(TFT) New TFT Talent: Shield Wall.

[Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi guys,
  I am adapting a new talent by Neil Gilmore for possible use in my 
campaign 
that I saw on the TFT mailing list and would like your thoughts.


IQ 8		Shield Wall (1) 	co-requisite shield.
If two figures with this talent have 'overlapping' front hexes, each may 
share
one point of their shield's damage protection.  If you have a man on 
each 
side of you, (each with this talent), you may get a point of protection 
from each.
'Overlapping' in this context means if the attack comes thru a shared 
front
hex OR if you are standing in the front hex of the man beside you who is 

part of the shield wall.


Some thoughts of my own.
-- Currently this protects only one hit per shield.  A more powerful 
(realistic?)
version would protect you the amount of the size of the shield (everyone 
must
carry the same shield size).   So if your shield wall had everyone 
carrying 
large shields, the man in the middle would get –4 damage from attacks 
thru
the front.

-- I think that most traditional shield walls (Roman, Greek, English 
around 1044),
etc. all used large shields.  This would suggest that either the shield 
has to be
at least that large to work, or the bonus is equal to the size of the 
shield (so there
is a strong incentive to got to larger shields.)

-- The careful definition of overlapping is so shield walls can be built 
along
alternate hex grains and so we don't have some people in the wall having 

more protection than others in the same wall.  Basically this is so 
shield walls
are not dominated by the hex grid.  This rule does mean that the wall 
can 
curve gently.  However, everyone ends up having to face the same way, 
you
can't make a shield wall out of six figures radiating out from a central 
hex. (Or
rather you can, but the wall is only half as effective and a everyone 
has one 
side hex exposed.)

-- In my campaign prerequisites are like spells, which grant you the 
lower level
spell at no memory cost.  Co-requisites are like talents where you have 
to pay
memory for the lower level talent.

-- I have agis shields in my campaign (which stop 3 hits) and tower 
shields 
(which stop more, depending on size).  This is why I am nervous about 
Neil's
original rule that adds the full value of the shield to both sides.  Do 
we want to
put a maximum of –2 hits taken in these rules to prevent shield walls 
from being
dominated by huge shields?

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