Common misconceptions

[Erpingham]

English Longbowmen - equipped with automatic weapons that mowed down the opposition  in droves

You could produce an entire book with longbow misconceptions.  They vary from the "folk history" style ones (longbows were made out of yew trees grown in churchyards), through the disputed (they were effective against armoured targets more than 30 yards away, longbowmen were commanded by master bowmen and resupplied in the field by relays of ammunition-carrying boys) to the fanboy (longbowmen could hit with every arrow, which they shot at 15 arrows a minute from 160lb bows and could do this for hours).

[DougM]

Romans, chariots. Out of period, roundhead and cavaliers, Waterloo. Etc.

[Justin Swanton]

Elephants getting slaughtered on the battlefield by arrows, javelins, whatever.

[Nick Harbud]

One of my favourites:

In order to become a Knight, one needs to be lobotomised so that you do not notice what a bad idea it is to charge that shieldwall of steady spearmen or chase those pesky light cavalry until you are miles away from your friends and twenty times as many LC converge upon you.

[Imperial Dave]

close order infantry men mown down by cavalry wielding butter knives......

[Erpingham]

close order infantry men mown down by cavalry wielding butter knives......

Back in the day, before WRG army books, Huns were often shown armed with large butter knives.   Such a weapon has often seemed to me somewhat awkward for a cavalryman to use.

[Justin Swanton]

Two opposing forces fighting to the death, with one side deciding it might be an idea to cut and run only after 90% of their formation are corpses.

[Dave Knight]

Thought of another super unit

Palestinian clubmen

I can't remember which WRG list they were in - one of the Roman ones I think - but they were probably a lot more effective on the table than their 1:1 scale counterparts Palestine

[Erpingham]

Thought of another super unit

Palestinian clubmen

These may be a special category of wargamer misconception (I doubt if the general public have any conception of them, mis- or otherwise).  In this case, I suspect that people have knowingly elevated a rarity into a commonplace, because a quirk of the rules made them a must have troop type.

[Duncan Head]

Thought of another super unit

Palestinian clubmen

I can't remember which WRG list they were in - one of the Roman ones I think - but they were probably a lot more effective on the table than their 1:1 scale counterparts Palestine

They were, and are, in the Middle Imperial list. Turns out that there are several references to Romans using large clubs very effectively to fight cataphracts, but the "Palestinian" bit may have been a red herring.

[nikgaukroger]

Thought of another super unit

Palestinian clubmen

I can't remember which WRG list they were in - one of the Roman ones I think - but they were probably a lot more effective on the table than their 1:1 scale counterparts Palestine

They were, and are, in the Middle Imperial list. Turns out that there are several references to Romans using large clubs very effectively to fight cataphracts, but the "Palestinian" bit may have been a red herring.

IIRC it turned out that those "clubmen" were actually described as "the troops from Palestine" (or something close) as opposed to being Palestinians per se, and so most likely just Roman troops with an anti-catafract tactic. The tactic was used by Constantine I and Constantius II later as well, but the latter's use is, I believe, the last recorded use.

[Imperial Dave]

incendiary pigs!

[Duncan Head]

incendiary pigs!

Not a misconception.

At the siege of Megara, Antigonus (Gonatas) brought his elephants into the attack; but the Megarians daubed some swine with pitch, set fire to it, and let them loose among the elephants. The pigs grunted and shrieked under the torture of the fire, and sprang forwards as hard as they could among the elephants, who broke their ranks in confusion and fright, and ran off in different directions.

[Imperial Dave]

incendiary pigs!

Not a misconception.

At the siege of Megara, Antigonus (Gonatas) brought his elephants into the attack; but the Megarians daubed some swine with pitch, set fire to it, and let them loose among the elephants. The pigs grunted and shrieked under the torture of the fire, and sprang forwards as hard as they could among the elephants, who broke their ranks in confusion and fright, and ran off in different directions.

oh yes I know the reference its just the amount of times I faced them in WRG 6th games....an inexhaustible procession of smoky bacon 

[DougM]

I must confess - I did struggle to figure out how multi-armed and well-armoured cataphracts couldn't just kill the blokes armed with big clumsy clubs.