dragoon stamina and remounting

[Ryththa]

Can I ask the opinion of this august forum on the matter of dragons?

I have been reading through the 'Last Augument of Kings' new dragoon rule, and have an issue. A standard dragoon unit with a stamina of 3 dismounts to form a small line unit. As infantry the dragoons should now have a stamina of just 2, no problems yet as I can see the logic to that, they are now a small line unit after all.

What happens if they take fire and loose some stamina before remounting and moving away? Which stamina stat do we then use? how do we alter the stat to account for the higher mounted figure....or do we?

[Big Al]

Hi

I haven't got the book, mainly because I haven't any armies for those periods as yet, but I think I can see what you're asking and what the answer should be. While the dragoons are dismounted, as you say, it becomes a small line unit with a stamina of 2. This is because the unit is effectively reduced, manpower wise, because a proportion of the unit will be utilised as horse holders. So, even though the unit has taken stamina damage, when they remount the unit will be back to its full size and original stamina level. However, if the unit is shaken, I am not sure whether it can become unshaken just by remounting. I suppose that it can because its overall stamina has increased. Perhaps, if people don't like this idea, a possible house rule could be that when it remounts, it must retire one full move and become disordered.

[Cubster]

I don't know if it's about losing numbers through horse-holders, so much as the fact that units of horse were smaller than units of foot, thus (for example) 100 mounted dragoons might be regarded as a large-ish unit of horse, whereas when they dismount the same number of men would only constitute a small-ish unit of foot.

But I'm with Al, I'd carry any effects over when mounted.

[CplJohn]

Hi,

The Dragoons special rule in "Last Argument" talks about possibly reducing the size of a unit to a small unit if it was disproportionately smaller than a line infantry unit eg: If there are 12 figs in your dragoon regiment, it should be "smaller" than a 24 fig line infantry battalion.

However, I would retain the stamina value at 3 if that is what it had when it was mounted. Damage caused to the unit would have much the same morale impact if mounted or dismounted. However, fire values and melee values would be reduced to that of a small unit so that Line infantry should still beat them in a fire fight. This would save any messing about with variable stamina, and people having to remount to become unshaken etc.

Thanks for pointing out the problem and I shall pencil it in for the second edition!

cheers

Pete

[Ryththa]

Hi,

The Dragoons special rule in "Last Argument" talks about possibly reducing the size of a unit to a small unit if it was disproportionately smaller than a line infantry unit eg: If there are 12 figs in your dragoon regiment, it should be "smaller" than a 24 fig line infantry battalion.

However, I would retain the stamina value at 3 if that is what it had when it was mounted. Damage caused to the unit would have much the same morale impact if mounted or dismounted. However, fire values and melee values would be reduced to that of a small unit so that Line infantry should still beat them in a fire fight. This would save any messing about with variable stamina, and people having to remount to become unshaken etc.

Thanks for pointing out the problem and I shall pencil it in for the second edition!

cheers

Pete

Thanks for your input guys, very helpful as ever. I think Pete has it though, it does seem like a logical solution. It would also make the dragoons a very useful, if not a relatively fragile (as perhaps they should be), and distinctive unit.

This is a very useful forum, one of the best!

[Cubster]

Who's Pete?

[CplJohn]

Hi Cubster,

Pete Brown- I wrote "Last Argument.." so all the mistakes and errors are mine!

cheers

[Cubster]

Ah, gotcha, I thought 'CplJohn' was another of Mr Stallard's pseudonyms because he'd forgotten his password again!

Bless 'im ... write it on his Sanatogen tub.