Anarchy charges with Inspired Leaders

[76mm]

I understand the rationale for anarchy charges, etc., but they seem to happen much too often with an Inspired Leader's BG. I just had another situation where my inspired leader's heavy cav unit was maneuvering to get behind the enemy's line when he charged off in another direction altogether and engaged some archers.

These guys are inspired leaders for a reason, I think they should be much much less likely than your average leaderless BG to charge off in random directions, but I have not found this to be the case.

[IainMcNeil]

I'll ask Keith to check leaders are applying their bonus to units they are with as others have mentioned this. I had drilled superior knights with an insipired general charge twice in a row and it was a mess!

[arsan]

I'll ask Keith to check leaders are applying their bonus to units they are with as others have mentioned this. I had drilled superior knights with an insipired general charge twice in a row and it was a mess!

Teaser!!

[Toby42]

I hate it when a drilled Legionaire charges and breaks up your line (s)!!!! I thought that the Roman Legions strength was their discipline???? Not so here.....

Great Game other than this!

[Morbio]

I didn't mention this before, but I am suffering from this too.

I've now restricted myself to using armies with Drilled Elite Cavalry (to ensure that they will stand and fight - solves my gripe about drilled superior evading similar units ) and now I find they are charging off attacking LF very often (don't these officers read the rules if they did they'd know there's no point because they can't catch them ) and worse still, they often charge through each other to do it My most recent experience was 4 Drilled Elite Cavalry supported by 1 Drilled Superior Cataphract Leader and in 3 turns there were at least 3 charges through each other so I ended up with 2 or 3 units disrupted and 1 fragmented.

Whilst annoyed by this I didn't gripe about it at the time, because it was an expected behaviour and I think people may have had enough of my griping about cavalry effectiveness.

I do think the frequency should be looked at, especially if drilled units are in command. It could be that I was just statistically unlucky, or maybe when considering these posts, something isn't quite right.

[Paisley]

As far as the legions go, aggressiveness seems to have been encouraged in the low-level leaders and so anarchy charges are fair enough really. Just put them down to excessive zeal.

[batesmotel]

I'll ask Keith to check leaders are applying their bonus to units they are with as others have mentioned this. I had drilled superior knights with an insipired general charge twice in a row and it was a mess!

The issue of total loss of control with anarchy charges is only going to get worse with Storm of Arrows and lots of knights being played. I just watched one of my Bosporan lancers charge through another cavalry unit which was fragmented already. This resulted in the unit charged through routing and the lancer that caused this dropping to fragmented when it saw the rout. (Fortunately the cataphract it charged broke anyway since it was a rear charge .) This lancer also had an open path to charge the same cataphract that would not have interpenetrated friends but chose the path instead that routed the friendly fragmented unit. To keep the game from totally degenerating in the presence of large numbers of shock units as will be even more true with Storm of Arrows, I really think anarchy charges need to be re-thought so the player has tghe option to voluntarily commit the troops to combat rather than having it completely random as it appears to be now.

Chris

[Ironclad]

It would help if this could be toned down somewhat. My classic example was Alexander charging through one of his pike units, uphill against an elephant.

[TimW]

My classic example was Alexander charging through one of his pike units, uphill against an elephant.

I'll call you and raise.

My Alexander once charged through a line of three units of his own phalangites to get at the enemy. Rather than go behind or in front of the pike (both routes were clear) the Companions entered the pike formation on the left flank and emerged on the right, having shoved their way through 4,500 close-order pikemen (that's about 560 files assuming an 8 rank deep formation), each man carrying a 18-21 foot stick with a point on the end. The foot were disordered by the experience, but fortunately not a single Companion's horse so much as tripped over a dropped pike - they retained perfect order throughout.

Their "target"was light foot, who the Companions had no chance of catching in any case...

At the moment the anarchy rules are such that I can be dead certain that I can pull any AI controlled army apart in about half a dozen turns simply by presenting them with a few scattered light foot/horse within charge range, after which it's a matter of hitting the isolated units I've pulled out in front of their own lines. Works almost every time, no matter what the army involved.

[76mm]

The examples about Alexander are perfect examples of what I was talking about...I think the game should give him and the other great captains (if not other, lesser leaders) a bit more credit, and stop them from doing stupid stuff like this.

[Morbio]

I'm in the middle of a game against Deeter with Drilled Elite Companions (with commander close by) and I think in 3 moves where I've been in contact with the enemy they have done 2 anarchy charges. It really does make them difficult to execute strategy with, which seems perverse for Drilled Elites

[keithmartinsmith]

See the details on Complex Move Tests in Help/Index in the game. While elite and superior and inspired troops less likely to charge off its just less likely but it does and will happen. Keith

[Blathergut]

*Tries to figure out a way to bribe the little die roller inside the game.*

[batesmotel]

See the details on Complex Move Tests in Help/Index in the game. While elite and superior and inspired troops less likely to charge off its just less likely but it does and will happen. Keith

Note that in the TT rules, quality re-rolls do not apply to the CMT to avoid charging without orders. I don't know if this is true for the PC rules although if it is then elite and superior troops should be just as likely to charge as average ones. On the other hand, it seems at this point that any resemblance between anarchy charges on the PC and charging without orders in TT rules is pretty minimal anyway .

Chris