Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Frank Gilson]

Mark Stone makes valid points. I can speak from the experience that
arose out of gameplay at the University of Rochester, and our
tournament competitions over the years.

A very effective way to organize a knight army revolves around a
skirmish screen, a bit of concentrated missile fire, and as Mark
mentions, about seven 6 figure knight units.

This orientation for a knight army permits you to earn victory
against practically any opponent. There are still difficult fights,
and having those support troops gives anyone you play against
something to kill, but here's how it works...

You need at least two, possibly three or four units you can force
march. These would be small Reg B LC units, or regular LI, or a 24 to
48 figure spear unit, or a throwaway unit of Irr D missile armed LI
(probably to 16 to 24 figures). This pins a large portion of the
enemy's forces on their table side, freeing the rest of your skirmish
screen to orient itself appropriately.

You then get to send your concentrated shooters (regular loose order
only, basically), if you have them, to the right place...and finally
how the skirmish battle is going determines where you send three or
four knight units to cause routs and waver tests.

You will often find that your proper use of skirmishers will earn you
some points also, in addition to your eventual knight charges.

How does this contrast with an army of 10 or 11 units of SHK with the
rest various LI units (reg/irr, 4 to 16 figures)? Such a knight heavy
army force marches certain "expendable" LI units (typically 4 figure
reg D). It uses other LI units as a temporary screen, along with
appropriate terrain, to buy time. The knights all pick places to go
and charge in a couple of waves...as soon as possible, because your
LI will not hold out that long. The idea is to quickly break a big
chunk of the enemy army, causing lots of wavers and demoralizing a
command (or two, hopefully!)

The problems? Well, I really don't see how you beat a dedicated
Elephant army this way...or Seleucids...or clouds of missile armed LI
and LC backed up by lancers. However, perhaps players familiar with
such large numbers of knights will chime in.

Frank Gilson