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Pig Jousting

by Avian

Players: 2

The sport of Pig Jousting is another of those that are pretty well described in the background for the Ogre Kingdoms. Therefore it was relatively simple to adapt the bretonnian jousting rules from White Dwarf 215 to feature Gnoblars instead of human knights.

 

Background

The idea for Pig Jousting was probably imported by mercenary Ogres who had worked for bretonnian lords and witnessed the impressive jousts held by the lords of Bretonnia. Ogres are much too heavy to ride horses themselves, but someone struck upon the idea of using Gnoblars riding on pigs as entertainment. The Gnoblar is fitted with a long spear, a battered shield and some scraps of armour. The armour tends to be scavenged left-overs from fallen enemies and are almost always ill-fitting, though some Ogres take pride in their Pig Knights and pay large sums to human armourers, to have their contestants equipped in miniature versions of knightly armour, complete with a full helm, gilded breast plate and sharp spurs. This does not stop Ogres from eating Gnoblar Pig Knights who lose an important match.

There is also the Gnoblars' version of the tale, in which seven heroic Gnoblar Knights returning from a quest to far-off lands riding magnificent war-pigs and introducing the noble sport of Pig Jousting. One of the Knights was unfortunately eaten by a passing Ogre, but the other six went on to found the six Orders of Pig Knights. By tradition, each Pig Knight belongs to one of these six Orders and knights of each Order, assisted by their Ogre managers joust with knights of different Orders at special tournaments held each new moon. A knight earns points for his team by defeating knights of the other Orders and the Order that earns the most points over a tournament is the overall winner and gets a nice, shiny prize. Sadly for the Gnoblars, their Ogre owners generally either do not know about the Order system at all or else do not care about it, and so often a knight is forced to joust against another knight belonging to the same Order, bringing much shame to both.

Traditionally, Pig Knights ride pigs, though a hungry Ogre will often eat the pig of his chosen knight by accident (and sometimes the knight too!) and so a lot of Pig Knights ride dogs, sheep or even other Gnoblars.

 

What you will need

 

Setting up the game

Each Ogre has one Gnoblar Pig Knight, with the following important characteristics:

  WS S T A Armour

Pig Knight

 2 2 3 1 4+

"Pig"

 2 2 3 0 -

Equipment: The Pig Knight is equipped with a spear, shield and light armour.

 

Orders

Each Pig Knight belongs to one of six Orders and will display the emblem of his Order as a crest on his helmet. To find out which Order your knight belongs to, roll a D6:

  1. Order of the Bloody Rose
     The knights of the Order of the Bloody Rose hold themselves to be the most true to the ideals of Pig Jousting. They are the most noble and pure and are consequently regarded by snobbish by other Gnoblars, who throw dung at them as often as the chance presents itself. The knights of the Bloody Rose traditionally wear a bunch of red roses tied to their helmet, though botany is not amongst the Gnoblar's strong points and any sort of flower will do, as long as it is red. If a Gnoblar cannot find any kind of red flower, he will often resort of painting some form of plant or weed red and tying them on his helmet.
    Knights of the Bloody Rose gains one  re-roll which may be used any time during the tournament.
  2. Order of the Cabbage
    Legend has it that the Order of the Cabbage was founded by a renegade knight of the Order of the Bloody Rose, who was so disgusted with the arrogant behaviour of his team-mates that he ripped off his crest and rode to the joust without one. By some freak coincidence, a smelly cabbage thrown by one spectator hit the spike on the knight's helmet and stuck there, and that was the start of the Order of the Cabbage. The knights of the Order of the Cabbage deem themselves much tougher than Gnoblars of other Orders, possibly due to constantly living with the stench of rotting vegetables. Not surprisingly, they tend not to be very popular amongst the spectators. Knights of the Cabbage all have a cabbage or similar vegetable fixed to their helmet.
    Knights of the Cabbage gain a 6+ Ward save. Their steed does not benefit from this.
  3. Order of the Chicken
    The knights of the Order of the Chicken are exclusively young and daring, riding bravely into battle shouting heroic war cries. They are often greatly popular with the spectators because they provide a good show, though often this is because the valiant knight forgets to protect himself and gets stabbed in the face. Knights of the Chicken all have a chicked glued to their helmet, preferably a live one.
    When two knights have chosen the same jousting ploy, Knights of the Chicken always attack first, unless facing another Knight of the Chicken.
  4. Order of the Other Boot
    The gallant knights of the Order of Sir William's Boot once rode out to war on their mighty pigs alongside their Ogres masters, embarking on a glorious campaign of conquest. Sadly, they did not get very far before the Ogres got hungry and ate the lot of them. Reasoning that the Order was cursed, the few knights who did not end up as lunch decided to disband the Order and instead found the new knightly Order of Sir William's Other Boot, commonly known as the Knights of the Other Boot. The Knights of the Other Boot all wear an old boot tied to their helmet and will all claim that this is indeed the original other boot of Sir William, whoever he may have been.
    Knights of the Other Boot automatically miss with their first attack in a joust but then automatically hit with their second attack. Further attacks are resolved as normal.
  5. Order of the Whale-fish
    Admittedly, few Gnoblars have any idea of what a whale is, though it is generally agreed to be some sort of large, dangerous fish with nasty teeth. In addition to wearing crests with fish on them, many Knights of the Whale-fish will file their teeth sharp(er) and some will even paint themselves a bluish-grey to make themselves look more like predatory fish. As a result of this, many Knights of the Whale-fish have ended up in Ogre fish stews by accident.
    Knights of the Whale-fish may re-roll their first failed to wound roll each joust.
  6. The Unspeakable Order
    The knights of this Order try to maintain an aura of deep mystery surrounding them and will claim to be the oldest and most secretive of all the Orders. Most other Gnoblars tend not to fall for this and reckon that the knights of the Unspeakable Order have really forgotten what the Order was about in the first place and just won't admit it. The Knights of the Unspeakable Order are the only knights who do not wear crests on their helmets at all and instead favour plain dark grey robes.
    Knights of the Unspeakable Order may never choose the Swipe or Dodge ploy. They may re-roll their first failed armour save each joust. Attempts to strike at the crest of Knights of the Unspeakable Order count as strike at the helm instead, as they have no crest.

