The Hastilude Event: Joust
The Noble Joust is one of the most iconic duels between Knights in the Sector; two Lancers charging at each other with their Ion Gauntlet Shields raised and Shock Lancer primed for striking. Each pairing will conduct three Passes, thrice attempting to score telling blows upon their opponent.
Contents
Participants
Limited to one Knight Lancer per player, however multiple Knights from the same House or Company may participate.
Field
The Joust is performed along a narrow field which does not allow the two Knights to deviate or manoeuvre, instead they must stride towards each other full tilt. The field will be 12” wide and 48” long and split into two ‘lanes’ with each Knight starting just off the edge of the field.
Rules
Each Knight will only have 2 (TWO) Action points and must select at least one Movement Action. In addition they can only activate a SINGLE Attack Action each Pass; this can be a Snap Attack or Charge, but not a Standard Attack (it doesn’t allow the Knight to move), it is a grievous dishonour for a Noble to discharge his Shock Lance at range rather than striking their opponent.
The Knight must move the maximum distance in a straight, as the Knights are in their own ‘Lanes’ they will never count as coming into Base Contact for Assault purposes (meaning they will only ever make a SINGLE attack). For every 5” the Knight has moved their Initiative is increased by 1.If both Knights Charge, they move simultaneously and strike at their accumulated Initiative even if they pass each other, it is assumed that they strike at one another as they pass.
Any Hull Point damage inflicted in a Pass carries over to any remaining Passes of that pairing, but not onto subsequent pairings. Vehicle damage effects do not carry over, it is assumed that the Knight has repaired/recovered in time for the next Pass. Destroying an opposing Knight is a shameful thing, immediately concluding the pairing, irrelevant of how many Passes were left, and giving the offender a black mark instead of any points for that Pass. The victim will retain any points which they were awarded before the destruction of their Knight and an average point score awarded for any unfought Passes.
While a severely damaged Knight may yield and ransom himself to his opponent, ending the pairing, it can often be found that honourable Knights will allow each other to run the last Pass with Lances aloft, indicating they will run the Pass but will make no attempt to strike each other (and thus not registering any scores either), keeping honour intact.
Scoring
Each Pass can result in both Knights scoring points based on the potency of their strikes, the highest scoring strike is what determines the points (i.e. a Knight can only score once):
1pt for a Glancing Hit
2pts for a Penetrating Hit
3pts for a Weapon Destroyed or Immobilised* result *= The Immobilised Knight must pay a ransom to continue or withdraw.
Winner
After a complete round robin the highest scoring Knight will be declared the winner of the Joust and awarded 200 Shields. If there is a tie the Knights will Joust a tie breaker.
