SFR, Inc.

[willpell]

According to the Powers that Be, the biggest single reason for removing Charge from the rules was the Open Grave spell, which made it too easy for black armies to charge while other armies would never bother. Therefore, I've decided to create a fixed Charge rule which avoids this problem in an innovative and elegant way; rather than the tactical nuclear strike of simply disallowing Open Grave during a charge, I've introduced a new rule which I think covers the situation nicely, restoring Charge to its original intended status as a desperate scorched-earth tactic.

Optional rule: Charging - When you declare a melee attack, you may call "Charge!" to conduct a bloodier attack than the traditional back-and-forth of melee combat (which is known specifically as a "Skirmish". ) In a charge, first the attacking army rolls for melee damage, and adds 1 to the damage for every "raw" maneuver result rolled. These maneuvers are not doubled by racial abilities or terrain effects, and automatic maneuvers provided by saves do not count. The Trample SAI inflicts 2 damage per trample icon, counting as both maneuvers and melee; the Rend SAI counts only as melee and is rolled again as in normal melee combat.
The defending army makes a single roll for its defense and counterattack against the charge; save results reduce the charge's damage, while melee results inflict damage on the charging army, which may only be protected by automatic saves. ID icons may be counted as either saves or melee as the defender prefers; the Sortie SAI counts as both, while the Flurry SAI counts only as saves.
Charging warriors take a grave risk in their recklessness; many a bloodthirsty savage charging with a horde at his back has ended up sliced into pieces and strewn across half the battlefield before he realizes he's dead. After the attacking player chooses casualties from the defender's counterattack, roll all of those killed units. Any that fail to produce a save result are buried; the rest are killed normally.

This fix makes charging about equally lethal for all armies (unless they have a Gold Medallion, I suppose). The Undead are tough as nails in such a charge due to their Resist Burial power and plentitude of save icons, but since they can't charge anyway without a Restless Dead spell (which may now be considered to read "The army's owner chooses to either add four automatic maneuvers to its rolls or to allow Undead units in that army to roll during a charge; either effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn"), I figure this is okay. Any other race will generally bury all but a third or so of its casualties, since few races have more than one save face besides the ID on most of their dice; this makes Charging a good way to lose an attrition war, but it remains viable as a siege-breaker tactic or a way for an already-losing player to go out in a blaze of glory.

One quandary remains undecided - do I allow the casualties to use a racial ability that counts maneuvers as saves? At a guess, this would make Lava Elves and Swamp Stalkers a bit too good at surviving their charges, especially when combined with Open Grave, but on the other hand not allowing it would leave the Coral Elves really never daring to charge, since they have practically no saves outside of Coastland maneuvers. I can see a good logical argument for either version - the units are still at the terrain, but how can they maneuver defensively when they're dead? - so I will do it whichever way folks think is best.
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Designer of Hybrid Dragon Breaths, the Enchant Element spell, new colored Dragonkin Breaths, and various homebrew races and dragons. If you want to know where to find them...good luck, I don't remember anymore.

[chuckpint]

Some more tips on being consistent with the current rules....

First all I assume you meant "automatic maneuvers provided by spells do not count". That is a given in the current rules. Since the maneuvers would be converted to melee in the step before they are added, they cannot be added as melee away.

Taking away racial abilities or terrain effects is too inconsistent with the rules. I'd leave it in.

If you allow the charging army to be protected by automatic saves, then you have to allow: dragonkin saves, Stoneskin (and other like protection spells), and Open Grave (also Leaving). So what you want is to say that no spells protect you against the damage back from the defending army. Or better yet, no effects give you any protection again the damage back.

If you want to have charging armies face burial, then they must be "killed" first. By definition, they are now in the DUA. No dice get any terrain-based benefits while in the DUA. So they have to roll a natural save or be buried. Both Elf races would suffer huge losses this way. Undead would suffer much less, since they get a second save roll if the first doesn't save.

If you want to make it so Undead can't charge (why?), then the Restless Dead spell will have to change again.
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You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[willpell]