Whats the deal with hefalumps?

Started by Westmarcher, 09 November 2019, 09:42:02 PM

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FierceKitty

Alas, since gout turned up bacon has been off the menu for me.  :'(
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Ithoriel

I don't think you have your draught teams hitched up at that point. I think we're talking static defence not a mobile fortress. You park them where you expect the main enemy thrust.

Of course this is all conjecture. Despite the belief of some friends and family to the contrary, I am not actually old enough to have seen them in action :D

The pigs do seem to have been remarkably effective.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

Westmarcher

A couple of videos to add to this old topic featuring the types of war elephants the Carthaginians may have employed in battle, how they were used and how to counter them. Not being an Ancients player, I wonder how many Ancients rules include any of these specific counter measures. Another side issue that occurred to me was what were the ships like that were used to transport these animals by sea? Not quite an Ancients LCT equivalent but they must have been rather large.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

steve_holmes_11

I see some mention of treatment by rules.

I've been more a reader than a player of Ancients rules.
Treatment of elephants seems to follow two tracks.

WRG, and its followers, right up until including Hail Caesar, and including DBA / DBM.
Treat the elephant as a prime fighting unit, usually allow its deployment in units.
Penalise it against specific anti-elephant weapon systems, and advantage it against other mounted.
Special rules cover its morale effect, and what happens when your own elephants morale fails.
These often involve rather specific instructions for the direction and distance of the elephant's rampage.

More recent rules like To the strongest, and Spartans and Successors advance the concept of the elephant screen.
We know that small contingents of elephants affected battles out of all proportion to their numbers.
The elephant screen (Observed frequently in successor battles) is a combination of light infantry and elephants in an "open order".
The elephants serve as protection against the light infantry's worst enemies (cavalry) and provide a rally point.


I certainly find it easier to imagine the elephant screen, as opposed to elephants acting like big grey warbands.

Ithoriel

We have reports of both usages of elephants Steve.

Elephant screens were useful to stop cavalry as Seleucus did to Demetrios Poliorcetes at Ipsus.

Pyrrhus on the other hand seems to have used his elephants and elephant guards as a solid formation, a sort of organic battering ram. With, it has to be said, mixed results.

Strength and Honour allows elephant units to be used in either way, deployed as a unit or split into two skirmishing support lines attached to other units.
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Quote from: Lord Speedy of Leighton on 10 November 2019, 05:49:48 PMBut what about the Woozles?
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