"How would you handle elephants in TSATF?" Topic

Just wondering.

off-board

Interesting question. For Melee, the target takes a morale check to stand (maybe with a negative mofifier) and the elephant tests to close. Failure to close results in a scatter dice situation where the elephant runs in a random direction for a random distance. I haven't given any thought to how the elephant would fight in melee.

Very carefully.

Don't upset them, they never forget!

I would expect only as draft animals for artillery. Perhaps allow them better movement thru rough terrain.

There were a few "states" in India during our period whose Maharajas longed for "the good old days".
It would make for a good game for visual appeal.
Plus, my gaming partner has armies for the Sikh Wars, and the Mutiny.

Nothing against developing TSATF combat stats for elephants, but I do think the visual appeal can work even if they're only used in the more obvious, low-key manner as Col Durnford suggests:

Totally making this up as I go, and assuming we're considering elephants as warrior mounts rather than transport:

1. War elephants are only likely to be used in battles between native forces, being too valuable (and the perch atop them too risky) to face massed European firepower;

2. A unit of War Elephants consists of 3 elephants with two warriors and a mahout atop each;

3. The warriors counts as cavalry (+2 in melee), the unit leader and the mahouts are key personnel, with the elephant itself removed when the mahout is;

4. The unit always counts as a Class IV target vs fire, to represent the robustness of the beasts themselves versus musket fire or bows;

5. Due to their terrifying nature, non-elephant units must re-roll declared charges against elephants and stand-vs-charge when attacked by them, and the elephant unit does not shed stragglers when charging.

Maybe something like this?