LH unprotected, Bow/Sw or Cv,Protected,Bow/Sw???

[nigelemsen]

Hi,

Have the figuares so looking at bringing my Timurid (tucoman) horseman as 2x BG's of 4x Cv,Protected,Average,Bow/Sw + 1BG of LH,Bow/Sw.

Prot Cv will be field in single rank anyway so will have the same shooting dice when facing other LH and have the option of chasing off other LH. Even mongol type Superior LH would need to think about standing. Where as "in-period" I believe 3 units of LH will spend more time being pushed back or in-effective because of "like for like" LH match ups... Also the Prot Cav give me a charge option against any units I actually have effective shooting against.

The overall army is 1xIC,2xTCs, 4BGs of Drilled Cv, 2xBGs of El, couple of bgs of MF archers who main roll is to rear support the average Bgs in the army, particulary the Els. This worked well against a Mongol Army on Monday.

Any real points against bringing Prot Cav apart from the being caught for shooting out of single rank.
Cheers
Nigel

[grahambriggs]

Not really a problem with the protected cavalry per se but only one group of LH in an army like this might worry me. I found with Ilkhanids that I used one LH BG to fall back slowly on a flank and two or three on the other flank were handy to support the cavalry push. Partly occupying the 6MU light zone at the side edge of the table and partly to nip in and gangup on shooting.

I presume the elephants are going to be a bit of a strike force. In which case the questiong is whether you're going to use the other cavalry to support their flanks (in which case protected is a bit weak for real fighting) or are the elephants going to hold back a bit unitl a soft target presents itself? In which case protected might be good enough.

With Ilkhanids I ended up with some armoured and some unprotected

[nigelemsen]

Hi,

After a bit of game testing the following works out fine as a starting point.

elephants blocked together with archers in rear support and the IC hanging around close. The Drilled Armed Cav, Sup, Bow/Sw on the flanks of the Elephants. This is the main "battle line". The question is to how to spend the remaining points which amounts to 2 BGs of Prot Cv and 1 Bg of LH or combinations around 12 elements there of. These points with tweaks around MF bow selections would form my refuse flank/area troops.

I did look at Ilkhanids + the standard selection of Kn's, but decided Timurids would be pretter

Cheers
Nigel

[philqw78]

Your BG of 4 average cav will be ganged up on by shooty LH or even shooty light foot. Since 4 wide against shooty types it will on average always test when shot at. Once its disrupted it must test to charge and being average has a high chance of failure. Then being average it has a difficult time getting out of the way so it is not shot again.

IMO take LH instead, even if 4 points is wasted.

[nikgaukroger]

For the Timurid army take them as LH, you'll get much better use out of them overall than you will by taking them as CV.

[nigelemsen]

Thanks, will try out 2 BGs of 6xLH

[philqw78]

No,.............3x4. 6's reduce the effect of LH by making them less manouverable. They survive longer in melee but are more likely to get trapped by battle troops.

[nigelemsen]

ok, will try tweaking the points around the MF bow and get 4xBg of 4LH in then I can if ness balance the flanks. Thanks.