These rules are made by myself, Personally I think they look cool and could add much tactical debht to the game. I will appreciate all sorts off criticism. please do not repeat that the rules are to complicated, they are made so that experienced players can have more fun. Personaly I think it would be cool if GW could announce a rule section (Very advanced rule section) that contains rules similar to these. I hope you all like them and may enjoy trying some of them out. any play test feedback will be highly appreciated. Thanks


PHALANX:

This rule is made to represent the huge advantage a phalanx has on the battlefield.

A warrior armed with a spear or a pike being in base contact with at least three other friendly spear/pike armed warriors are considered to be a Phalanx-fighter. If a Phalanx-fighter is in combat he may roll a D6 before the combat is resolved to see if the Phalanx-fighter(s) are able to push back their enemies.

• Add one for each Fv the Phalanx-fighter has.
• Deduct one for each Fv the enemy has.
• Add one for each Phalanx-fighter in the fight.
• Deduct one for each enemy in the fight,
• Add one if all the enemies are cavalry.
• Deduct one if one or more enemies have a two-handed weapon (he can use his large weapon to fend off the spears/pikes of his enemies).

If the final score is 1, 2, 3 or 4 everything is fine and the combat is resolved normally, but if it is 5 or 6 the enemy counts as having lost the fight. It is important to roll separate dices for each enemy. If both sides have phalanx-fighters in the same fight, both sides roll to “chase” and to wound simultaneously.
Warriors fighting with a two-handed weapon do not get their usual -1 penalty when fighting a Phalanx-fighter for reasons I have already mentioned.

SHIELD WALL:

A shield armed warrior on foot touching at least two other shield armed warriors on foot are considered to be a Shield-Wall-fighter.
A Shield-Wall-fighter adds 1 to his defence value assuming that his comrade’s shield is protecting him. In addition, a Shield-Wall-fighter may attempt to push his opponent if he wins a fight. If a Shield-Wall-fighter wins a fight he may roll a D6.
• Add 1 for each Sv the Shield-Wall-fighter has.
• Deduct 1 for each Sv the enemy has.
• Add 1 for each friend in the same combat.
• Add 1 for each friend supporting the Shield-Wall-fighter via spear or pike. (they are all lending their weight to the struggle)
• Deduct 1 for each enemy that supports the enemy via spear or pike (they are all lending their weight to the struggle).
• Deduct 1 if one or more enemies are cavalry models. (Note that the enemy may use the strength of his mount).
If the final result is 1 or 2 everything is fine and works as normal. If the final result is 3, 4, 5 or 6 the enemy is pushed away 2”/4cm rather than the normal 1”/2cm. Note that other enemies only may back away 1”/2cm when making room.
If the enemy doesn’t want to back away for some reason, it is not his choice; it is the Shield-Wall-fighter’s.

CAVALRY:

Strike running: A cavalry model may run through an enemy’s control zone and strike him once without stopping. A rider that rides through an enemy control zone (he is not allowed to change direction whilst in a control zone) may strike once at each enemy he passes in this way. If the roll to wound is failed he must roll a halt-roll. If this roll is a 1 or a 2 the cavalry model halts and must fight his enemy without his charging bonuses (He didn’t charge, he was stopped). The rider may only strike once at each enemy. Note that the enemies’ control zones may be overlapping; it is not possible to change direction while in any control zone, this will often mean that the rider must run in one direction all the time. It is possible to run through a control zone, strike and run further to charge another opponent, run through another enemies control zone and strike him or even turn around and strike the same enemy again. Expert riders are only stopped if the halt-roll is a 1.

ARCHERS:

Point blank: If you are shooting at a target within 6”/14cm you may re-roll any misses, never more than once off course. In addition you get 1+ on the wound chart. This is to represent that it is very easy to hit a close target and the victim will be struck harder than normal due to the short range. This rule does not apply to throwing weapons.

Flaming arrows: Archers that has not moved at all within 6”/14cm of a hero may fire flaming arrows. (We are assuming that the hero gives the order). When firing flaming arrows you get -1 on the roll to hit and a 3”/6cm range penalty. Everybody still needs a 6 to hit with volley fire.
Flaming arrows gives the shoot +1 to its normal strength value; in addition, the victim must pass a courage test, exactly like if he were hit by severed heads.
Flaming arrows may only be used by: High elves, uruk-hai, orcs, men of gondor, men of rohan, easterlings, dwarves, and corsairs.
Flaming arrows may not be used for crossbows or throwing weapons or by mounted warriors.

I like the cavalry's strike running rule - it really reflects how cavalry should act in battle. Running down their foes with ease (charge of the rohirrim is a good example of this).

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[url=http://one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&p=298502#p298502]Corsair's WIP Thread - 03 Dec 12 Update[/url]

I disagree, you aren't running anybody down, you are riding along their lines, whacking. Tactically it wouldn't make much sense anymore to charge, because statistically you'd get far more wound dice this way, especially if you're from Rohan. And the defender has to just take the hit? No fight roll?

If cavalry could do this they'd have to cost a *lot* more, like double.

I like the shield wall idea of +1D if you're in an unflanked line and both your neighbors have shields, but I'd leave it as that simple. I always thought the value of shields in reality was underrated in the game.

