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Elephant Screen Question
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2023 4:10 am
by 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.
Re: Elephant Screen Question
Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2023 6:40 pm
by David Kuijt
Deuce wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 4:10 am
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.
Re: Elephant Screen Question
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2023 11:42 am
by 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?
Re: Elephant Screen Question
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2023 2:46 am
by David Kuijt
Deuce wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 11:42 am
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?
Battle Card Rules wrote: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.
Re: Elephant Screen Question
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2023 1:32 pm
by Deuce
Thanks. I understand now. I misread ‘assembling the army’ for ‘putting it on the board’.