 

The joust

The joust typically goes over three passes, though the players should feel free to agree to some other number if they feel like it. Each pass consists of the following steps:

  1. Players select their ploys
  2. First player attacks
  3. Second player attacks, unless "unpigged"

 

Step 1 - Select a ploy

Before each pass, players begin by placing their Pig Knights about 8" away from each other at either end of the tournament field. Both players then choose one of the six listed ploys that their Pig Knight will perform this turn. Note that players will attack in order of their ploys, so choosing a low-numbered ploy will give you a greater chance of going first and unpigging your opponent before he can attack. A simple way of choosing ploys is to take a dice and place it behind your cupped hand, with the top side corresponding to the number of the ploy. Once both players have decided on a ploy, the dice are revealed at the same time. The ploys you can choose from are as follows:

  1. Aim for Shield
    You aim your spear at your opponent's shield to put maximum foce behind the strike. You automatically strike before an opponent using any other ploy.
  2. Aim for Helm
    You aim your spear at your opponent's helm. This is harder to hit, but even a glancing blow can wound or unpig your opponent so you gain +1 Strength this pass. To represent the difficulty of hitting, you strike after an opponent aiming for Shield, but before an opponent using any other ploy.
  3. Aim for Crest
    You can only use this ploy once in the joust. The spear is aimed at your oppoent's crest. This is difficult to hit, and will never wound or unpig your opponent. Nevertheless it is a great slight upon his honour and count as two broken spears! To represent the difficulty of hitting, you strike after an opponent aiming for Shield or Helm. You receive a -1 to hit modifier and if you score a hit, the crest is struck off on a further roll of 4+.
  4. Aim for Pig
    This ploy can be dangerous to use, because although a knight's spear may glance off the armour of his opponent, it will often get stuck in the pig (Pig Jousting spears are supposed to be blunt, but in practice seldom are) and may unpig the attacker himself! Attacks against the pig is different from other attacks in that they are aimed at the steed and not the rider. If an attacker hits the pig but fails to wound it, he will receive an automatic Strength 3 hit himself with no armour save allowed.
  5. Swipe
    This ploy is acceptable, but not considered to be very honourable! You swipe with the spear across your opponent's front to knock him from the pig. It is not difficult to hit with this ploy, but it is rather slow and not very skillfull. To represent this, you strike after an opponent using any other attack, but you receive a +1 to hit modifier.
  6. Dodge
    This is a defensive ploy greatly lacking in honour. You give up your own chance to strike in order to dodge your opponent's spear. This means that you do not strike at all, but your opponent receives a -2 to hit penalty. If both contenders opt for this ploy, then neither will strike at all.

 

Step 2 - First player attacks

After both players have selected ploys, the Pig Knights are moved towards each other until they make contact. Players then attack in order of jousting ploys, with lower numbers always striking before higher ones. If both Knights chose the same ploy, roll a dice to see who attacks first. Attacks in the joust are made as normal in Warhammer. The goal of the Joust is to knock your opponent from his pig, preferably hurting him badly in the process. In joust-terms this is done by inflicting a wound on your opponent (after saves). Your opponent might not be killed by this, but he will be unpigged and you automatically win the joust. Failing this, causing your spear to break against the opponent's armour also awards points. If you wound your opponent, but he manages to save the wound, your spear is deemed to break and you score a point. Should no knight be unpigged after three passes, the one that broke the most spears on his opponent's armour is the winner. Note that Gnoblars who break their spears receive a new spear in time for the next pass.

 

Step 3 - Second player attacks

After the first player has attacked, the second player may then do so, unless he was knocked off his pig by the first player. Note that players will get to attack even if their opponents got a broken spear result.

 

Winning the joust

If one player knocks his opponent off the pig, he immediately wins the joust. If three complete passes have been made without either player being unpigged, the winner is the one who got the highest number of broken spear results. If both players have the same number of broken spear results after three passes, the joust goes onto Sudden Death. Both players then throw away their armour and shields (reducing their armour save to a 6+) and make one pass at a time until one knight is knocked from his pig. This Gnoblar is then the loser and is generally eaten by his disappointed Ogre master, which is why they call it "Sudden Death"!

 

Alternative rules

 

Advantages for the winner

Players are assumed to mainly play one-off games, but if a larger tournament is played, the winner of one joust receives one D6 roll on the table below (the loser may or may not be out of the tournament and may or may not be eaten, depending on the tournament rules and the whims of his master). Re-roll if you get an advantage the Knight already has.

  1. Characteristics increase
    The Knight gains +1 Weapon Skill
  2. Characteristics increase
    The Knight gains +1 Strength
  3. Characteristics increase
    The Knight gains +1 Toughness
  4. Initiative
    When determining who goes first, the Knight subtracts 1 from the number of his chosen ploy. Thus a Knight who chose ploy #2 would go before another Knight who chose the same number count as tied with a Knight who chose ploy #1.
  5. Heavy armour
    The Knight's Ogre owner buys his prized Gnoblar heavy armour in replacement of the light armour, improving the knight's save to 3+.
  6. Choose!
    Choose any one of the above.

 

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