Request for some playtesting....

This is why I called for play testing. We have found this to be quite a useful and powerful add for LH. The problem of course is that "we" are a small group. A much larger group of players with different styles and experience levels are needed to produce a wider range of opinions. I have seen this leave some armies quite flatfooted if the terrain is correct.

In big battle games, the effect seems less, though on occasion it has lead to an effective flank attack early.

My big battle experience is unfortunately limited with this... simply because of limited time.

Joe Collins

I’ve been doing some playesting of these new proposals…not as full battles I should point out,
but as two or three bound scenarios. This is so that I can explore their full potential in various
situations, many of which wouldn’t occur in a single game.
Besides, the LH suggestion only applies in the first bound, and then it’s business as usual.


LH Moves For Free In The First Bound
This is almost like deploying the LH second, after seeing your opponent’s deployment, as they
can move about quite freely in the first bound and are not dependent on the the PIP roll.

However, it is very much a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ proposition, meaning the LH will have to move in
the first bound or this new rule will have no effect. It also means that armies with only a few
LH can zoom off on their own but will then become vulnerable to concentrated enemy attacks.
To move the the LH as a group with other elements, for some protection, will still cost PIP’s.

So it is only really useful if you have lots of LH. And even then it only counts in the first bound.
In short, its effect is rather minimal, and does not really have that much impact…except to save
a few PIP’s in the first bound.

The problem with the LH subsequent move ability in DBA is they need better PIP luck to use it.
In other words, LH only really gets to use their ability if they have more PIP luck than the enemy.
And any army getting more PIP luck is halfway to being victorious anyway.
In other words, LH need luck to win…other elements can still win with less luck, making LH weak.

What would be much more effective is to allow LH to make their first move in every bound free.
This is similar to Paddy’s “LH only pays ½ a PIP to move” suggestion (which works quite well).
LH will be able to zip about and dance around their opponents, and only need PIP’s for extra moves.
Whichever method is used, they’ll finally become a force to be reckoned with, instead of being the
poor quality weak wimpy luck dependent version of Cavalry they are at present.

(Another thing that would help the LH underdogs is to allow them to ignore corner-to-corner overlaps,
like Psiloi. Light skirmishing Psiloi armed with missile weapons ignore such overlaps presumably
because they want to keep their distance and avoid hand-to-hand combat. So why can’t skirmishing
LH, especially Horse Archers (!) do the same?)

Interestingly, the historical accounts of LH engagements presents us with something of a paradox.
Knights beat Cavalry (CF 4 v CF 3), Cavalry beats Light Horse (CF 3 v CF 2, and if the LH has rear support
they’ll have a shorter battleline…still a disadvantage), while Light Horse beats Knights (with a ‘quick kill’).
So in DBA the best mounted counter to Light Horsemen is Cavalry.
Yet Roman Cavalry were constantly confounded by Numidian light mounted javelinmen…not only during
the Punic Wars but also later, making the Marian Roman conquest of Numidia a tough proposition.
Allowing LH to zip about freely, by whichever method, would address this and be more historical.


Elephants Flee From Shooting On An Equal Score
Try as I might I can find no good historical accounts of Bows, let alone Artillery, against Elephants.
This doesn’t mean there are no such accounts…it just means I haven’t found any (at least, not yet).
But one thing thing I constantly come across is how the ancients deployed their Elephants.
And in just about every battle they had them in a long thin skirmish line in front of their entire army.

At Bagradas in 255 BC the Spartan mercenary Xanthippos had 100 of them in front of the Carthaginians.
At Zama in 202 BC Hannibal had 80 of them in front of his Gauls, Ligurians and light skirmishers.
Every Macedonian Successor army placed their Elephants, if they had them, in front of their army.
Even during Caesar’s Civil War the Romans had their Elephants out in front of the entire army.

But in DBA, having Elephants in front of your troops is complete madness, due to recoils (and fleeing).
Were the ancient commanders stupid and we DBA players far more intelligent?
Or is the way DBA treats recoiling and fleeing Elephants not quite right?
Did the ancients know something that we don’t know? (well…they didn’t have to abide by the DBA rules!).

What I am trying to say is the more deadly we make recoiling and fleeing Elephants, the less likely players
are going to have friendly troops behind them…yet every ancient commander in every ancient battle did.

One possible solution to this paradox is to tone down the recoiling and fleeing Elephant effect.
All the ancient accounts say Elephants didn’t ‘trample’ and destroy those behind them.
But they certainly disordered them.
This can be better simulated by borrowing a rule from HoTT:-
       Have recoiling and fleeing Elephants bursting through those behind them, causing them to flee.
This would result in those behind temporarily fleeing, creating a gap in the battleline, leaving
adjacent friends vulnerable to overlaps, and requiring PIP expenditure and time to reform.
That seems to more closely fit the historical accounts than having troops permanently destroyed.

In short, if Elephants flee on an equal score from shooting, then tone down their rampaging effects.
Otherwise no player will put friends behind them…even though this was common practise in reality.

Yes….it’s amazing how a rule in the the old DBA 2 ruleset that for 20 years was treated as gospel
and an empirical guide to how ancient warfare was fought, and was vigorously defended as such,
has now been suddenly consigned to the rubbish bin and a brand new dogma has replaced it. 

Oh, one more thing about your “LH moves for free in the first bound”.
It also allows what I call ‘the star burst effect’….
….deploy an all LH army in a single line, and since the LH move for free they can zoom into any
formation they like for no PIP cost (as if they had out-scouted the enemy and deployed second).

Even only having a few LH elements can be useful.
Move a group of elements for a PIP, then move any available LH to protect their flank for free.
(Paddy’s “LH only pays ½ a PIP to move” has a similar effect, but is less artificial and ‘gamey’)