Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Frank Gilson]

Ahhh, ok, I should more carefully read the rules before I post .
Well, a four element unit of bolt shooters is generally better than a
two element. It's vastly harder to shoot up, and provides significant
fire out a great distance...as opposed to the only 4 figures of a
minimal bolt shooter unit.

Now...for HI legionaries...they're close order foot, and heavily
armored. So, they pack a significant cost in points into a relatively
smaller space. The 'average' unit cost should be around 100 points so
that you've got enough total units in your army to cover frontage and
defend flanks...that just seems to be a general rule that works in
practice.

So, a fully upgraded HI legionary unit of four elements is around 126
points...or close to what a much more mobile super heavy knight unit
costs. The 'expression of power' that they have is less...which means
that the area they can threaten, from any given position at a given
time, is not as great as such a knight unit.

What is their real virtue? They can withstand hand to hand combat and
fight effectively for much longer than most troops...so that's what
you need to emphasize when running legionaries like that. Note also
the advantage of maneuver...and that a mix of 8 and 16 figure units
accomplishes this as the 8s are able to fill gaps or charge through
the 16s (with the new replacement rules).

I understand that how one has one's figures painted and based is a
significant influence on the play of those figures...and you'll have
to forgive me but I commit all kinds of unpardonable sins when it
comes to that ...my main concern is effectiveness and use on the
battlefield...I'm a wargamer, not a historian...and definitely not a
painter.

Let's also look at a couple of combat situations involving
legionaries and foot that they might encounter. The standard warning
about these exchanges not being as important as your overall
generalship apply.

24 Reg C MI LTS,Sh and 16 Reg C HI HTW,Sh (legionaries) charge one
another...equal points cost. Let's ignore random dice at this point.

MI are 16 at a 3 for 40 casualties while the legion is 12 at a 6 for
60 points. The MI recoil, nobody is disordered (although an up 1 by
either would disorder the other).

Bound 2 the MI have 18 figures at a 2 for 36 while the legion are 12
at a 5 (1HCW following up) for 48. Everybody takes 2 CPF...and pretty
soon both are tired (at the same time) and then they do 1 CPF to each
other...so, a die roll is going to be required in this exchange of
only two units to give victory to one or the other.

The most important die rolls will be those on initial hit...if one
becomes disordered but not the other, that one will begin taking
wavers until routing (for additional causes of disorder).

Clearly this isn't favorable for either player...so that's where the
generalship comes in. What do you, the Roman, do to make things
better? You can hit the exposed MI element with another legion...or
you can charge through your legion in contact with another. The spear
player isn't going to have either of these options.

This is a little bit of why I like to have a mix of 16 figure and 8
figure units...so I can avoid overhanging elements, and fit the
puzzle pieces of units together better.

Frank

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, JonCleaves@a... wrote:
> Frank gives some great advice here on this list - owning it and
being part of
> the IW playtest, I agree with it all, for what that is worth.
>
> Except:
> As for the bolt shooters...buy 4 of them and double base them (as
is
> permitted, light bolt shooters can be put two per stand).
>
> Please note that having two light bolt shooter MODELS on a stand
for
> aesthetics (which is allowed) does not permit the massing of extra
crew onto a base.
> Please see 2.511.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[John Murphy]

So the issue is really one of responding to the other guy's 1E-wide
units. A 4E legion that fails to break it leaves an overhang that can
be charged while the legion takes it in the shorts at the halt. Right?

Although in the example you gave (versus a 6E spear unit) a 4E
replacer might work just as well as a 2E replacer. Assuming, of
course, that generalship permits the 4E to be in such a position
which is probably admittedly twice as hard as having one of double
the number of 2E in position.

See, the darkness breaks...

And thank you for going to that level of detail. Very helpful.

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "Frank Gilson"
<franktrevorgilson@h...> wrote:
> This is a little bit of why I like to have a mix of 16 figure and 8
> figure units...so I can avoid overhanging elements, and fit the
> puzzle pieces of units together better.