Missile weapons - killing shots

[NigelT]

Hi all,

As you'll all know by now we'll be running missile combat at this years NAAMA. The draft rules include some information on what constitutes a killing shot but for the most part this will be left up to combat organisers.

So, what I'd like to know is how people feel about the following as a suggestion for this years NAAMA:

Siege - any hit from a siege weapon (armour, shield, tunic... anything) is a killing blow. Historically, if you were hit by a siege weapon you'd generally have been dead, no questions asked. I appreciate that the scaled down versions that we bring to camps have less power, but they are after all designed to simulate their bigger ancestors. By putting a minimum size of one tennis ball or equivalent on these it stops smaller engines launching scattershot and taking out large numbers of troops. Also because most engines are slow to reload they won't be a huge threat. If this doesn't work we can tweak it as we go.

Archery / Javelins - same kill zones as standard NAAMA combat. However, when 'armour rules' are being used in battle, I am not sure how to apply them to archers. Should steel armour count as invulnerable? Certainly chain and thin plate would have been no match for a sharp arrow at short range, but over a long range it would have possibly not had as much effect. Perhaps armour rules should apply for light missile combat where shots are lobbed and not apply to heavy missile combat where they are direct shots. Shields will be considered imperveous to arrows and javelins.

Other missile weapons - is anyone interested in bringing another sort of missile weapon to NAAMA? I'm interested to hear from you so we can have a think about how to make it safe and what sort of kill rules might be used.


I think in general though I'm suggesting that under normal circumstances if you're hit by a missile you're dead including shield-hits by siege projectiles. This is not going to please everyone but in the heat of battle it's going to be simple enough to work out whether to die or not without having to identify the source of the strike.


What do you think?

Nigel

[stephan]

throwing axes

tennis balls wraped in tape {simulation of rocks {its authentic] from a sling

foam caber {just for laughs

torso/head hits only for all weapons of thrown/launched type please


reguards stephan

[NigelT]

[adrianf]

with regards to heavy plate and archery, how about a range issue.

ignoring the very close range dead zone that is considered too close for safe combat, if the plate is with a set range it counts as a kill, outside that distance range the amour is considered to deflect the the arrows (of course the marshal would have to be final law on distance issues)

[Stuart]

Cabbages. You know when you have been hit by one - and so does everyone else !
- Biodegradable too...

[NigelT]

Cabbages - yes, I've heard this one from other people too. If you can demonstrate they're safe to use from a given siege engine we'll let you hurl them to your hearts content. I'm sure that'll be quite something to watch. Bring it on!

Ranged kills - yes. Here's my thoughts on this. For light missile combat pretty much every shot will be ranged because they have to be lobbed and archers won't want to be too close to the action, so we could consider plate impervious to arrows... although I think it's going to be hard enough to kill someome when the shot is lobbed and announced anyway without making it more difficult. For heavy combat it's likely to be closer range anyway - between 5m and 10m on average (5m being the minimum). Flu-flu's won't travel more than about 30-40m even when lobbed at 45degrees, so do we consider every shot in heavy missile combat an armour-piercing shot? Not sure. If we arbitrarily draw a line in the sand and say 5 to 15m is armour-piercing and 15+ is not, is this going to cause many many arguments on the battlefield?

How about this for an idea - this camp we run with the basic rules, no frills and see how it goes. We could however run some side-battles with experimental rules and see if they work. I like the idea of heady and torso being killing shots and limb hits causing loss of that limb... and bit Monty Pythonish, but it's always been a lot of fun to do with swords so why not missiles as well. I don't think this would be everyones cup of tea, but no reason why we can't try it for a few heavy missile battles for fun.

While we're on that topic - missiles open up a raft of possibilities for new games. Anyone got any ideas?

Nigel

[Stuart]

Two missile games come to mind:

1) Onager cricket. Fire tennis balls ( or foam wrapped balls ) at a teams who are armed with cricket bats. The winning team scores "runs' while the onager is re-loading.

2) Bowling for knights. A groups of knights stand in range of the Onegar.
The Onegar shoots at them and the knights shoot at the onegar crew with bows & flus. The team with the most men legally alive after ten minuites, wins.

2a) The same, but use big stones and the Auckland Norse - because they are tough and and take any head-blow....allegedly !

[stephan]

sorry if i was a little bit unclear in what i ment

i was just sugeesting some oter weapon as you asked for people to do

yes i may have staff sling at namma

as for the torso thing i was refering to arm powered things like throwen weapons and preahaps archery as well {but most arrows would hit these places anyway so it migt be a moot point}

regards stephan

[Carl]

if Javelins are being used in missile combat is it legal to catch them while they are still in flight and return them whence they came?

and does this get extra style points.

[NigelT]

Stephan - sweet, bring your staff sling along I'm keen to have a look because I haven't seen one before.

Carl - I've heard of this being done many times. And yes I don't see why not. If you catch the point obviously this is a little different from catching the shaft. If you kill someone with their own javelin perhaps you get to nominate one other combatant for a hand of god kill ...just kidding. If you can catch an arrow and return fire, now that will be impressive.

I suggest you don't try catching any siege cabbages though... might be hard to return fire unless you have a trebuchet conceiled about your person... or were you just happy to see me?

[Bogue]

NigelT said

[NigelT]

Surely a split tennis ball would have all the aerodynamic accuracy of a gumboot?

By the way Bogue - have you decided what you'll be firing from your treb yet?

[Carl]

[Bogue]

And then Nigel said