Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Tom McMillan]

In a message dated 3/10/02 6:14:45 PM, WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com writes:

<< 1. Knights do not test waver for non knights (this may be an unneccesary
rule as it will often be mitigated by 2).

2. No unit tests waver for seeing a friendly in rout within 120p that is of
a lower morale grade than itself. I.e. A do not test for seeing B, C, D, or
E in rout. >>>

I would have to argue against either of these. (Unless your army of
choice is Brettonians.) Nobody likes having their flanks stripped away
because their comrades booked, regardless of relative ability.
The Patriot analogy is a good one, (supposedly Morgan devised this at
Cowpens, and it worked well for Greene at Guilford, tho the battle in Patriot
doesnt represent any real battle very well). Standard Ottoman tactics were
even more clearly defined for just this effect. And, as Chris in particular
has shown and argued here recently, it works well in Warrior.
But your better class troops still have to stand their ground as the
riff-raff stream by and the enemy pursues into them. And that is always a
risk. Charles the Bold at Grandson being one example where it didn't work at
all. Your bettter troops for this strategy had better be A or B, so the odds
are in your favour, but some will lose their nerve.
This is one reason why I have always hated that ' no test for scythed
chariots' nonsense, because they were supposed to die anyway. Sure, they were
supposed to die, but they were supposed to work. If you are a Persian at
Arbela, (or a Pontic vs Rome), and the boss says - 'Sure, they murdered us
the last 3 times, but this time I have a great secret weapon, so don't
worry', and off they go, and the enemy breaks out in laughter and cheerfully
butchers them, it does seem that there would be an adverse effect on morale,
as the boss says, 'Well any way, off you go and good luck!'...