RE: Re: Setting Spears

From: Richard Sands <richard.sands_at_...>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 09:59:41 +0100


On Monday, July 03, 2000 10:41 PM, Henrix [SMTP:henrix_at_...] wrote:

> Setting a spear could perhaps be played as an unrelated action giving
the same
> augmentation from the horse's strength as the charger has in the next
exchange
> (provided of course that he is still charged). An ability test of
some sort
> would of course be necessary, if nothing else versus Spear combat -5.
(I am not
> certain it is a tactic really used anywhere in Glorantha.) Or perhaps
as a
> simple contest versus the charger's Ride skill.
>

As I posted previously, since the rider has to get past the spear point to do anything at all to the spearman, I don't feel that it works well as part of an extended contest. A more significant issue is whether the spearman is alone - if he is, then the rider simply manoeuvres around briefly until he beats the spear point or forces the spearman to unset it, and then he attacks - if not, then the rider's actual issue is with trying to make his horse charge a wall of spears. Historically, it was not the riders protecting their mounts that stopped cavalry riding over defensive infantry positions, but the mounts' own senses of preservation (there are a small number of documented cases of cavalry successfully destroying infantry squares/rounds because horses crashed into the spears and created a gap, either by weight of numbers pressing them forward or because they were ridden so hard their momentum carried them onto the spears).

What I really wanted to comment on though, was the statement that Gloranthans don't use this style of fighting... Since the Lunars and Sun Dome Temples field phalanxes and pikemen, it would be very bizarre if they didn't know the optimum use of their own weapons (especially since in the board game the SDT have a bonus defending). And since the nearest RW culture I know of to how I envision the Orlanthi were Scots hill clans, whose traditional defensive formation was a defensive round with set spears.

Richard
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