Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Chris Damour]

Folks,
I know that I am reponding to a old email here, I've been busy and I
wanted to give this discussion the attention that it deserves. I have to
repectfully disagree with Jon here IF he is saying that elephant/barb foot
don't need reserves. (Although, knowing him as I do, I sincerely doubt
that was the point that he was trying to make.)
While I will concur with a statement that reserves are more important
to a "counterpunch" army, they are important in all armies. You need
reserves to exploit success and finish off your opponent. You can use
them to shore up a crumbling flank but that often is not the best use of
them. A tactical maxim to remember is to reinforce success, not defeat.
As a longtime player of barbarian foot armies, I can assure you that
they are actually counterattack armies in disguise. (And thus, reserves
are CRITICAL to winning the battle.) Think about it, you go into it
knowing that you are going to lose your frontline SOMEWHERE. You have to
have reserves to fill the hole.
The best strategy that I found while playing barbarian foot was to
deploy a line across your front with your high morale troops behind them.
Then, see where the masses his forces and send your reserve there. Wait
until he destroys your front line unit(s) and overwhelm him with your
second line. You ought to have more troops in reserve than he does
because you are probably cheaper than him. I realise that this sounds
like I am violating the maxim I stated about, but I am not. That was not
a defeat that I am reinforcing, this is "the plan". (Honest! <<grin>>)

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 JonCleaves@... wrote:
>  Varies by army
> >type; a force of regular SHK is much more counterpunch - hence needs
> >reserves - than is ay a Burmese, where the elephants are a first and
> >second line all by themselves and couldn't redeploy even if they
> >wanted to.>.
>
> I concur. Reserves are much more a medieval or roman thing than with elephant
and barbarian armies.
>
> Funny it's that way, huh?
>
> J


--
Christopher Damour