The Book of Cathar Spearmen

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

Do you know how spears work? It's a long pole. It's a thrusting weapon. It works best at long range. In close quarters, especially with a shield, it is cumbersome. That's why in real close battles a knife is favored over a sword; more maneuverability. (And it part why a Roman Gladius was such a great weapon in its time.

Did you skip the rest of the thread? Hmm? Cuz I'm pretty sure this is where the whole reality check came into play...

-Orc, noting this endless circle he seems to have gotten himself in.

[MegaSilver]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

Did you skip the rest of the thread? Hmm? Cuz I'm pretty sure this is where the whole reality check came into play...

-Orc, noting this endless circle he seems to have gotten himself in.

Yes, I have read the whole thread. And I cannot understand your argument here. I could completely understand if you had a problem with the Braced Spears % roll or their price, but having a problem with what makes a spear a spear doesn't make sense to me. You're trying to invert where the strength of a spear lies; at long distance. It's weaker and largely inefficient in melee. As to the sculpt itself, yeah the reach doesn't quite reach two spaces, but figures like Giants who should have reach don't, even if it's thematic for both.

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

Yes, I have read the whole thread. And I cannot understand your argument here. I could completely understand if you had a problem with the Braced Spears % roll or their price, but having a problem with what makes a spear a spear doesn't make sense to me. You're trying to invert where the strength of a spear lies; at long distance. It's weaker and largely inefficient in melee. As to the sculpt itself, yeah the reach doesn't quite reach two spaces, but figures like Giants who should have reach don't, even if it's thematic for both.

Well I believe I've stated before that I disliked other aspects of them. Many times, I believe. But I went from a different perspective than the other two times.

[caps]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

Did you skip the rest of the thread? Hmm? Cuz I'm pretty sure this is where the whole reality check came into play...

-Orc, noting this endless circle he seems to have gotten himself in.

You proposed that it would be better for them to get extra attack in melee because spears are traditionally better when used at a distance?

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

You proposed that it would be better for them to get extra attack in melee because spears are traditionally better when used at a distance?

Bracing the spear is used when someone "runs into" you. Impale is used to stab someone further away. If bracing logically hits him when he reaches your hex, which is what it does, then impaling would hit someone in the hex next to you. It wouldn't have an extra hex worth of distance.

[caps]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

Bracing the spear is used when someone "runs into" you. Impale is used to stab someone further away. If bracing logically hits him when he reaches your hex, which is what it does, then impaling would hit someone in the hex next to you. It wouldn't have an extra hex worth of distance.

You can't impale yourself on my braced spear just by standing at the tip of it. You have to bring yourself close enough to me that your movement propels you on to the tip of my spear. So Braced Spear doesn't trigger when you are away from me, but it triggers as you move from the tip of my spear to be standing beside me. Heroscape doesn't offer any "in between two spaces" state, so in mechanical terms the power triggers after you are already on the adjacent space.

Impale, meanwhile, is the simplest way to implement the desired theme/mechanic in the Heroscape ruleset. If it makes you feel better, you could think of it as something along the lines of a base attack of 3 with text of:

UNWIELDY
When a Cathar Spearman attacks an adjacent figure, subtract one from their attack dice.

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

Bracing the spear is used when someone "runs into" you. Impale is used to stab someone further away. If bracing logically hits him when he reaches your hex, which is what it does, then impaling would hit someone in the hex next to you. It wouldn't have an extra hex worth of distance.

Now you're just making stuff up

Bracing is used when someone runs into the space adjacent to you. If bracing logically hits them as they reach an adjacent space, then there's no extra distance involved to impale them in the prior space.

~Aldin, mathamagically challenged

[caps]

Personally, the "bonding squads are great against them" argument falls really flat for me, since almost all of my favorite melee squads don't bond.

That said, I like playing with the Cathars and I feel much better about using them than about using a figure like Q9 or the 4th Mass.