Melees Gloriosus
- Description
- Detailed Description
- the land game
- the naval game
- the siege game
- Reviews
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Back to ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL NAVAL RULES
| "The standard siege operations of the time such as circumvallations
and bicircumvallations, i.e. (standard drawn out city sieges), are not considered
in this rules set. Siege operations of this nature would require far too much
record keeping, many turns of in-action, and would quite frankly be boring.
For this reason these rules are limited to what we call battlefield sieges.
A battlefield siege, is an operation that is already well underway with the
majority of the equipment already at the site and ready to go."
- Siege Warfare Melee Gloriosus, pg. 72 |
The Siege Warfare section of the Melees Gloriosus rules -14 pages in length - is essentially a supplement to the land game. It uses an abbreviated Sequence of Play:
- Movement
- Missile Fire
- artillery fire
- ordinary missile fire
- Action Moves
- Melee
- Morale
Compared to the land game, the Siege Warfare sequence of play leaves out charges and breakthrough movement, and adds the Action Moves phase for handling siege-related special tasks.
A Code of Uniformity is provided to define the allowed dimensions of towers, walls, and other structures. Rules are provided for towers, curtain walls, sally ports, and gateways, with strength ratings given for a variety of objects.
The following items of siege equipment are included within the rules:
- siege ladders
- galleries (mobile frames)
- mobile ramps
- ladder fenders
- drills and bores
- battering rams
- siege towers
- padding (to protect objects)
- lilies (circular pits with stakes)
- caltrops and iron spikes
- incendiary ammunition for artillery
- flaming arrows (archers) and flaming bolts (artillery)
- pavises
The rules systems for movement, missile and melee combat, and morale are identical to the land game, although additions have been made. The movement rules now cover the movement of siege towers, and limit the rate of movement when indoors. Missile Combat additions have been made with respect to artillery firing against structures. The rules for Melee limit the types of weapons that can be used indoors. Additional modifiers have been added to the Morale system, a new Failed Morale table is supplied, and new rules apply to special circumstances (such as troops defending a breach).
The types of tasks allowed during the Action Phase include:
- setting up (and repelling) siege ladders
- dropping rocks
- dropping burning pitch
- using cranes to drop rocks
- pouring boiling oil
- pouring flaming oil
- pouring fenugreek (makes floors or stairs slippery)
- placing ramps over ditches or bogs
- tossing caltrops
- using battering rams (pendulum and roller types)
- counter-ramming
- using drills and bores (pendulum and roller types)
- snaring rams and drills
- setting fires
- mining
- breaking down doors