I too would like to thank Simon and all those that attended for a thoroughly
enjoyable day (although the 1 hour lunch break I was expecting was reduced
to just 20 minutes, so I only managed to gulp a single pint!).
I had my usual phenomenal luck, both good and bad...in one battle the Gauls
under my command destroyed three Polybian Romans for the loss of only one
of their own, allowing them to surround and hard-flanked three of the enemy
(including their General), only to roll three ‘1’s’, have three killed, and lose the battle!
But in another game a Thessalian Hoplite I was controlling was hard-flanked by a
Lysimachid Pike while engaged with a column of Pikes, held their ground, allowing
a Thessalian Cavalry element to hard-flank the Pike column and destroy it, as well
as the flanking Pike which had no room in which to recoil! (three killed in one go!).
So I can’t really complain.
It was all swings and roundabouts.
As for Joe’s rule changes, they were only partly tested in a few of my engagements,
but I had already extensively playtested them beforehand when they were first
suggested nearly a year ago.
Pikes - on an equal combat score, non-pike foot are recoiled by solid pike.This has a very minor effect, as there is only about 5 chances or less of it happening
out of 36. Nonetheless, it does encourage the enemy to keep something in reserve,
just in case. But it can work against the Pikes, as they’ll have slightly more chance to
‘pursue-too-far’ and out-distance any flank protecting friendly Threat Zones, leaving
them more at risk of being hard-flank by the enemy reserves (as happened to the
Lysimachid Pike column mentioned above).
Bows - +1 PIP for a foot element/group to move into frontal contact with Bow.This again has very little effect...if the enemy foot rolls enough PIP’s that is.
A PIP roll of ‘1’ stops them, but any other PIP roll still allows a group to make
contact. And it’s completely ineffective if the enemy has a PIP roll of ‘4’ or more.
If the aim is to break-up the foot formation to allow more overlaps for the Bows
then there are other ways this could be achieved...such as having the Bows recoiling
all opponents on an equal score (both in close combat and from shooting). Then
the enemy’s formation will be broken-up more often, causing more PIP expenditure
to get them all moving together (costing 3 PIPs if the centre element in a group
recoils). Also, it would be beyond the control of the enemy, who with the +1 PIP
method can decide whether to risk a partial advance or simply wait for a higher
PIP roll.
Auxilia- recoil 1BW from Pike or Blade (unless destroyed).This is nice, as it gives Ax a chance to effectively break-off from pursuing heavy inf.
It also means they can’t be hard-flanked after recoiling from solid foot. But why
can they not do the same from Spears? And why can’t other ‘evading’ type troops,
such as Psiloi and 3Bows, do the same?
However, if the aim is to make Ax last a bit longer in close combat, them I’m afraid
it is a complete failure. Oh, those ‘evading’ 1 BW will be fine...but they still leave
their adjacent Ax friends subject to overlaps, no matter how far back they recoil.
And it’s overlaps that kill Ax (CF 3 with -1 for the overlap v CF 5 has 18 chances of
recoiling and 12 chances of being doubled out of 36. With an easily achievable
double overlap this becomes 15 chances of recoiling and 18 (!) chances of being
doubled...which is 50%!).
If you want Ax to survive longer, then having them ignore corner-to-corner
overlaps, like Psiloi, when fighting heavy infantry would have more effect.
Nonetheless, I do like this 1 BW ‘evade’ recoil, as it protects them from being
hard-flanked from slow 2 BW movers...too bad about their mates they leave
behind though.
Still, it does no harm, but should also apply to both Psiloi and 3Bow as well for
the exactly same reasons.
Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2019 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2019_1st_Quarter