Rampage Rules Ramblings

[Valentinian Victor]

Having played my first three 'live' games at Rampage last Saturday I came across several rules which I hope people can clarify-

Page 15- Feigned Flight. You can trigger a feigned flight if your 'closer than 800p to enemy.' Why would you do this as its only 'enemy less than 400p from elements feigning flight' who must make a spontaneous advance (unless halted or train). If you did this beyond 400p would you not be wasting your 3 pips? Also, on page 41 it states 'All elements in feigned flight not first contacted by an enemy front edge turn at the end of the 2nd bound.' When is this '2nd bound'? Is it the bound after you trigger feigned flight i.e. your opponents bound, or during your next bound?

Page 22- Initial Deployment. Can a Train command include elements other than baggage, and if so, can 
             they defend behind TF camp fortifications?

Page 25- Visibility. Do troops placed initially on the table, not in ambush, in terrain that would normally
             conceal them i.e troops in woods, still exert the 400p restriction on marchers?

Page 26- Player Initiative Point Dicing. Regular commands can average the dice for commands. If you 
             wanted could you state that all commands average the dice thrown? And, if you say wanted just
             one command to have its dice averaged, would you then throw the three other dice, total them,
             divide by three and use that score as the averaged commands pip dice?

Page 27- PIP Expenditure. 1 pip is expended for 'Each Halt by a broken group or a group including
             impetuous troops'. Does an impetuous group spend just the one pip to halt, or 2 pips due to
             having to spend 1 pip because it 'Halts to prevent spontaneous advance' as per (e) Irregular
             Ineptness?
             (d) Difficult evolutions. If a group wheels how many pips does it expend? From what it states on
             page 27 regulars would pay 3 pips to perform wheel. It would pay 1 pip for making a tactical
             move, another for wheeling and then another because 'Both group's front corners move less than
             maximum distance.' Would irregulars have to pay 4 pips to make a wheel in this instance?

Page 28- Tactical, March...moves and halts. Can you march into frontal contact if the march move
             started beyond 400p?

Page 29- How many players know that you cannot wheel a group that is more than 8 elements wide? And
             that a group of irregulars that are not Cavalry or light troops cannot turn 180 degrees?

Page 30- Spontaneous Advance. How many players remember that 'Any troops (except train) that are
             aware of broken or shattered enemy closer than 400p, or aware of an enemy feigned flight
             closer than 400p and have not been halted, or would contact enemy Baggage.' automatically
             become impetuous? I know two of my opponents at Rampage forgot, as did I.

Page 32- If elements are making a spontaneous advance, it states they can pass through any friends in
             their path, baring restrictions. Do the elements still obey the interpenetration rules, in particular
             those about facing? I.e. can spontaneously moving mounted pass through foot that is not facing
             the same or opposite direction?
             Threat zone. If my group reaches or enters an enemy TZ, and does not have enough move left to
             contact the enemy, do they have to then 'line up opposite'?

Page 37- Grading Factors. '-1 if any troops whose opponents are Superior (S) troops that score equal or
             more while either (a)...or in close combat in their own bound...' Whose bound are we talking
             about here, yours or your opponents? I.e. its your bound and your Wb(O) is in combat against
             your opponents Ax(S). If you both role equal or he rolls higher do you get a -1, or is it only in his
             bound?

Page 38- Destroyed Elements. There is a bit of confusion here as it states in the third paragraph
             'However, when an element other than Psiloi is destroyed while in close combat...' yet the third
             bullet point states 'They are Psiloi, Hordes or Artillery and the element immediately in front is
             destroyed'. So, if you have Ps in two ranks, is the second rank destroyed or not as per the
             above?
             
Page 40- Recoiling Elements. If I have a regular group in three ranks of say Bd(O), Bd(O), Ps(O) and the
             front Bd(O) is recoiled by its opponent, does it then pass through the Bd(O) behind it as it can
             legally interpenetrate the Bd(O) as per the interpenetration rules on page 32, or does it have to
             push back the Bd(O) behind it? What about the Ps(O) in the third rank, is it pushed back by the
             first rank Bd(O) in either case as per page 41?

