
Other Archer also happens to hit T's hex, T rolls DX-1 to miss. 

Thus, volley fire is inherently less accurate, but the arrow does fall 
somewhere with a chance to do damage. And remember, having the Missle 
Weapons Talent significantly changes how penalty for range is 
calculated. 

For my own experience, I know I can (used to) throw a pilum 20 yards or 
so and land it well within a hex. I also know that I can with a 50 lb 
bow (which is pretty weak for combat), land something like 75% of my 
shots into a space 15 feet across at 100 yds. without much practice at 
all. 

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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