Ancient British

[JadedMantis]

I would like some opinions on Ancient British.
In particular:
- should they have an IC general or would they work fine with 4 TCs? (I am not one for much flank marching).
- Warriors: 2x12 or 3x8? I like 2x12 plus TCs and then 6 or 8 Elites as well.
- Having trouble fitting the chariots in, how useful are they?

I would want to be using the Romans with them. Roman Auxilia in 4s or 6s?

Not looking for this to be an open tournament fighter, rather as an interesting army to play against mostly foot or combined arms armies.

[MatthewP]

I've usedAncient British several times and my own personal list is as follows.

1* IC
3 * Tc

1 * 8 BG impact foot
1* 10 BG impact foot
1 * 6 BG impact foot (usually rear support can do other stuff in an emergency)
1 * 8 BG Elite impact foot
3 * 4 BG Light Chariots
1 * 4 LH
6 * 6 Slingers

I find it a fun and versatile army to use, and also quite successful. You are nearly always fighting at a -ve so you have to think hard about how you deploy and how you intend touse it. The light foot combine very well with the chariots. There job is to disrupt and delay/pull the enemy apart allowing the chariots to pick them off. The fact that both of these are capable of skirmishing provides you with a very flexible wing.
The infantry I always deploy last. Being undrilled once deployed they pretty much only go forward in a straight line. they are often more use as a distraction to draw of the enemy heavy foot, who see them as an easy target.

One of the hardest things to do with this army is get the balance of terrain right. Too much and the chariots cant operate effectively, too little and the infantry are too exposed.

I dont use the Roman ally. I can see the benefit of having a drilled unit on the flanks of the infantry but I wouldnt need more than one. You already have an excellent set of rough terrain troops and they are expensive.

Too many medium foot makes you fat too one dimensional and very vunerable especially to lancers.

I would definately take an IC not only because it gives you more control of terrain but more importantly it makes you less vunerable to shooting. Both the infantry and chariots can get badly mauled by concentrated fire power. Even the elites as I have found out to my cost can be overcome by skirmisher shooting if you allow them to be ganged up on.

Hope this helps.

[JadedMantis]

My son is keen on the chariot heavy version, got any thoughts on that one?

[MatthewP]

Havent tried it yet. I have enough chariots to replace one of the foot bgs with a chariot one, although it means using the generals chariots and replacing them with cavalry figures. I'm not convinced about the balance of this though. Chariots need to be deployed in line so they can evade. if you have too many they may end up getting in each others way, especially if there is more ethan a few terrain peices. But as I havent actually tried it yet I can't say how well it would work. I would be interested to find out how an Ancient British army completely of chariots and light foot does. I think it might be a little light weight.

[lawrenceg]

I would like some opinions on Ancient British.
In particular:
- should they have an IC general or would they work fine with 4 TCs? (I am not one for much flank marching).
- Warriors: 2x12 or 3x8? I like 2x12 plus TCs and then 6 or 8 Elites as well.
- Having trouble fitting the chariots in, how useful are they?

I would want to be using the Romans with them. Roman Auxilia in 4s or 6s?

Not looking for this to be an open tournament fighter, rather as an interesting army to play against mostly foot or combined arms armies.

Warrior grouping probably does not make that much difference, everyone seems to do it differently.

Chariots are about as useful as the infantry (i.e. not very), but they can manouevre. If you have a lot of drilled Romans there is less need for them.

Romans in 6s if you expect them to fight. 4's if you will just use them to do flank charges on enemy who will as a result be helpless.

Have not tried this army without an IC, but control of initiative and terrain is largely relevant. The +2 on CTs is very handy as you will normally be at -1 POA in melee and therefore lose, also for those undrilled CMTs. Using big BGs will often protect you from shooting CTs as it is hard to get 3 hits on an 8 or 4 on a 10 or 12.