Spears: King of the Battlefield

[Damond]

Having poured over the rulebook, done a little math, and played my first game I have made a terrible realization. I am ready to shave my beard and never gaze fondly at gold again because it is the sickening fact that dwarves (and no one else for that matter) have any business wielding anything other than spears. No axes, nor great axes. No hammers, nor picks, not even a mug of ale to bash the nasty goblins over the head with. This comes down to the small, almost footnote like mention that spears can be thrown in the exchange of missiles phase of combat. This effectively doubles the attacks that a spear armed unit can make in a melee and shadows all other weapons in the game. It works out something like this:
Imagine 10 troops with an Acc and Str of 5 (those are Low Beastmen actually and a candidate for the best troops in the game). You can equip them with swords/axes to get that +1 Str/+1Sv or spears +1Sv. In the first example a unit of 10 would get on average 6 hits on the enemy in a melee. Sometimes more sometimes less but overall it will fall right around 5 hits. When you look at the spears you will get an average 5 hits during the exchange missiles phase and another 5 hits during the melee phase for an average of 10 per melee and superior to the 6 hits of an axe. This doesn’t even factor in that the enemies that fall in the exchange of missiles are removed and their attacks are lost before melee which gives spears an even greater edge.
I’m curious if this was intended or is an unforeseen factor when translating the rules from its more shootie roots. I am at the moment rubbing the signature of Rick in my rulebook seeing if I can commune with him and find a way to bring the axes back to the dwarves.

[Stuart McGovern]

There should be a option, that you can only throw spears once per game, not every charge, but they would need a backup weapon if they did like archers have,

[InSoc]

That’s how we have been playing here, that you can throw them once and then they’re gone. So backup weapon is needed.

[Derek Dahmes]

Same, though we mark the center of the combat with a special token indicating spears were thrown. If the unit who threw them wins the combat and still occupies the ground (a model within 1″ of token) then the unit can recover their spears. We have a couple other house rules involving spears, including ones that interact with other house rules. You know how it goes! 😉

[InSoc]

That’s actually good idea. To give opportunity to recover thrown spear. Maybe to make it even more simpler by having the unit to make singe roll of agi or ini after combat to be able to recover thrown spears?

[Mark Lewis]

The numbers in your analysis are slightly out, in that you get -1 to hit in exchange of missiles, so you would expect to get 4 hits rather than 5.
Also, if the opponent charges you it is probably best for them to sprint into combat so you re-roll hits in the exhange of missiles.
But you are correct in that spears are better than swords for no extra cost, if the intention is that they can be used every combat. It doesn’t seem to make sense that they can be thrown and then used in the same combat as a melee weapon, so we really could do with an official ruling on this.

[Don Delis]

I agree with Mark. Spear throwing should be a one shot deal. Unless the thrower figure has a backup figure behind him to pass spears on. I have not received my book yet but, I think Rick was thinking along the line of a Roman philum.

[Author]

Posts