What if we rolled the halt dice before rolling to wound?

Would this make it balanced enough?

Note that the cavalry model may not use any charge bonuses while moving in this way.

Not remotely. A Rider of Rohan has only a 16% chance of being stopped at each enemy model. I think that translates to an average of *5* free wound rolls charging across a line.

Not that I don't think cavalry are underpowered in the game, RoR particularly. But if you improve them they have to cost more.

off course. that is one of the reasons why I asked people to playtest the rules, to see how much more things have to cost.
And maybe we can change the halt dice from 2- fails, to 3- fails, 2- for expert riders off course. I am not trying to bargain with you, I just want things to be fair AND realistic as well as adding tactical options.

on the other hand, almost everything is improved in these "rules" too. so may it almost makes up for it.

Phalanx and Shield Wall. Way to complicated and long winded, will never work, no way can you do those calculations after every fight and the outcome is just to push an enemy back a further 1" this probably wouldn't even make a difference. What do you do if the fighting models are armed with both spear and shield so they are both phalanx and shield wall, thats a lot of extra calculations.

Cavalry. Maybe something could be done, but the rules work fine as is. Fight foot 1 on 1 and the cav should win the fight, charge into a block of infantry and the cav will probably lose - just like real life.

Archers. No way, archers are already good enough, the rules would seriously unbalance them, especially elves hitting on 2+ and wounding on 4+. Once at this sort of close range archers are probably more distracted by a sword heading towards their head than shooting accurately, realistically archers would be drawing close combat weapons or running away at this point and not shooting at all.

Despite what hollywood shows you, fire arrows were not used in normal battle. A flamming arrows has reduced accuracy and range and therefore velocity and mass and will do less damage than normal. The arrow may not even be able to pierce armour thanks to the wadding around its tip.

First of all I must thank you for commenting all aspects my opening post.

Shield wall/Phalanx:
Yes it is complicated, but not neceserely long winded, becouse in when you have first calculated 1 dice, the rest is pretty easy, you will find that it is mostly the numbers that variates and that there is therefore relatively easy and quick to spot the differences from the previos fight. Heroes are notable exeptions. The reason for pushing the enemy back one more inch, is to either push him away from somewhere important, push him down to his death, but in most cases to trap with his own comrades which are only alawed to back away normally (the trapping thing should have been stated clearer in the rules). Andas you can see there is no problem in being both a P-fighter and a SW-fighter as the phalanx rule is used beofre combat and the shield rule is used after combat.

Archers:
How about taking a couragetest before shoting at close range, even 1/6 off all elves will fail this test?

I didn't know that, so thanks for pointing it out. what to you think about half range, and one LESS strenght. it is the courage test that is important. Eventually making a special courage test or allaw stand fast!

They look like well thought out and considered rules, but it does entirely defeat the point of the Strategy Battle Game. It's not meant to have incessantly complicated rules which then force you into tactics-through it's simplicity, it encourages using thought and careful strategem to devise complex tactics from the simple rules, not the other way round. My personal opinion is that if you need more complicated rules to make the game complicated, you either need new opponents or are playing the game badly yourself. This isn't meant as a judgement on your generalship, merely an observation based on what the SBG is and the tactics it encompasses.

In addition, Shield Walls and Phalanxs are already fully viable and effective tactics within the current ruleset without use of special rules- a prime example of tactics from the rules, instead of rules enforcing tactics. For example, if I wish to hold an enemy cavalry charge with my front line, I may shield with all my front line Shieldmen to allow me to soften the blow of the charge, before countering. Likewise, the charge of cavalry itself fully represents the impact of an individual cavalry trooper within the skirmish scale of the SBG. And again, Phalanx formations are simply created through the attack-stack system, reducing the impact of a charging enemy as they would in real life by effectively negating bonus attacks for charging in the case of cavalry, and forcing them to engage one-on-many in the case of infantry.

My final point is that the main object of your rules seem to be to allow models to fight in formation. Remember, this is a skirmish game. Yes, you are free to make use of formations, but within the system they are fluid and changing, and shouldn't be forced into rigid shapes by the rules. That is what the mass combat system provided by War of the Ring is for. SBG=Skirmish. WotR=Mass Battle. Mass Battle is the optimum place for formation rules, and they have them. Therefore, to my mind, such rulesets within the SBG defeat the point of the skirmish system.

Like I said, they do seem well thought out rules, but I still debate their utility within the current system, and the 'need' for any such rules to make the game advanced.

Just my tuppence.

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lotrchampion

You have convinced me. I think I will need new opponents though, as those I am currently playing against really suck. They always just charge head on with a regular duble line

Hehe, you know things are bad when all your opponent adopt that tactic.

Do you have a local gaming store or club? If so, even if there aren't any current LotR players, WotR is attracted interest from all corners of GW's gaming community, and that interest can also be channelled to the SBG. They're getting some models to start a WotR force-awesome, while they build their forces, show them how to use their smaller forces for the SBG. Get them playing a few scenarios from the Journey Books, and then playing some army-based scenarios from the ORB or LoME. Soon enough, you'll have some new opponents, you'll have brought new people to LotR, and of course have made some new friends. All bonuses!

Anyway, I'm diverting off topic somewhat now, so I'll leave it at that.

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lotrchampion