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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2113341" data-attributes="member: 13966">Each Gundabah in Xaleris' army is mounted with a 10-foot-high, 10-foot-wide, 30-foot-long armored howdah of wood with thin sheets of bronze plating, which serves also to be a distraction to enemy soldiers as sunlight reflects glaringly off the tall bronze walls.  The howdah battle platform is entered outside of battle by detaching the front armor-plates and rolling down a ladder, which takes 2 minutes if there are two men working on each level; the upper and lower levels are opened separately; however, this can only be done from the inside, a feature that prevents enemy soldiers from trying to get in.  This special howdah has a 3-foot-tall opening around the middle, through which the ranseur-wielding lancers watch the battlefield and strike at nearby enemies.  Six such lancers stand in this lower portion of the howdah, and each carries a scimitar and light crossbow for secondary weapons, when the enemy is too close or too far to strike with ranseurs.On the howdah's small upper level, hardly 4 feet tall and cramped due to the bronze-plating roof, has only a 1-foot-tall gap around its top, through which six soldiers with repeating heavy crossbows fire away.  The soldiers on the upper level of the howdah battle platform sit or crouch most of the time while protected by the bronze sheeting, but can easily see and fire from their crouching positions when desired, and it gives them a commanding view of the battlefield.  They can even fire straight down at enemies by the base of the howdah's Gundabah, though it exposes the crossbowmen significantly.  For such occasions, they carry a small supply of acid flasks to drop on enemies getting too close, which hardly exposes the howdah riders at all.Lining the walls of the howdah's first and second floors is a large number of bolt cases for the crossbows, with the upper level containing many of the special bolt-packs used for repeating crossbows instead.  Outside the howdah, large straps of thick leather lash the harness onto the Gundabah's back, reinforced with crude iron chains; these double as a defense against enemies cutting away straps.Gundabah battle platforms have proven extremely effective and key components in the Xals' previous conquests on land, and the Gundabah beasts seem unhindered by their special howdahs and riders.  The only tactics usually successful against these mobile battle platforms has been either mages blasting between the gaps, and soldiers launching or throwing acid or alchemists' fire through the gaps, since the riders cannot easily get out without usually two minutes of work.  Special extra-large caltrops and similar impediments have proven mildly useful against the Gundabahs themselves, as have covered spike pits, but the riders usually manage to steer or sweep aside such obstacles; the triple prongs of ranseurs are good obstacle-clearers.  A humorous tale sometimes told by Xals is that once, a group of crazy goblins fought the Gundabah platforms by crawling underneath the beasts, stabbing at their soft underbellies, but most goblins died when the beasts collapsed on them.</blockquote>

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