Ticinus with Optio - first game

[Justin Swanton]

Here is an AAR of a game between Peter and yours truly played in April. The Romans ahistorically used their velites as hamappoi. After Duncan pointed out that velites weren't used in this role until later we played a second game with velites acting as straightforward LI. I'll post that battle report soon.

[dwkay57]

A good write up Justin. Was the brittleness just because both sides were all cavalry?

[Justin Swanton]

A good write up Justin. Was the brittleness just because both sides were all cavalry?

Thanks David. Cavalry should be brittle in that cavalry fights were generally over much more quickly than infantry ones. I replicate that in Optio by resolving all mounted vs mounted charge and melee combat twice, as opposed to once for mounted vs foot and foot vs foot. So the loser loses 2 morale intervals instead of one. If his first loss pushes him into shaken he may lose 3 intervals. In a drawn melee both sides will lose 2 intervals instead of the usual 1. One way or another the fight doesn't last long.

However I found that the cavalry were a tad too brittle in this game. The rule for a morale test had been that when 1/4 of an army's stands have routed, all brittle units automatically rout. When 1/3 stands have routed, all average units rout and when 1/2 stands rout, the resolute units rout. But that tends to end things too quickly. The rule is now amended to 1/3 stands for brittle units, 1/2 stands for average and 2/3 stands for resolute. In the second Tininus game (battle report soon) this worked much better.

[Erpingham]

Have you made the change globally or just for this action, Justin?

[Justin Swanton]

Have you made the change globally or just for this action, Justin?

Globally. I based the original settings on the 1/3 loss in DBA determining victory (which seems to be the case in other rulesets) and which I applied to average units since most of an army are made up of those. But lost commanders and generals also add to the tally so too few actual stands were removed before the entire army collapsed. It was just unbalanced.