Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

I want to reinforce what Jon and Christian are saying here (and by the way, for
Christian, who taught WRG 7 to me, Frank Gilson, Dave Stier, Jevon Garrett,
Sean Scott, and a host of other Rochesterians, to say that he is "not a top
player" is a bit like Tony LaRussa saying he has a lot to learn about
baseball).

I've been working on a longer piece in follow-up to my "Skirmisher Doctrine"
piece, this one entitled "Managing the Battle Line" (it'll be quite some time
before I'm done). Some ideas from that piece:

It's important to remember that the number 1 function of units on the front line
is to not rout at contact. If they can avoid routing at contact, then you have
turned a 1-on-1 matchup into a combined arms game, where the success of his
attack now depends on his ability to support it with other units, and the
success of your defense depends on your ability to impact the attack with other
units.

A related, but somewhat lesser point, is that you should, if possible, have line
units that require 2 enemy strike units to do a CPF to each of your line units.
Such a line is more durable, and also helps you gain an overall numerical
advantage elsewhere in key parts of the battlefield.

Putting these two points together, you'll see that the function of line units is
to minimize casualties received, not to maximize casualties put out. Weapons
like P or LTS (and to a lesser extent 2HCT) make excellent choices for line
units, as do missile weapons, particularly in combination with a minus-inducing
hand-to-hand weapon.

So JLS-armed close order foot are not optimal for the battle line, but they
aren't useless either. I lost the finals of the 25mm Open at Historicon to Marc
Cribbs because of my inability to rout a 6 stand unit of Reg B LMI JLS,Sh. I had
three units fighting it, including one on its flank, and induced a combat cause
of disorder every bound. He kept passing his wavers, though, and by the time the
unit finally shook the battle had already been decided elsewhere. This is not an
unusual sequence of events. Any line unit your strike units can beat is a
temptation, but being able to beat a line unit and rout a line unit are two
very different things.

Think about JLS-armed units in the following way: a single 2 stand unit of
impetuous L-armed cav will do 5@7 = 30. So even a mere 4 stand unit of MI
JLS,Sh should require more than a single cav unit to rout it. Have the MI unit
present as effectively 32 figures, and your opponent must now commit 2 L-armed
units to assure doing a CPF. The elephant math works similarly. A single
elephant model with 2 JLS-armed crew will do 5@3 (elephants) and 2@3 (crew) for
7@3=18. a 24 figure unit would thus require that at least 2 elephant models be
committed to do a CPF. And note that the JLS guys can actually inflict some
real pain on elephants.

So if I had to use JLS-armed close order foot on the battle line, I would buy
them as cheaply as possible and put them in 32-48 figure units. I've actually
done this with my 1st Crusade army, which has a 40-figure unit composed of all
the required crap close order foot.

Then what kind of a "risk" this line unit is depends on how you support it,
where you deploy it, and how you respond to your opponent's efforts to go after
it. There are three general uses for such a unit:
- a forcing unit: it plods forward, perhaps towards a key terrain feature such
as a hill, pushing light troops easily aside, and thus forcing your opponent to
respond to it;
- a baiting unit: similar to a forcing unit, but more passive; you put it out
there for your opponent to go after, and are prepared to respond with
supporting units if he does, but will also take the battle elsewhere if he just
leaves it alone;
- a diversionary unit: typically occurs when you put such a unit on the wing of
your army, you are basically letting your opponent rout it, assuming it will
take him too many units and too much time for it to be worth his while, and
that you can get everybody out of the way who might waver test. Note that a 12
stand unit of Irr D MI JLS,Sh, with 1 element upgraded to Irr C, costs only 125
points. I'm willing to concede 125 points to my opponent if (a) it doesn't
jeopardize other units in my army, and (b) it ties up enough of his units long
enough to give me a needed advantage elsewhere.

Remember, these units aren't there to win, or even to avoid losing. They are
there to not rout at contact. Any better result you achieve with them is a
bonus, but it all starts with not routing at contact. Once you've achieved
that, combined arms and multi-unit interactions come into play, and then you
have a game.


-Mark Stone

[Greg Regets]

A large, cheap, close order JLS unit on a gentle hill with steep
slopes, might just as well be an actual hole on the table where a)no
enemy troops may tread, b)enemy troops may fall into.