Impact Phase and Armour

[Kabill]

I'm wondering what the reason is for armour providing no bonus in the impact phase of melee. Substantively, I don't think it matters (and the units are costed around it anyway), but it's not something I find intuitive (and something I've overlooked in the past, e.g. cataphracts being much less good on the charge than I expected them to be) so I'm interested to know what's underpinning it.

[shawkhan2]

Armor is heavy, slows you down, lessens impact as energy generated is reduced?

[Ludendorf]

Armour doesn't slow you down as much as you might think. People in plate armour can do gymnastics and have a good range of movement. What armour probably does do is tire you out, forcing you to be more conservative with your movements. Heavily armoured infantry would have to maintain a slower rate of movement compared to equally fit lightly armoured infantry in order to not exhaust themselves before the main clash.

That's not to say soldiers and especially cavalry are incapable of bursts of speed. They just can't maintain it for as long.

[TheGrayMouser]

I wouldn’t look for any for concrete reasons in terms of “ simulation”, more likely a mechanic from the tabletop to streamline/balance combat. My own spin is it could imply impact is mostly psychological “shock”. IMHO it should matter( could make a nice mod)

[Kabill]

I wouldn’t look for any for concrete reasons in terms of “ simulation”, more likely a mechanic from the tabletop to streamline/balance combat. My own spin is it could imply impact is mostly psychological “shock”. IMHO it should matter( could make a nice mod)

That was kind of the thrust of my question. I can see it as a balance decision, in the same way that armour generally feels like it is less impactful than I would expect, presumably to avoid compounding the advantage of elite units which will also tend to be more heavily armoured. But given Richard's commitment to historical accuracy, I was wondering whether there was a simulation-based rationale as well/instead.

[edb1815]

The Grey Mouser has it. The Impact phase is more of the psychological part of the charge and less about coming to direct blows where armor would matter or rather have a more significant impact. At least that is my understanding from the TT game. The melee phase is where the armor matters enough to create an advantage, i.e.; Greeks vs. Persians.

[rbodleyscott]

The Grey Mouser has it. The Impact phase is more of the psychological part of the charge and less about coming to direct blows where armor would matter or rather have a more significant impact. At least that is my understanding from the TT game. The melee phase is where the armor matters enough to create an advantage, i.e.; Greeks vs. Persians.

That is more or less the thinking behind the design decision, which harks back to the tabletop game.