Blog of Badcon game 4

[Lurkio]

Hi, the next installment of our Badcon experieces is now on my Blog

http://www.lurkio.co.uk/blog

against Parthian, the final epitaph

thanks

Simon

[Patrick Waterson]

The Achaeans are an interesting army, but I do find myself agreeing that an IC might be a good idea for those times when the Achaeans try to get stuck in but their opponents do not stick around to get stuck!  Dice apart, one thing stands out for me about this army: it has no real 'battlewinners', consisting as it does of a lot of troops of fair quality and effectiveness but its best troops tend to come off second best in any contest with an opposing army's battlewinners.

Do please persevere with this one, as it makes an interesting change from the more usual offerings, but it will need to work out some consistently effective way to deal with the more solid and spiky types of opponent. :-)

Patrick

[Lurkio]

Well, the battle winners should be the Chariots. Just to consider them for a moment in the game <game mode on>

A Light Chariot has no POA, they have 2 dice (and are generally superior) . They cost in at 15pts. The Greek ones have a light spear, most have a bow. They can evade in a single rank. No-one counts armour against them .. so on paper they don't look too bad

However, against Cavalry. Would typically are sword armed, they will always be a POA down in Melee. In Impact against lancers they will be down a POA , against other light spear level and a +POA against bow armed cavalry. So, at worst 18% down and at best 18% up.

If they dismount they become Superior Medium Foot, Armoured Offensive Spear (still costing 15pt).. which on the face of it is a pretty good troop type.

Compared to lets a 'roman legionary' coming in at 14pts.(which generally is the archetypal 'best' infantry). Who is a Superior Heavy Foot, Armoured Impact Foot/Skilled Sword.

The Legionary would be +POA in the impact, and if the Greek spear held steady a -POA in the Melee (both armoured, sword not counting against steady spear). The test after losing the impact might be hairy. (an average -1 losing (1p3), -1 losing to heavies, -1 losing to impact foot). The Greeks would have to score 10 to stay steady - so rear support and general would be needed.

Of course in any sort of 'going' the Greek medium foot is king.

The weak link I would say is the chariots option. The evade option is really limited as they cannot retire in front of  the enemy. In FOG v2 this will change and that may help out. Certainly the shooting chariots types will benefit.

The other killer for this army is the fact that it is all undrilled. But I believe in v2 the manoeuvrability of drilled foot will be nerfed
</game mode off>

Against anachronistic opponents this army will suffer. But in period I think it would be fine. Perhaps the problem is the popularity of 'biblical warfare'. I know that the Burton competition organisers deliberately extended the date of period to allow earlier Punic types in , just to facilitate people to play who don't have an army. I think that most folks would have something though, or at least the time to prepare something

It doesn't really affect me as I generally paint an army specifically for most competitions I play in.

[Patrick Waterson]

Thanks for the thoughts, Simon - I think your analysis is spot on.  Against Biblical opponents this army should do well, whereas out of period armies are always going to give it a challenging time.

It will be interesting to see how FoG version 2 goes, as I seem to remember a similar trend around WRG 5th-6th making drilled ('regular') armies less formidable against undrilled ('irregular'), though at the same time chariot usefulness rather went out of the window ...

Anyway, best of luck in your next endeavour, and keep up the blog!

Patrick