Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Frank Gilson]

Various people have brought up replacing troops already in contact.

In the past, this usually occurred by charging your mounted through
your light infantry that was being beaten up by enemy mounted. Now,
though, we also have the Roman infantry special rules.

First off, the use of LI as a 'sponge'. LI units are some of the
cheapest we have available to us, you also don't take wavers for
routing LI. LI units also cover good frontage.

Those facts all make LI something you can use to pin the opponent,
do a little shooting, and absorb an enemy mounted charge. As long as
the LI are not routing, or if they are routing, the enemy mounted
are impetuous, then you can charge through your LI with your mounted
and contact the enemy at significant advantage.

Opposing enemy foot with LI isn't as successful, as you have to
either waver or recall away from them when they get close
enough...and if you stood to receive a charge your LI would likely
vaporize on the spot in most cases. Also, there's a fair amount of
enemy foot that your mounted don't want to contact...especially
disordered from charging through your LI.

This can be a reason to use upgraded LI...sometimes you want C
morale plus shields, so they are less likely to rout (and can also
charge away enemy shieldless LI).

Now...for Romans...it has been mentioned, but I also encountered the
problem in the mini-event at Cold Wars...where I really wanted to
have a couple of units behind my legionary line...but given that
they are close order foot and expensive, that cut my frontage down
significantly...a bad thing!

So, it is much harder to use Roman infantry and have back up units
than to employ LI plus a reserve of lancers. You have to cut down
the frontage somehow (terrain? superior skirmishers?) to properly
employ the legionaries.

Anybody have some good tactics for Romans?

Frank Gilson

[Larry Essick]

Frank,

I have thought about running LIR as D legions, fairly large, with
small 2 element B class hanging around behind. The idea is to be able
to either mass together if needed or to exploit an exposed flank as
legion A is recoiled and legion B advances.

It is expensive, but running most of the troops as D morale frees up
some points.

Larry

[joncleaves]

In a message dated 4/19/2004 3:08:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
franktrevorgilson@... writes:

> So, it is much harder to use Roman infantry and have back up units
> than to employ LI plus a reserve of lancers. You have to cut down
> the frontage somehow (terrain? superior skirmishers?) to
> properly
> employ the legionaries.
>
> Anybody have some good tactics for Romans?>>

Having playtested the roman rules and having been helping a friend with his
Marians (as well as eyeing an EIR of my own...) I have a couple thoughts on
this.

Romans in this post are those to whom the list rules apply.

I think Romans need to cut down the board - you want to make the infantry work,
so you need to have at least one flank under control terrain-wise.

I think each of the lists gives you something to handle the opposite flank -
which you choose depends on your style and whether the event is themed or open.

I think the list rules should be looked at this way:
Most useful - Fulcum
next most used - swordsman
least used, but good to have - circulation.

I think taking 2E HI units with generals in the Marian list is the way to go -
they can provide support and either circulate or provide a charge on something
near the flanks of the line legionaries.

I think HI with the list rules should all forced march. What is 2FP to a roman?

I think the line should be interspersed with lancers and small loose order units
to keep skirmishers from stopping your line. A homogenous roman line will die
to lancer/LMI pairs (fulcum-charged by LMI, out of fulcum, charged by lancer),
but is very effective when using combined arms of its own.

I think using circulation will fail if a player tries to rely on it and/or force
it. I think there should be 2-4 x 2E units in the list that are capable of it,
generals if possible, to be ready to act on situations, but that some sort of
line of 4E units behind 4E units is neither historical nor tourney-practical.
It should also be remembered that the list rule permits bringing forward JLS
armed figs in the same body to fight subsequent bounds. This can be very useful
against certain opponents, especially in period.

Jon