War Wagons - any good and a few questions

Bob Stradling
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

War Wagons - any good and a few questions

Postby Bob Stradling » Fri Mar 30, 2018 9:07 am

Vaguely interested in a Hussite army, but before I invest any time and effort I have some questions about war wagons.

It says they can't charge - is that ever? Even in the rear of an unformed unit? I can understand that they were not used like heavy chariots to go crashing into the front of formed infantry units, but flanks, rear. You are just hanging around waiting to be charged so can never gain the inititaive or generate any momentum tokens by charging.

Even if they could gently trot into combat on a flank/rear without generating any momentum tokens that would be something.

I can understand that they will be dificult to kill with shooting. Bows at short range would take an average of 48 shots to cause 4 unsaved hits to remove a base. (Superior shooters with long bow or xbox would take 27). However, doing one casualty will cause them to be discouraged and that will be relatively easy to achieve which would generate a momentum token. Even if they are combined into a unit of two then one casualty would be enough to discourage them both and generate a momentum token.

It also says that it takes 3 cannon hits to remove a war wagon - is that 3 separate hits or one hit that does 3 wounds?

In the Hussite infantry section it says that they can have a pavise, but there are no missile weapon options, which you would normally associate with the use of a pavise. Not an expert on Hussite equipment, but was this the case.

So Hussite war wagons role would seem to be arrow magnets whilst allowing you to deploy the rest of your troops without too much worry, but it does seem that the enemy could just ignore them and march past without engaging them. They do not have the concentrated fire power to worry too many other troop types and at best can stand around in the rear of an enemy unit to prevent them being pushed back.

I may well be missing something obvious, so does anyone have any tales of how they have been used successfully?

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