Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Don Coon]

> The Roman checkerboard formation is just what Jon hates as he has stated:
> "The 'pulling' of 6.165 can't be done to a proper line of troops. If you
> want to have a lot of little attack columns running around, beware..."
>
> a bit more bias against reg troops it seems as small unit size is their
> main strength.


I think this is just another case of email is inferior to face to face
conversation. I bet if we were all together and layed out some elements, we
would all be in agreement as to what should and should not be legal. I know
Jon is. I think what he was asking of the group was a little help
clarifying 6.163/6.165 to have them clearly state this intent.

I run Romans in 2 element bodies and do not have much problem getting yanked
from behind my buddies. If I am checker boarded, fit and flank rules
protect me almost every time. On a few occasions Chris Bump or Patrick
Byrnes have outmoanuevered me and made me pay, but for the most part the
formation is sound per the rules.

Don

I have been following the very interesting posts regarding the Roman relief
system. My impression has always been that those relief troops would lob their
pila a long way past the fighting front ranks; casualties anywhere in the "body"
would be effective. I also assumed that HTH combat is very tiring and not
necessarily going on throughout the time wargame units are in contact so your
centurions and optios would be looking for those lulls to bring up fresh troops.
However this is far easier to imagine as maniples within a cohort rather than
whole cohort replacement. At the end of the day we don't know how the Romans did
it but they did something.
On a related note regarding multiple use of pila there is of course the
possibility in Republican times of carrying more than one and more practically
is it likely that every legionary in an eight rank deep cohort discharged his
pilum at the first opportunity?
Paul
Ps What are the chances of the numerous guys out there with military connections
borrowing some troops and doing some archaeological reconstructions to find out
if you can train a body of men to do this? There was an interesting BBC
programme some time back where they attempted to reconstruct a Roman marching
camp ditch/palisade. Once they actually tried to use the equipment in the field
they came up with practical applications.
Paul


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