Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

OK, in response to Greg's query of last week, here's what I consider to be the
best list that combines knights with quality support troops. The other main
contenders, in my opinion, are Knights of Saint John, Medieval Spanish, Hundred
Year's War English, and Wallachian. Frank Gilson has extensive experience with
Hundred Year's War English, so maybe he can follow up with some commentary on
that list.

Let me preface this by saying I have a huge amount of interest in, and affection
for, the Later Paleologan Byzantines. Manuel II Paleologous was one of the great
emperors ever to take the throne, an accomplished scholar, statesman, and
soldier. He simply had the misfortune to be born at the wrong time. And his
friendship with Jean le Mengre, aka Marshal Boucicault (who led the French
vanguard at both Nicopolis and Agincourt) is one of the most astonishing and
remarkable stories of this time. My thanks, by the way, to Christian Cameron
for introducing me to these two characters many years ago (20?).

So I don't come to this army just looking for a killer tournament army. It has
tremendous charm and character. But I think it definitely is one of the top
caliber armies.

There are definite challenges with the list:
- You have to choose between buying archers as LMI or LI, and you need both. You
can double your firepower by buying a stand of LMI, but you need some quality
LI.
- The LC is not very optimized. You can't get any regular LC, and your
Vardariots must be JLS,B,Sh throughout instead of the more common and more
optimized configuration on other lists where the LC starts out as B with the
option to add JLS and/or Sh to any. And none of these guys fight a rank and a
half.
- You have to take some required Reg C HC that can't even have B.
- You end up taking a fair amount of EHK. Either HK or SHK is a better use of
points; EHK is the most inefficient way to spend points on knights.

There's an immediate temptation to take the Catalan ally general so that you can
get the Almughuvars. If you do this, then you can't have any SHK. This makes
perfect sense historically, as Roger de Flors' Catalans were first hired by the
Byzantines in 1302 and operated semi-autonomously in the area for the next
several decades, but never acknowledged any fealty to the Byzantines after
about 1310. The earliest recorded use of SHK by the Byzantines would have been
much later, with Amedeo of Savoy's (aka "the Green Count") Galipoli expedition
of 1366. Sadly, though, from a game play perspective, you'd like to have both
SHK and "moogs".

The better choice, though, is the SHK. I've played around with "moogs"
extensively over the last several years, and even before the Classical Warrior
rules for Alexandrian pike I had largely given up on them. They hit very hard
at first contact, but they are vulnerable to mounted and any foot they don't
rout at contact they end up fighting as basically side arm that can fight a
rank and a half. And they tend to exhaust rather quickly. Not a good choice to
be stuck in the middle of an army of low morale foot.

If you don't take the "moogs", then you have no foot that can stand up frontally
to... well, to just about anybody else's foot. So don't take _any_
non-skirmishing foot.

You're going to win the game with shooting. Yes, you have SHK, but they are
there to exploit the opportunities your shooting creates. The process goes like
this:
- Your light troops pin and harrass, so that you control the tempo of the battle
and the initiative;
- With control of the tempo, you can line up your best shooters where there is a
vulnerability in your opponent's line (or, as is often the case, force him into
a mistake as he tries to prevent this);
- Once your shooters have left a suitable target tired and/or disordered in
front of you, you bring in the knights to close the deal.

With all that in mind, here's the list:

Mourtatoi Reg D LI B,Sh: 4 stands
Tzagratoroi Reg C LI HG,Sh/CB,Sh: 6 stands
Archers Reg C LI B,Sh/B: 6 stands

Vardariots Irr C LC JLS,B,Sh: 6 stands
Vardariots Irr C LC JLS,B,Sh: 4 stands
Georgian Retainers Irr C LC B: 4 stands

Gazmouli Reg C LMI JLS,B,Sh: 4 stands
Gazmouli Reg C LMI JLS,B,Sh: 4 stands
Mourtatoi Reg D LMI B,Sh: 4 stands
Bowmen Reg C LMI B,Sh/B: 6 stands

French knights Irr B SHK L,Sh: 2 stands (includes ally gen)
French knights Irr B SHK L,Sh: 2 stands
French knights/sergeants Irr A/C SHK L,Sh/HC L,Sh: 1 stand/2 stands

Stratiotai Reg C HC L,Sh: 2 stands
Reg A/C EHK/HC L,Sh: 1 stand (includes sub gen)/2 stands
Paramonai Reg A EHK L,Sh: 2 stands (includes CinC)

That gives you six units of lights, all of whom are either shielded LI shooters
or LC; 4 units of solid 4 to a stand shooters, including the Gazmouli who are
particularly tough on elephants; 6 units of lancers, ranging from HC to SHK.
This is 1599 points, and gets you 16 units, 166 total figures, 124 shooters,
and 56 scouting points.

I don't like having a general in a unit that contains Cs, and I don't like
having a general in a body that can't staff move. Still, this is the most
efficient way to use the required troops, and the two 9 figure cav units end up
avoiding disorder, or 2 CPF from prep shooting, in a surprising number of
helpful situations.

Note that I don't take much in the way of Irr A French. To my mind, being able
to roll up big sometimes is not as valuable as consistently not rolling down. I
throw the As in with the Irr C cav just to make sure this unit is never uneasy
(and as a reminder not to get it too close to the front line unless I really
mean to charge).

It ain't perfect, but no list is. To my mind LP Byzantines is probably the best
example of a list that balances quality support troops with a solid knight
attack.


-Mark Stone