Elephant Screen Question

[Deuce]

Do you still have to pay for Elephants if you choose an Elephant screen? Or do you just pay the 2 points then not actually deploy any elephant units, but benefit from the screen.

Am I right that the elephants screen one continuous line of troops (that are screenable) only?

I ask because I was wanting to use huns, but saw the Hephtalite army that can also have an elephant and hordes to screen, which I thought looked interesting.

[David Kuijt]

Do you still have to pay for Elephants if you choose an Elephant screen? Or do you just pay the 2 points then not actually deploy any elephant units, but benefit from the screen.

Am I right that the elephants screen one continuous line of troops (that are screenable) only?

I ask because I was wanting to use huns, but saw the Hephtalite army that can also have an elephant and hordes to screen, which I thought looked interesting.

"one continuous line of troops" -- that's close to what the rules say, but not exactly. So I'd have to say no. The rules say front rank of a single group. You said one continuous line of screenable. Having a front rank that was XXXYXXX, where the X was screenable and the Y was not, would still be legal.

[Deuce]

Thank you for the clarification.

How about the points cost?

Do you not pay for/ buy elephants? Just pay the card points instead of paying for elephants?

[David Kuijt]

Thank you for the clarification.

How about the points cost?

Do you not pay for/ buy elephants? Just pay the card points instead of paying for elephants?

An army which purchases this battle card may not include any elephant stands when assembling the army; the elephants are used in a different way. This is obligatory when the Elephant Screen battle card is purchased and cannot be reversed during deployment.

So no, you don't buy a bunch of elephants and then not use them. That would be like playing a 40 pt army instead of a 48 pt army. If you buy an Elephant Screen battle card, you cannot include any Elephants in the army. All your Ellies are in a screen in front of your front line.

To say it differently -- we have absolutely no battle descriptions of anyone ever combining an elephant screen with some other group of concentrated elephants in the same battle. And writing the rules to allow that likely-mythical possibility was a nightmare. So either you can use an elephant screen, or you can use concentrated forces of elephants (i.e., stands of them). But not both in the same army.

[Deuce]

Thanks. I understand now. I misread ‘assembling the army’ for ‘putting it on the board’.