The Loose Association of Wargamers

This is, specifically, a Field of Glory question but could be pertinent to any rule set as long as its as inflexible as FoG.

The famed McColla, Irish leader of men & a stalwart in Montrose's army, had an equally redoubtable bodyguard of about 140 men who were Hebridean kinsmen, picked Irish soldiers & various Highland Heavies. This operated as a discreet unit in the Scottish bit of the ECW.

This is definitely a small unit but one capable of literally turning battles. If you were to be strictly rule-bound, it would be about 2 bases with a total of 6 figures: a Commanded Shot-sized "unit". Such a formation, on its own, would be quickly annihilated by any standard 6 base (20 figures) pike and shot regiment and have no real battlefield impact.

My wee pals and I are discussing how to represent this unit in our wargames. My position is to make it a 6 base unit in order to represent its abilities rather than its actual strength.

Your opinions?

donald (BTW why aren't there any tartan-clad emojis on this site?)

Isn't the first question, how did the unit turn battles (and of course, did it really do that)?

Iain

This is the Guard question in wargamng.

The answer is that they fight like gods and do not break. Inspiration for units in contact is good too.

They could get to fight first and also reduce the morale of any opponents they face

grizzlymc wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 3:13 pm This is the Guard question in wargamng.

FoG, for all its faults, doesn't let you have "super units": certainly not too many of them.
If you follow their army lists - and we do - Montrose gets mostly Average units, some Poor and one or maybe two Superior.
The Strathbogie Regiment &, perhaps, McColla's chaps (if we make them a proper unit). No Elites at all.

This is much like their Covenanting opponents who have Campbell of Lawers Foot as their Superior unit & a bunch of Average & rather too many Poor units.

And the "super power' of Superior units? They re-roll '1's in morale, movement & fighting. Useful but not overwhelmingly so.

Of course, we can & do adjust the Quality of units depending on the scenario.

donald

But what do they do to turn a battle?

Iain

Essex Boy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:15 pm But what do they do to turn a battle?

Iain

The classic was at Auldearn when Hurry surprised Montrose. McColla & his BG entered the fray & held the Covenanters until Montrose could organise a counter-attack.

So their "super-power" was bloody-minded determination......re-roll '1's in morale.

donald

Sounds about right.