Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

Quoting "WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com" <WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com>:

> Message: 10
> Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 15:42:04 -0000
> From: "spocksleftball" <spocksleftball@...>
> Subject: Mixed units
>
> I'm looking at a couple of lists that contain mixed capasity units.
> I don't have much experience working with LTS front rank Bw rear rank
> types of units. Can someone tell me why I'd bother? My limited
> experience has been that the support shot never even generates a CPF
> or even close to what a second rank of LTS would, so help me to
> understand the errors of my ways?
> Wanax
>

I can speak from direct experience here. At Cold Wars last year my partner (Bill
Chamis) and I played Romanian Franks. I had passed this list over many times
because of the required close order troops (6 stands with LTS, 6 with CB). The
siren call of the "Moogs" was too tempting, though, so I finally sat down to
figure out how to make these guys effective.

Here's the conclusion I came to:
We have to distinguish between shock troops and line troops. Both can be on your
main battle line, but they function differently. Shock troops are there to
maximize the casualties they put out, whereas line troops are there to minimize
the casualties they receive. So a pure LTS unit has some limited value as a
shock troop type, but is at best mediocre in that regard. As a line troop type,
a mixed unit of front rank LTS, back rank CB is actually _better_ than a pure
LTS unit. This is true because (a) the shooting from CB will occaisionally
diminish the number of casualties taken, whereas the additional LTS figures do
nothing to diminish casualties, and (b) the fact that it's a shooting unit draws
prep shooting fire away from other more legitimate shock troops (like your
knights and Moogs).

So good line troops do several things: they minimize the chance that they will
take 1 CPF in hand to hand; they minimize the chance that they will take 3 CPF
in hand to hand; they minimize the chance that non-line troops will take CPF in
prep shooting.

Look at an example: a 6 stand unit of Irr C MI with LTS,Sh in the front and CB
in the back. This unit costs 85 points. Keep that in mind. Now let's look at how
it fares against historical shock troop opponents, namely Irr B EHK L,Sh (2
stands, 115 points).

First, note that a single unit of EHK has little chance of harming your MI. If
the EHK charge impetuously, they start as 5@7, but this quickly gets cut down by
various factors: -2 for facing LTS; if they've taken even 1 CPF in prep shooting
they'll hit tired, hence another -1; they're likely to take 2 CPF in support
shooting, for another -2. In other words, no real chance of doing 1 CPF, and if
they can't do 1 CPF then they're dead meat sitting in front of the MI.

Suppose you up the ante, and throw in 2 units of EHK. The norm would be that
these two units would hit the MI as 5@4 and 5@3, assuming one of them takes 1
CPF in support shooting coming in, and the other takes 2 CPF. This just barely
produces 1 CPF. That assumes, however, that the EHK started from outside 120p
(not trivial to set up properly), and that neither took a CPF from prep shooting
(probably one of them would), and that the MI didn't roll up on support
shooting. All in all, 2 units of EHK, that cost almost triple what the MI cost,
have less than a 50/50 chance of doing 1 CPF.

Any lesser cavalry is more vulnerable. SHK fare slightly better, but cost more,
and it's still going to take 2 units to take out this MI, and they won't do it
quickly. Probably a minimum of 4 bounds.

This MI unit does have some major vulnerabilities. It does not fare as well
against elephants, though again even elephants aren't going to quickly put 3 CPF
on it. It's also fairly vulnerable to loose order impetuous foot.

The key in these cases is to provide proper support with the right shock troops.
This is _so_ critical to all of Warrior: the game is really all about elegant
combined arms tactics, and if you only think linearly about what units beat what
one on one, then you're missing most of what victory depends on.

In the case of the Romanian Franks, the Moogs do a nice job of bolstering the
LTS/CB in the face of elephants, and the knights do a nice job of bolstering the
LTS/CB in the face of loose order foot. So in cotnext, and with the right
support troops, these LTS/CB guys are a very cheap and very effective line troop
type.

In general I've found that 24 figures is a "magic number" for line troops. The
reasoning is this: if you can take cavalry down 2 when charging you, then it
takes at least 4 stands of cav to be assured of doing a CPF, and at that point
you're tying up a very large number of points with very few. That's what line
troops are supposed to do, enabling you to gain local superiority -- and
hopefully overall victory -- elsewhere on the field. Several combinations can
produce that -2 result: LTS by itself; missile troops that can put at least 1
CPF on knights in prep, and 1 in support; missile troops that can put at least 2
on other cav in prep and at least 1 in support. 6 stands is also an ideal
maneuver size for line units, enabling you to start in a 1x6 column and expand
out 2 to either side in approach moves.


-Mark Stone