This is an issue that has been asked about several times by various players over the years
Dekelia.
And welcome to Fanaticus by the way.
Here is my understanding of the situation.
The historical role of the Peltasts“Peltasts were traditionally skirmishers, evading when charged, and wearing their enemy down with a rain of javelins.
Plutarch says that when the Achaians were armed in this way they did not fight in formed units, (they) skirmished
from a distance but were ineffective at close quarters, and their tactics were
peltastikes, peltast style.”
(Source: Duncan Head’s “Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars”, page 113, 2016 edition)He also goes on to say:-
“Peltasts were lightly-equipped infantry, who were nonetheless better armed than ordinary skirmishers,
(thus they could be used in the main battleline to defend the vulnerable flanks of a Hoplite or Pike Phalanx)”
From this we see that there were three distinct types of ancient foot soldiers:-
* Those that could only fight hand-to-hand (Blades, Spears, Pikes, and Warbands)...
* Those that preferred to fight at a distance (skirmishing Javelinmen, Slingers, and Bowmen)...
* And those that could do both (Peltasts).
(It’s a similar situation with mounted: Knights fight hand-to-hand, Light Horse prefer to fight at a distance,
and what DBA calls ‘Cavalry’, armed with javelins and/or bows, were able to do both depending on the situation)
The problem with DBABecause the only troops in DBA that are capable of running away and fleeing (i.e. ‘evading’) when charged are Psiloi,
the rules have to use Psiloi in this role. So instead of making the rules to fit reality, we have the rules trying to make
reality fit the rules.
Thus we get the following situation:-
Greek Hoplite: “Sire, shall we use our traditional skirmishers in the coming battle, or shall we use these new Peltasts?”
Greek General: “Why? What advantage do these new Peltasts have over our traditional javelinmen, slingers, and archers?”
Greek Hoplite: “Ah...well...er...none sire...but they do have a new fancy name!”
A possible solutionJoe Collins suggested some time ago that Ax troops (and I would include 3Bow and Ps) be allowed to recoil like mounted,
i.e. either a base depth OR a full base width, owner’s choice.
This nicely simulates ‘evading’ an enemy charge, and actually gives them a ‘breaking-off’ ability, even from pursuers.
(Personally I don’t think this should apply to 4Ax troops, as there is no historical evidence that Imperial Roman Auxilia
used ‘Peltast’ tactics...but give 4Ax a +1 in hand-to-hand combat, either against all foot opponents or only in certain
situations, to show that 4Ax were an improved, trained, drilled, or just a naturally stubborn version of the disordered,
untrained native 3Ax troops)
Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2020 FAQ: ancientwargaming.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/dba_faq_q1_2020_final.pdf
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