Water Lurkers Variant
By Alan
Saunders
In the second edition of HOTT it became possible to deploy water lurkers in a marsh as well as a water feature. In this case they appear according to the rules for ordinary lurkers. This seemingly minor change introduces an interesting wrinkle to terrain choosing, however, which is if you have a water lurker in your army, and you are the defender, why would you place any bad going that is not marsh. The answer is that you wouldn't; there is no point in placing terrain in which your water lurker cannot appear.
In addition it is still virtually impossible for a water lurker to deploy in a large body of water, even on the shoreline. This is because its placement is triggered by elements entering its terrain, and ground elements can't enter water features wider than 200p. Thus Tolkein's Watcher in the Water never gets to attack from its impassable pool, and crocodiles from their water-holes.
This variant is designed to address both of these problems by tightening the definition of what can be defined as a 'marsh', and by making shorelines more dangerous.
The variant:
An area of bad going may be defined as 'marsh' if it is adjacent to the
board edge, a water feature or another area of bad going that is defined as
'marsh'. Woods, BUAs or flat bad going may all be defined as 'marsh' in this
way.
A water lurker may be deployed in 'marsh' as defined
in the rules. It may also be deployed in a water feature in contact with
any enemy element wading such a feature as defined in the rules. In addition it
may be placed in contact with an enemy element that has just moved to
within 100p of a water feature other than a 'marsh' so long as it is itself at
least partially within that feature.
The definition of a marsh means that you can still deploy a whole board of them, but do not get a free-form placement. Isolated areas of bad going can't be a marsh; they must be connected to board edges or, potentially inconvenient, rivers and so forth. The ability of a water lurker to attack out of a water feature means that they can be used to cover flanks or hinder advances even if the enemy can't enter them.
Further Thoughts
Further experience has led to the realisation that water lurkers have another powerful ability; all elements in contact with them get a -2 in close combat. In the original rules, before this water lurkers could attack out of bad going, this made sense. The rivers they were pretty much limited to didn't give an element in them any combat penalty, unlike the bad going penalty for most elements that ordinary lurkers are able to use to their advantage. Water lurkers can now attack in certain types of bad going (all of it if used by a canny defender), and all elements they face get a -2, even those not usually penalised by bad going. Thus, on a board with no non-aquatic bad going (and no defender using water lurkers will have anything less) you get an element that not only has all of the abilities of an ordinary lurker, but a few mnore besides. And all for 1AP. To be honest the 50% chance that if you attack you won't get suitable terrain for your water lurker(s) does not really offset this.
One possibility is to remove the -2 penalty for facing water lurkers if the water lurker in not in a water feature such as a river or lake. Those attacking in a marsh are just terated as ordinary lurkers in all respects, and are therefore vulnerable to enemy bad going troops. The chance you may not get to use them is offset by their ability to appear in the rivers, or other water features, you can place as a defender.
To be honest I would change them even more, and remove the ability to appear in marsh altogether, whilst allowing them to attack from the edges of water features as described above. If you want to simulate a marsh from which they can attack, lay an area of bad going with some pools of water in it. The lurker can attack from the pools at anything in close proximity to them, but the marsh now has areas impassable to other ground troops in it, which is not necessarily going to work in your favour. The advantage of this change is that it removes the 'complicated' definition of 'marsh' needed above.
If you give any of these these rules a go let me know, as I would be interested in any feedback. Testing water lurkers is quite tricky, as they are not a common element and, since usually only one army has them, only get used if the player with that army actually defends.