Page 42-  Pursuing Elements. My Bd(O) destroys an element of Wb(O), it elects to pursue. Can it chose
              either to move forward its base depth or its base width (80p)? Also,if there is say a Bd(O) behind
              the front Bd(O) that too can pursue behind the Bd(O). If there is a third rank Ps(O) can that
              also pursue as per page 42- All elements in any subsequent contiguous rank that are directly to
              the rear of a pursuing element and facing in the same direction also pursue'?

I think that will do for now...!

             

[toby]

Feigned Flight

Yes, you would be wasting your PIPs. LH(F) are not a good troop type to use for FF. They turn at the end of your opponents next bound.

Train command - it can include any train - Bge, WWg, Art. They can all defend behind TF, but not all of them get the bonus - check the tactical factors.

Troops in woods - the enemy must be 'known'. The last paragraph on page 25 defines 'known'. In this case, they might not be known so would not stop marching.

Yes - you can average all the commands, or any combination of 2 or 3 commands. You can't average the dice of one command. You chose commands to average the dice of, throw the dice for those commands and average them, rounding down. If there are other commands that are not being averaged, you must state which dice these receive and which are averaged.

Inept irregular troops cost 2 PIPs to halt, other impetuous troops cost 1 PIP. So Wb(O) cost 2 points, Irr LH(S) cost 1 PIP.

So long as one of the front corners has moved full distance, a group of regulars only pays 2 PIPs to wheel - 1 + 1 for wheeling. The extra 1 is only if _both_ front corners move less than full distance. Irregulars are 3 PIPs. If they wheel short then they are 3 and 4 PIPs respectively.

Yes. Only possible in column along a road of course. You can also march into the front of LH or Ps, since they don't stop you marching.

Most, I would hope.

Again, most, as this is basically the same as DBM. Although not many remember that you are impetuous if you would contact enemy baggage, and that you can't use a halt to prevent this.

If they cannot interpenetrate, they will burst through.

You don't have to line up, but you must do 1 (and only 1) of the bulleted options. So you can't slide other than to line up.

The opponents bound. The english is (as usual for Phil) grammatically perfect, if incomprehensible. I use the QRS version (mainly because I wrote it). Phil checked it and confirmed that it is correct and I find it easier to follow. There are a couple of exceptions that I left out to avoid cluttering it up though - the 1st, 3rd and 4th lines should have asterisks to tell you to check the rules.

Psiloi two deep only lose the front Psiloi. Psiloi behind anyone else are tostada.

If a recoiling element meets a friendly element it can pass through, then it does. It will pass through to the rear, and I think the Psiloi moves back to make room as per the interpentration rules.

The Blade can chose to pursue base depth or base width. All elements behind it _must_ pursue if it does.

Toby

[Tim Child]

Again, most, as this is basically the same as DBM. Although not many remember that you are impetuous if you would contact enemy baggage, and that you can't use a halt to prevent this.



Toby

Is this right?  Why can't you use a halt?  The element becomes impetuous, but any impetuous element can be halted to stop it moving spontaneously, surely?

Tim Child

[MikeCampbell]

I see nothing that says you can't halt troops if they would contact bagage either.

possibly Toby is confusing teh criteria for troops who have broken enemy within 400p - these are impetuous unless halted.

Being impetuous is not the same thing as being halted - for example impetuous troops always pursue (or have the options to) even if a type that would not do so otherwise - eg LH or Ps.

consider 2 cases - Ps that are within reach of baggage but have been halted, and Ps that are within 400p of broken enemy but have been halted.

the former is impetuous, but has been halted so does not make a spontaneous advance.

the later is not impetuous at all (and so also does not make a spontaneous advance of course)

Now consider that both are shot at, and score twice as much as the shooter - the former MUST press forward because it is impetuous, but the later has the option of doing so.