Answer to question #1:

Yes, infantry can attack mounted troops in the field... if the mounted
troops wish to engage the footsoldiers.

As far as battles between the war cards go, the mounted troops, if they
attack by charge, resolve their charge attack before the infantry resolves
their melee attack. This is a decided advantage, because if the infantry
unit is destroyed in the attack, they get no counter attack to resolve.
This is unlike infantry to infantry where the attacks are simultaneous and
there is a "attack after being destroyed" type of thing going.

Secondly, once the charge attack is resolved, and the next round comes
about, the mounted unit has the option to "fall back" and dis-engage from
melee. This, however, does let the infantry get a final attack before they
can be moved out.

On the next round, with the mounted troops dis-engaged from the infantry,
they can use their charge attack and re-engage the infantry on their terms,
with their best attack.

Basically, the battle in the open field is on the mounted units' terms. All
the infantry can do is wait to be attacked, and hope they survive the
initial charge.

In forested terrain, charges cannot happen, but the fallbacks can. Plus,
the unit that holds the forested square gets defensive bonuses. So, the
above advantages are their, however, the mounted unit cannot use their
charge rating and must use their melee rating (which is decidedly weaker).
They can still fallback and get to engage the infantry at their leisure,
however.

Hope this helps,
Memnoch

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-birthright@lists.imagiconline.com
[mailto:owner-birthright@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Morg
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 1999 12:55 PM
To: birthright@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] - 2 quick questions about the War system....


Questions of my own:

On page 62, under the descriptive of infantry, it states that these units
are
ineffective against mounted troops in the open field. This implies that
foot
troops cannot expect to stand against cavalry... period.

On page 69, it states that mounted units are forced to engage only if a
mounted
enemy unit enters their area. If foot soldiers attack the mounted units,
then
the cavalry can choose whether to engage or fall back.
This implies that the game effect of the cavalry's advantage is a simple
choice
to engage or fall back... period.

So, my question is:
Can infantry successfully attack mounted units in the open field?

IMO, a unit of infantry will be mowed down by a cavalry charge in open field
combat. If however, the cavalry is engaged by foot soldiers *AFTER* they
(the
cavalry) have finished their charge, then I can understand how the cavalry
might be slowly cut down from their mounts (though the mounted units would
still hold the advantage).

How does everyone handle this? What sort of modifiers (if any) do you apply
to
such circumstances? And what if the battle is in forest terrain? Is the
above
situation then reversed, so that the cavalry is ineffective in a similar
manner?

BTW, (and completely off topic) my PC has been down for several weeks, so my
email has been trashed by the server.

Later!

Morg
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com
with the line 'unsubscribe birthright' as the body of the message.
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com
with the line