Repelling charges

[bluejay]

Hi all, I've read through the mounted combat rules in Horse Lords of Rohan a couple of times but I'm wondering whether charges have perhaps been oversimplified.

At the moment, if you are on foot and being charged your only chance to fight back is to fire volleys of arrows/spears. That makes a lot of sense with human-sized characters but what if it's a bigger opponent like a troll or a dragon? Would people allow opponents with ranged effects to use them (dragon breath weapons, Nazgul powers, etc)?

[bluejay]

Oh and also I would definitely avoid getting into charging competitions with some of the opponents in the book.

Wulfling riders have a Movement of 3, favoured with Attribute level of 6
Orcish wolf riders have a Movement of 3, favoured with Attribute level of 4.

That means on average they are rolling more than a hero with 4 dice in Athletics!

[Otaku-sempai]

There is no provision for a charge being met with a line of grounded great spears, or any similar defense? That seems curious.

[zedturtle]

There is no provision for a charge being met with a line of grounded great spears, or any similar defense? That seems curious.

I wouldn't be shocked if we got rules for something like that when we encounter folks that have good military organization and are used to fighting mounted opponents, i.e. Gondor. The folk of Wilderland are essentially skirmishers in a battle and Rohan's response to a charge is a counter-charge.

[Kullervo]

I think that sort of stuff would fall more under stances - new action for defensive stance perhaps? Though, its kind of specialized since not everyone has greatspears, or even access to them. On that note, I just hope that Adventurer's Companion introduces more stance tasks and called shots...

[Rich H]

There is no provision for a charge being met with a line of grounded great spears, or any similar defense? That seems curious.

I wouldn't be shocked if we got rules for something like that when we encounter folks that have good military organization and are used to fighting mounted opponents, i.e. Gondor. The folk of Wilderland are essentially skirmishers in a battle and Rohan's response to a charge is a counter-charge.

I think this is a really good point and why house rule additions should be approached with caution as you could create something that later impacts on a rule of even a race/role ability further down the line.

[zedturtle]

I think this is a really good point and why house rule additions should be approached with caution as you could create something that later impacts on a rule of even a race/role ability further down the line.

Yes. But I don't think that should stop Loremasters from making spot rulings... if there's a bunch of heroes/NPCs and everyone's got a Great Spear and they're all huddled in a group, then maybe everyone gets to make a TN 14 Weapon test and if everyone succeeds then the charge is broken up and regular hand-to-hand occurs.

But the players need to know that was a spot ruling to cover a one-time situation, and that things might change in the future.

[Glorelendil]

We're also going to need to add Jousting to tournaments, clearly.

[zedturtle]

We're also going to need to add Jousting to tournaments, clearly.

That reminds me of the good ole days at the game store... we'd do Squig racing, jousting tournaments, arena battles and goblin golf.

More seriously, that does seem like something the Knights of Dol Amroth might go for.

[aramis]

We're also going to need to add Jousting to tournaments, clearly.

That's just 1-on-1 charges until someone falls off.