Re: (TFT) Shield Wall - Defence bonus or armor?

[David Bofinger <bofinger.david@gmail.com>]

Expert warriors definitely used shield walls. In fact the ability to make a
solid shield wall was a test of military professionalism - militia couldn't
do it as well so they were vulnerable. Shield walls were used by Greeks,
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings at least. They went out of popularity by the
high mediaeval but I think that's driven by armour getting so good you
needed two hands on a weapon to have a chance of penetrating.

The large shield walls of battles are of limited interest to TFT. We want
to model the smaller ad hoc formations that three to five soldiers could
make.

---
David
On 14/02/2015 12:24 PM, "gem6868" <gem6868@verizon.net> wrote:

> I think you need to recognize the purpose and role it plays.  When and
> where is a shieldwall used?  For mediocre troops or troops with mediocre
> armor to get better defense when deployed in large groups.  Well-armored
> and trained troops didn't really use it, or not in a way that makes us sa
y
> "shieldwall" anyway.
>
> In any event, overlapping shields seems to me to be a case for a Dex
> penalty - it makes people harder to hit like they're behind a wall.  But 
if
> one does see and exploit an opening, the soft bits behind the shields are
> relatively easy to wound.
>
> -----Original Message----- From: David Bofinger
> Sent: Friday, February 13, 2015 7:17 PM
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Subject: Re: (TFT) Shield Wall - Defence bonus or armor?
>
> I think the idea that shields, shield walls, main-gauche, fencing skill,
> etc.. all provide DX mods rather than damage reduction is a good one. A f
ew
> thoughts:
>
> * Rather than a e.g. +7 mod I'd rather see attackers rolling a couple of
> extra dice.
> * You can't block a giant's club with a main-gauche. Nor probably even wi
th
> a buckler. I'm not sure how to handle that, there's a few ways.
> * If you are using parry rolls then maybe giving bonuses to those makes
> more sense. But I'm not fond of parry rolls.
>
> ---
> David
>
>
>
> On 14 February 2015 at 10:36, Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca> wrote:
>
>  Hi all,
>>   I've been thinking about the shield wall.
>>
>>   Do people think that a shield wall should give an armor bonus, or
>> make defenders behind the wall easier to hit?
>>
>>   I am leery about giving bigger bonuses to armor.  A PC with heavy
>> armor, a leather flesh or stone flesh item, a shield and a shield wall
>> bonus is going to be immune to light & medium weapons and largely
>> immune to heavier weapons.
>>
>>   Being immune to damage is pretty dull.  This makes me think that
>> the talent should give enemies a – DX to hit.
>>
>>   Anyway, I am polling the group.  What do people think?  If you do
>> not have strong feelings, or feel that your arguments have already
>> been made, simply weighing in and saying which one you
>> prefer would be appreciated.
>>
>>   Warm regards, Rick.
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