Ever play with boats/ships or transports? Ever play against them? Ever try to find any definitive explanation in WRG 7th regarding these items? Confused and frustrated? Welcome to the club. The rules are a bit hazy regarding these items and I feel neither is adequately defined. Many lists allow such items and they work well against the unwary. The following article is the result of many people's conversations with Phil Barker (including one of mine) and over a year of playtesting various interpretations. One player in my area, Jake Kovel, has the Hussites in BOTH scales. He ran them at C0LD WARS and HISTORICON and while they are a pain to understand in the rules, they look very impressive on the table.

BOATS

What follows are various rules clarifications regarding boats/ships and their many uses:

1. Stone throwers and bolt shooters on boats shoot all around. Further, you can mount a tower on two ships and thus carry other artillery. Pay for this as follows: assuming you want to do this with a 4-crew heavy bombard. First double the cost of ships per bombard crew to simulate having two ships. Then pay for the tower (50 to 80 points). See how expensive this gets? This target is very susceptible to enemy artillery (see below).

2. Assume all boats/ships are rowed. Admitedly an unrealistic abstraction but if not, do you want to figure wind direction and how well someone tacks into the wind? I certainly do not

3. Boats/ships can only move on minor water features if its difficulty is 8. Further, allow only one boat model to represent the flotilla" of small boats. This single boat could "ferry' troops across the flooded minor water feature.

4. Assume beaches run the length of a major water feature.

5. Actual troops (not artillery) on boats/ships count as Tr targets when being shot at by non-artillery. The troops on the boats cannot shoot back. Further, if you are artillery shooting at boats/ships transporting passengers, you must decide whether to shoot at the passengers or the boat/ship. Consult Page 42 para 7. Since boats only take 50 Engineering Points (EP), they can be pretty vulnerable to artillery and inciendiaries.

6 Only the following weapons inflict EP on boats: bombards, stone throwers, fire syphons, naptha bombs, rockets, incendiery HTW, JLS, B, S, or SS. Remember to use only one random factor die roll.

7. Lastly, I feel we can only allow 1 boat model on the board per side. Any more causes a complete breakdown in many of the rules.

TRANSPORTS

Again, most of my playing experience comes from playing for and against the Hussites. Since they are a worst case scenario, rules-wise, the following should apply to anyone allowed to run troops from atop wagons. Note I say wagons and not wagon laagers. The latter are entirely construction targets that do not move and are adequately covered under the Siege Game section of the rules.

ORGANAZATION

When buying Hussites and organizing them into units, the Tr elements used as mobile forts (see the list) do count toward the 12 element max limit. However, each distinct TYPE of element (either Tr, Infantry, or Artillery) can be found in a single Hussite unit and not all count toward CPF all of the time. Let's use and example unit consisting of 3 Tr elements and 5 MI elements with chains running between the gaps of the wagons.' A total of 8 elements, well below the limit. Ile three wagons count as 15 casualties per CPF, the 4 MI as 20/CPF. However they do not add up to 35/CPF. More on that later.

MISSTLE and H-T-H

As is the case with boats/ships, in some cases the men in the Tr element count as a Tr target, other cases as the infantry carried, and in some cases the shooter must choose. An important distinction must be made between Hussite wagon groups 'in transit" and those act-up with chains in place between the wagons. If in transit, our sample unit would be shot at counting as 23/CPF (15 for the wagons and 8 for the MI not carried in the wagons) at Tr factors. I've only seen Hussites try to move their wagon forts once--a slow process you probably will not see.

Things change when set-up happens. During H-T-H combat, the Hussite defends both from atop the wagon and behind the chained gap between the wagons. Troops attacking across the chains suffer a -2 in HT-H plus they do not count as 'in contact" for support shootingl Troops attacking the wagons have two options:

1. If armed with 2HCW, or elephants, you can attack the wagons instead of the troops in them. Use the rules on page 41 para 3 to determine the number of EP inflicted on the wagons.

2. Attack the troops in the wagons. You suffer a -2 for attacking across a defended obstacle and a 2 for opponent halted on higher groundl Again, you are not considered in contact for support shooting. Viking Huscarls in wedge supported by eager Bondi blocks do quite well against the Hussites in wagons.

Shooting at the wagons with artillery is the best way to get rid of them. If you are not using artillery or incendiaries, you shoot at the MI in (and between) the wagons. Most Hussites will have mantlets to reduce this effectiveness. In our sample unit, when set-up, only count the infantry towards H-T-H CPF, so 20/CPF. If using artillery or incendiaries, treat the wagons as wooden construction targets, hence you get a choice whether to shoot at the passengers or the wagons.

Remember that the incendiaries will set the wagons on fire and do damage until the fire goes out! Each wagon takes 20 EP to destroy. For CPF purposes, our sample unit counts 15/CPF for immobilization. You could destroy some but not all of our sample unit's wagons but not affect the troops. Clearly the Hussite player dreads artWery parks and naptha bombs. The Sung Chinese would have a field day against thew guys.

Some who do not play WRG 7th often seem to feel this is a *killer" army. Without embarrasing Jake too much, he ran it at COLD WARS and did not mop up like some expected. Hussites (and anyone utilizing hords of wagons in a similar manner) are good for players liking a somewhat static action. Their forte is the excellent defensive set-up with the wagons. They can trade missile fire with anyone and the support shooting from the wagons is murderous. However there are significant weaknesses.

As mentioned, artillery can leisurely shoot the wagons into the ground for your army's troops to then attack. Secondly, if pushed back off the wagons, Hussites tend to die. Such an attack requires careful coordination between units. The Huscarl/Bondi strike works well in our games. Close order Romans with HTW attacking and not following up but instead hurling loose order troops over the wagons on the subsequent bound also works well. The Spanish also do well. When a Hussite wagon group breaks, that's lots of points gone in one unit.

I hope this answers most questions about wagons ships and boats. While I don't see much of these from a tournament aspect, they have intriguing possibilities and look good on the table when used.