I'm going to talk about physics in our scifi anime action minis game. Hang on, this is likely a mistake. So, the Montesa being on a bike gives images of cavalry. I get that, a lot. Here's the problem: Cavalry charges with a lance or spear are more reliant on the 7-800+lbs of horseflesh plus 50lbs of armor, chain and barding you're riding to be effective. A charge with that much mass takes a lot of force to redirect it, and most things will break under that level of impact. Even Napoleonic lancers would basically let momentum carry the spear into their enemy, letting go before the moment of impact to keep from hitting the recoil. And this is at 20mph, generally at the most, and if anybody's seen Akira they have that image of bikers cracking skulls at highway speed. Which is an exponentially larger impact, F=MA and all that. The second factor is balance. A horse, like most animals, wants to stay upright and on its feet - herbivores in particular have an instinct that says falling down = death. It's very good at staying on its feet and can correct on its own. A motorcycle, being a machine, has no such instinct and just goes dependent on the rider's balance to stay upright. The rider who is, in this hypothetical scenario, currently channeling a massive reciprocal impact through his body, usually only slightly above his center of gravity. This is, to say the least, a tall order. Not impossible, especially given superscience etc, but just...prohibitively improbable and expensive just to do a cool thing. As an aside, the cruciform swords by the knights being used for ride-by attacks. This is a pet peeve of mine being trained to use multiple designs of swords, but those swords are meant as infantry sidearms; versatile, usable against armor and flesh, but not inherently superior against any particular melee weapon. There's a reason cavalry knights that didn't carry lances often used maces, axes, hammers, etc from horseback, you could more or less drop them on someone's head with zero effort and have a better than average chance the weapon wouldn't stick in the newly made corpse. Personally, I would *KILL* for the Montesa to be packing a scaled-down version of the Tikbalang's cleaver-like curved blade, but that feels unlikely. Curved weapons are specifically for cavalry use, meant to slash and avoid catching in the body of the opponent, and speaking purely on speculation I think it would provide the least resistance on impact at high speed (can anybody speak to this?) Yes, I know the Tikbalang's sword is also poorly designed, but it's honestly better than a lance and would visually tie the Tik and MO together. Anybody else have ideas or thoughts on this?
Because fighting on a stopped bike just seems like the rider is making it difficult for themselves on purpose, and the advantage provided by the bike (speed) can only really be applied to a melee strike one way.
I just don't see why he can't just ride up, jump off the bike while dramatically taking out his sword and fighting that way. You're comparing this a lot to a horse, but a horse is also like 6-7 feet tall, which is an entirely different than riding a motorcycle. I would even argue that the rules don't represent him using the motorcycles momentum in his melee swings.
It needs the Assault rule for all the physics that you described, you can use MA2 to get +3 dmg to simulate the momentum to certain degree
I imagine non-ariadnan bikes will be gyro-stabilised and will stay upright even if the rider shifts their weight, lets go off the handlebars, or even gets off the bike altogether. It's a common trope in cyberpunk (Appleseed, CP2020 Shadowrun, and I think Snow Crash all have examples). I've also seen demonstrations of Roman cavalry using spatha from horseback that would be very appropriate, using the horse for increased height to perform a downwards chop, swinging horizontally in the direction you're moving was described as a good way to lose your weapon or break your own arm (Newton's 3rd law and all that). Late medieval cavalry favored maces, picks, and hammers as much for their performance against the advanced armour of the period as their utility from horseback. Norman Knights in the early medieval would have spears and swords (with Bishop Odo being unusual in that he had a mace, due to clergy having vowed to spill no blood), with 22nd century teseum alloys a sword could retain it's flexibility whilst having comparable performance against armour. Also, Knights have cruciform swords because they're cool.
I in no way object to the rule of cool being applied; part of me just also says "but other sword designs are just as/more cool~!" :)
I really hope not. That thing to me just looks like a weird giant metal club. Just not something PanO would use at all. Also we already know how the Montesa would look perfect. Even a curved blade for you:
Sure, but the European Medieval Knight is intrinsically linked with a double edged straight sword with a simple perpendicular cross guard (call it a broadsword, arming sword, bastard sword, cruciform sword etc) it's how excalibur is often portrayed and it's the type of sword Lizzie II uses to sir-ify people. That said, a smattering of Falchions, cavalry sabres, military picks, flanged maces, and bohemian earspoons wouldn't go amiss. I really like the Swiss Guard's zweihander too.
It's certainly possible that the bikes would be designed or modified to allow combat from the saddle, as it were. Imagine what scientific advances it would take to be able to fight from a bike using a sword... And you can just as easily imagine that they've been implemented. If PanO can travel through a wormhole, they can definitely ride a motorcycle while they swing a sword.
Remember the old Haqq monowheel-bikes? Those had a gyro for sure. And even today we have stuff like segways, so that's no problem. Another important thing to point out is, that on a horses back you are above someone on foot. But on a bike, you are even lower. So no 'hammering down from above'. And cruising down a rather narrow alley with lots of crates and terminals everywhere, you don't go full speed. But of cause there still is the increased inertia due to the weight of the bike. This should increase the damage. And again I don't think that this will hurt a well-equiped biker, because even without power armour you can have protection from that. The kind of weapon is a different thing, though. I still don't get how the Kuroshi Rider is supposed to fight with a scythe from a bike... (But then again she has a cyberarm, that might be the best solution for melee-bikers. Or a 'natural' thing to get after the first fight, when you tore off your own arm...) But why use a weapon at all, if you got an high-tech gyro that can be easily controlled? Just use your bike as weapon: When a dogface gets a motorcycle (from a crate), I don't think he can ride it. But it still is a nice melee weapon for him!
Please, we have too many knives and swords out there already. It's a sci-fi, not fantasy game ;) That being said, I don't see Montesas using lances. Standard longsword would do just fine. As for fighting while mounted, let's take into account that bikers are seated much lower than they would be on a horseback, and can't rely on downward momentum much - but can benefit from additional stability, even before we add justifications like gyrostabilizers and power armour granting increased reflexes and strength to deal with the ride. edit: Heh, ninja'd by daszul ;)
I will also agree I'd just as soon have the Montesa wielding his chain-colt or another gun. That sounds like the most efficient way to fight from the bike, and I'm a believer in the lazy fighter winning if only because your energy gets saved for the fighter that's as good as you are.
Oh my, Infinity is not a simulation? There are stuff in it that doesn't work? Or even things that don't exist? Who would have thought. Good thing we have experts on the forum.
Honestly I admit it's a personal issue and not a particularly relevant one, I just felt like talking about the physics and body mechanics involved and why certain rule of cool things would make me squint. Have all the space magic you want, it's not like I don't play Destiny enough. This just seemed like a fun thing to discuss.
Ok, so for a startoff the Knights will all have a Geist, and on top of that many vehicles also have a Limited Artificial Intelligence to pilot them. So the motorcycle it'self is likely as good (if not better) than a horse at helping with combat while mounted. Now, straight blades aren't ideal for work while mounted (there's a lot of reasons, but they mostly boil down to accidentally ending up disarmed) but one thing which they CAN likely work well as is an improvised lance. Now that means you are dropping your weapon, but that too can be sorted in a lot of ways by tech (at least as long as you come back over or near the point you struck) or simply carrying more than one (which isn't going to be that hard on a vehicle). Nevertheless I'd also love to see the new Motorcycle Montesa armed with an actual Cavalry Sabre (and agree that this is a good chance to tie in the Tik in Military Orders).
