Constructing a Better Fortress Door

[AliasQTip]

We all know the castle door is too strong, almost indestructible. I feel a modification is necessary. I’d like to use this thread to brainstorm ideas for constructing a new (alternate) Fortress Door card. I intend on using the finalized door in my Esienwein Castle/Graveyard map I’m currently working on, however I’d like to make it serviceable enough to be used in everyday non-scenario specific play.

Here’s the current Army Card:

Life: 10
Defense: 4

Reinforced Defense
When rolling defense dice against a normal attack from small or medium figures, add 2 automatic shields to whatever is rolled. When rolling defense dice from a normal attack from large and huge figures, add 1 automatic shield to whatever is rolled.

So what are your ideas? How can we make this better?

[Warlord Alpha]

Excellent. It is about time this happened.

Funnily enough, the other night some friends and I were kind of experimenting with destroying/interacting with things like battlements. We played that the battlements had one automatic defense (two automatic from range), had one life, but didn't roll dice or have any other abilities besides that. If you got 2 skulls adjacent or 3 from range, the battlement was gone.

I think that a concept like that could work well for the fortress door. I say that one automatic shield adjacent, two from range, and say like 4 or 5 life would be much improved from its current near-indestructible state.

[Pickledpie]

Maybe taking away Reinforced Defense, and then giving it 5 defense. The special seems like it's more there to take up space, and 5 defense makes a little more sense. I mean, a squad figure with a sword can defend better than a huge castle door?

[Brewster]

I think the door's defense should be constant. It's not like you can catch a door on a bad day. it should roll 0 defense, have 1 or 2 automatic shields against everything, and 5 lives.

EDIT: By the way, that Cyprien's Castle scenario is amazing! I'd make that an official scenario if I had the authority.

I'm hoping you make instructions to build it.

[Shedim Kabal]

What about...

Life 10
Defense 2

Ancient Oak
When rolling defense, if the Fortress Door rolls a shield, the most wounds the Fortress Door can receive from that attack is one.

Reinforced
Against non-adjacent normal attacks, the Fortress Door has no visible hit zones.

[Warlord Alpha]

Originally Posted by Brewster

I think the door's defense should be constant. It's not like you can catch a door on a bad day.

That gives me another idea. What if this was the fortress door's card:

Originally Posted by Potential Card

Life: 15 (or some similar very high number)
Defense: 0

Just keep hitting it until you finally break it down. Pretty realistic, actually. Somebody like Jotun does loads of damage to it, a squad can just rain blows on it until it goes down, and a single figure attacking it won't be very effective.

Alternately,

Originally Posted by Potential Card #2

Life: 10
Defense: 0

Reinforced: The most wounds the Fortress Door can take from any attack is one.

By altering the number of lives the door has, you can fine-tune the number of attacks/turns it takes for an attacker to break down the door.

And here is my original idea, which I still really like:

Originally Posted by Potential Card #3

Life: 5 (or so)
Defense: 0

(good name): The Fortress Door rolls(?) one automatic shield against adjacent attacks and 2 automatic shields against non-adjacent attacks.

Only issue with that one is that a heavy hitter like Jotun has a good chance to knock the door down in one hit.

Originally Posted by Potential Card #4

Life: 5 (or so)
Defense: 0

(good name): The Fortress Door rolls(?) one automatic shield against adjacent attacks and 2 automatic shields against non-adjacent attacks.

Perfect Workmanship (or some other name that conveys how the door has no weak points): The most wounds the Fortress Door can take from an attack is (2 or 3)

Because the door was well-made and has no weak points, it needs to be attacked at least two or three times for it to die.

So, #1 is realism.
With #2, you can basically guarantee that the door will die in about X number of turns.
With #3, there is the potential for a lot of variance in how long it takes for the door to die, largely based on what figures are used to attack the door.
With #4, Much less variable than #3 because you are setting a minimum. Sure, it could take a while if the attack rolls are pitiful, but you know for a fact that it will take at least 2 or 3 turns depending on what you set the life at.

______________________________________________________________________


EDIT: Yeah, seeing as my #1 is the most realistic, I should include the part about ranged attacks:

Originally Posted by Potential Card #1

Life: 15 (or some similar very high number)
Defense: 0

(needs a name): Against any non-adjacent attack the Fortress Door rolls(?) one automatic shield.

And I might as well add it to #2 so that all of mine have it. I just really want to force people to rush up and destroy the door rather than sit back like girls and shoot at it until it dies.

Originally Posted by Potential Card #2

Life: 10
Defense: 0

Reinforced: The most wounds the Fortress Door can take from any attack is one.

(needs a name): Against any non-adjacent attack the Fortress Door rolls(?) one automatic shield.

[Brewster]

I like all those ideas, but I'd put my vote on a #1 variant. Nothing should be able to just blast through a door in 1 hit, but that doesn't mean that nothing should be doing damage to it.

I just say give it 0 defense and a good amount of lives so it takes at least 2 hits with the strongest things, or multiple hits with weaker things. I think 10 men, even if it's just puny ashigaru, should be able to break down a door with a few rams.

So my fave life limit is looking like 15-20

Originally Posted by Shedim Kabal

Reinforced
Against non-adjacent normal attacks, the Fortress Door has no visible hit zones.

You don't need hitzones to attack for adjacent attacks, so you could just say the fortress door has no hitzone for normal attacks.

[Pickledpie]

Originally Posted by Brewster

I like all those ideas, but I'd put my vote on a #1 variant. Nothing should be able to just blast through a door in 1 hit, but that doesn't mean that nothing should be doing damage to it.

I just say give it 0 defense and a good amount of lives so it takes at least 2 hits with the strongest things, or multiple hits with weaker things. I think 10 men, even if it's just puny ashigaru, should be able to break down a door with a few rams.

So my fave life limit is looking like 15-20

You don't need hitzones to attack for adjacent attacks, so you could just say the fortress door has no hitzone for normal attacks.

I would think including special attacks would make sense.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

If realism is coming into account, how can an arrow, even if the attacker is throwing say 4 dice, break down a door?

If the automatic shields are removed, maybe the door should only be able to be hit by adjacent attacks.

[Agent Minivann]

Here's my take:
Life: 4
Defense: 4

Reinforced
All wounds inflicted on the Fortress Door are divided by two, rounded down.

In essence you have to inflict wounds in twos for them to count, and 8 wounds kills it. Jotun could kill it in a single all skull, no shield attack. It will still usually take a few turns to kill it, but it is a lot more likely than the current door. It could even have a line about squad figures' attacks being divided by 3 to prevent loading up on squad figures just to attack the door. It seems more like a job for hard hitting heroes to me.

[Shedim Kabal]

I wonder if allowing figures to roll the d20 to see if they can pick the lock is workable? Have it trapped like a treasure glyph... Very DnD.

Life 4
Defense 4

The Druid's Gift
After each round, remove one wound marker from the Fortress Door card.

Reinforced
Figures must be adjacent to the Fortress Door to attack it with a normal attack.

Witherwood
When rolling defense dice against a normal attack, all excess shields count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.

[Brewster]

Originally Posted by Raudulfr Shieldcrusher

If realism is coming into account, how can an arrow, even if the attacker is throwing say 4 dice, break down a door?

If the automatic shields are removed, maybe the door should only be able to be hit by adjacent attacks.

That is a very good point, But think about the other ranged things we have besides arrows. Guns, Crazy Marro blasters, Future guns. A wooden Door wouldn't be invincible to a hail of bullets, especially if they're fiery future bullets of death.
It'd go down eventually.