C&C

[FreddBloggs]

Rules for brigading, or not.

Have it so the unit to the left can be told, do what your neighbour does.

Oh and have activations only once a certain distance apart or it will take forever to close to fight.

[Paul]

Keep your system as you've described but add in a "natural" action for failed rolls.
So perhaps good quality troops might stand on a roll of 2 or 3 but start to either advance or fall back an inch or two depending on their enthusiasm!
Whereas poorer quality troops might start to fall back a little on a 2 and a full move on a 1.
Really enthusiastic troop types might rush forward if "uncommanded!

Slight movement forward or back can cause a command headache and represents the "jostling" that goes on in a body of warriors especially when uncommanded and of poorer quality.

[levied troop]

Given that the rubbish levy would not want to charge (& will lose heavily if they do), the quality troops (the majority) are professionals &/or warriors. Charging is their meat.

Worth considering that rubbish levy might actually be keen on charging since they don't really understand how nasty it gets. Like the old WRG Irregular D class - where they tended to either go into uncontrolled charge or run away but rarely actually follow normal orders.

That. Distinguishing between training and morale is quite useful for mob/levy - they might be crap but they are all keen for a fight and have a chance of pulling off a surprise result. Equally, experienced/veteran troops might have got that way by not rushing into combat ASAP.

[ochoin]

With the remote possibility I'm not boring everyone to tears, here's my decision:

"ACTIVATION PHASE

At the beginning of each player's turn, he will throw a number of D6s - one for each unit not routing or destroyed.
Each dice scoring 3 or above becomes an Activation Dice & is placed in a pool.

From this pool, the player will select a dice and place it behind a unit of his choice to indicate it is in command and can be moved that turn during the movement phase. Any unit that does not get a dice can fire missiles at any enemy in range or defend themselves if charged but cannot move.

Any unit that begins the turn with the Warlord attached does not need activation but may move freely.

Unused dice must be discarded at the end of the turn."

I took on board everyone's advice. A prime consideration is to keep these rules fairly simple. I have a few combat modifiers & armour saves: I don't want too much more chrome.

The DBA-esque activation does mean a commander must make decisions based on his probably insufficient dice. So, if he wants to have a unit of militia-rubbish act extremely aggressively, he can. If he wants to advantage his elite palatini or lanciarii, he can....but he probably can't do both.

I also think this has an impact on how independent a unit is. If it hares off from the main army & is not activated, it stands the real possibility of being hit in the flank.

At any rate, when I get around to a having a few games (November?), I'll know how foolish my decisions are.

donald

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

I don't pretend to have any idea about Ancient warfare, but I have to disagree with the idea that inexperienced mob/levy will charge into battle simply because they haven't (yet) seen hordes of their fellow farmers/peasants being chopped to pieces at first hand. I have always understood the term "levy" to mean some sort of conscript - ie someone who is there unwillingly - and I'm not sure (albeit through the mists of time) that this is the sort of unit that WRG "D" class was representing. Surely most people at that time would have heard tales from veterans of how vicious and messy hand-to-hand combat was and reacted accordingly (and if not, then any passing vet with a "sense of humour" would have made sure they knew what awaited them)? Anyone whose "keenness" was piqued by such stories would most likely have run off and joined up anyway.

If you've been handed a pointy stick, forced to stand just a few hundred yards from people who want to eviscerate you (and look the part), and told to "get stuck in" then I rather suspect that any "charge" will be very much in the opposite direction. At the very least, I would test such units according to how "professional" (ie psychotic) their nearest opponents looked. If the latter look like a similar bunch of wusses, then maybe; if they look like they want to dine in Sparta tonight, then instant rout.

Thoughts?

[grizzlymc]

I think too much is made of the keen green and shy veterans. I have a campaign mechanism in which a newly raised unit in its forst action may get a boost to its elan, because such things have happened. The old trope about 7AD and 51HD in NWE 44 has surely been consigned to its place in the dustbin of history. Most vets know that he who hesitates is cut to pieces, they might not be big on cheering but they will usually advance to the slaughter simply because it is safer than running away.

[ochoin]

Given the combat factors of my rules, a levy unit probably won't charge a unit of veteran heavy Roman infantry twice.
There won't be enough left. Now whether this indicates the 'missing' figures are killed, wounded or have fled is fairly immaterial.

As for the initial courage needed to charge......well, even Lonely would act with spirit, if Callan was standing behind him offering encouragement & a beating if he hesitated. Levy & Veteran: a symbiotic relationship.

donald

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Levy & Veteran: a symbiotic relationship.

It certainly wasn't a sympathetic one. Plus, that nice Mr Callan also had a firearm - I suspect that would have bucked many an ancient conscript farmer's ideas up.

[ochoin]

When I think of conscripts/levy/militia, the mental picture is of a cross between Lonely & Baldrick.

I think this makes me an elitist git.

donald

[grizzlymc]

You may be an elitist git, but I think you are correct. Ratioonal soldiers would simply go home. Once you are on the eve of battle, no defeat invasion could be worse than what's waiting for you tomorrow. Hence coercion, liquor and a bit of ra ra.

I think there is an even bigger gulf between levy and men whose entire life is training and fighting, and that gulf is probably wider than the one between me with a rusty ack and an Iraq/Afghanistan veteran with all the gear.