Everyone gets rear support!

What does ‘rear-support’ represent?
That is a very good question.
My answer is ...”it depends”.

Rear Ps and Bows are lobbing their missiles overhead, so troops with these in support
will be a little bit better than troops a single line. Then there is the morale effect of
having friendly foot troops behind you (but not so much mounted friends, as they by
their very nature are more dispersed and ‘flighty’, and unable to hold ground as their
large mounts make them very vulnerable when stationary).

But one thing we need to dispel is this notion of rear ranks ‘pushing’.
When rear ranks push, those at the front are crushed to death! (especially if both sides do it).
No...having rear support from non-missile troops can be summed-up with a single word...
...FATIGUE.

I wrote an article about fatigue here: fanaticus.boards.net/post/10629/ .
What follows is a brief summery:-

Take a typical Pike phalanx, 16 ranks deep. The first 4 or 5 ranks can use their long pikes
to fight (although only the first 2 ranks can actually see the enemy...the others are just
thrusting blindly at random). So what are the other 11 or 12 ranks doing?
I’ll tell you what they are doing...they are stepping forwards to relieve their tired mates.

Now let’s look at a Polybian Roman formation.
Are the rear Principes ‘pushing’ the front Hastati?
No...when the front Hastati becomes sufficiently tired, they fall back and the fresh Principes
step forward to take up the fight (although to this day we still don’t know exactly how this
was done in the heat of battle).

So having rear-support gives a +1 because it represents fresh rear troops being fed forwards.
And troops in a single line with no support are at a disadvantage when facing a column,
because they will become tired with no-one to relieve them.

Now let’s look at different types of foot rear-supporting each other.
At the battle of Mons Graupius in 84 AD, Agricola had a line of 4Ax Imperial Auxilia out in front
supported by a line of 4Bd Legionaries when he fought the 3Wb columns of the Caledonians.
Using ‘universal rear support’ we’ll have the 4Ax (CF 3+1) fighting 3Wb (CF 3+1), with the 3Wb
recoiling from the Solid 4Ax on an equal score, AND the 3Wb pursuing into overlap positions,
AND no ‘quick kill’ against the Auxiliaries.
Seems like a good representation of this battle...the Legionaries may not even become engaged,
just as in the actual battle, but their presence represents fresh men being sent forwards.

So don’t think that all troops must be armed the same in order to give rear support...
....instead think of fresh troops, even if armed differently, are still going to fresh, and give a combat
advantage against troops in a single line who have all become tired and eventually exhausted.

Actually, it's all just a matter of scale.
Pk supporting Pk are in a column, with the rear troops in physical contact with those in front.
Bd supporting Bd are in multiple lines, with a gap, but at DBA's 'Grand Army Scale' that gap
is too small to be shown on our wargames table...but it's still there.
The same applies when different troops are supporting each other.
'Universal rear support' is merely abstractly treating both these situations as the same thing.

Yes, I see what you are saying Snowcat.

Very well, I suppose we could have a system where the ‘+1 for universal rear support’ still applies,
but ALL recoiling foot MUST pass through those supporting them.
      Pk recoiling through Pk...no problem, they are the same type of troops, so combat factors remain the same.
      Bd recoiling through Bd...no problem, they are the same type of troops, so combat factors remain the same.
      Ax recoiling through Ax...no problem, they are the same type of troops, so combat factors remain the same.
      Wb recoiling through Wb...no problem, they are the same type of troops, so combat factors remain the same.
      Ah, but Bd recoiling through Wb...now the Wb are at the front of the column, and the combat effects are different.
That’ll make players think about who supports who, and it does seem realistic.

A little more complicated perhaps, but it would give the effect you are after, and I quite like it.
(Note that this is a compulsory combat outcome...the normal interpenetration rules still apply for tactical moves)

You know what...I think this could be a winner...

Ah, but how do solid Pk, Sp, Bd, etc recoil back *through* warband? How do close order drilled troops move back *effectively* through a mass of disorganised undrilled troops, especially of the close order variety? It would never happen. Except perhaps on a very good day when someone spotted a three eyed raven and a piglike creature roaming the sky...

Or perhaps I'm being unfair to the class of warband and what they were actually capable of. I just doubt it.

I think overall you're definitely being unfair to warband. they're still human, they still react mostly the same way other humans do and they're not armed that differently from everyone else. I think you're suffering from some Caesarian propaganda a little bit.

I've always thought of each unit having some kind of "super power" that makes it useful to have in the army. Wb can Quick Kill heavy infantry, supported Pk get really high CV. Bd have a high CV on their own. Spear have side support, Bw can shoot at distance. Ps are very hard to kill.
Ax.... erm..... they.... are ok in rough terrain?

So perhaps we have "like supports like".. EXCEPT Ax, that can support and be supported by EVERYONE because they are reasonably trained troops who aren't impetuous. So they can supply that "morale from behind" boost in a plausible way.

The only other elements that I think could provide rear support would be Ps or Bw, but I would leave them alone as we have other ways of simulating this (no overlapping for Ps out front, and 8Bw getting the +1 in combat).

"Like supports like, aux supports any" seems like an elegant compromise, and I feel like it does help give some definition to the role of auxilia.