Newcomer's thread: thoughts and questions

[Darthvegeta800]

Well I bought FoG and it looks like a good buy on my end.
Being an Imperial Rome fan I had snatched up the 2 Roman armybooks and since my Master Thesis was about the Black Prince's campaign, I also picked up 'Storm of Arrows'. I must say I'm a bit dissapointed Crécy and Poitiers don't seem to be in it. But I may have missed them.
The mention of the Battle of 'Kortrijk' is quite amusing given that I'm flemmish. That battle is a Holiday for our region. A shame it isn't in the pack.

Hmm I saw there was a 'Crusades' expansion. But is there something planned around 'Teutonic Knights in the Baltic' or Samurai Warfare during the 'Sengoku Jidai'?

My first game I played was 'The Battle of Sentinum' as I plan to go through Roman history

My first observations:

1) It seems as the Romans it was best to keep to the historic approach. I went forth to quickly. I suppose I was over worried about the missile troops of the enemy? Are they a huge threat or can I afford to play the waiting game?
2) Cavalry. I had some trouble using my Equites. Not sure but they couldn't always charge. Probably a rulewise thing I missed. They also underperformed. Then again historically the Equites have never been the 'key of awesome'.
3) Chariots. These things are horrible! How to best handle them?
4) Do legates etc have special effects?
5) is ammo infinite?
6) The combat results can sometimes be quite unexpected


I lost with my Romans but it proves how intuitively the game was that it ended relatively close:

Romans: 38/38 Samnites and Gauls: 37/44

Early on a lot of stupid things on my end lost me a lot of units. Halfway I began to figure things out.
The Romans seemed quite good. Ranking up with them works marvelously.

I'll put future thoughts in this thread here. If anyone has any advice, feel free to illuminate me!


EDIT:

My second battle: Lautulae

Ended in a narrow victory for me: 31/36 Romans and 44/42 Samnites.

I still think i should use my cavalry and skirmishers better but so far I like what I've seen. Some of the battleresults are odd and unexpected but overall things are credible.

[TheGrayMouser]

1) It seems as the Romans it was best to keep to the historic approach. I went forth to quickly. I suppose I was over worried about the missile troops of the enemy? Are they a huge threat or can I afford to play the waiting game?
2) Cavalry. I had some trouble using my Equites. Not sure but they couldn't always charge. Probably a rulewise thing I missed. They also underperformed. Then again historically the Equites have never been the 'key of awesome'.
3) Chariots. These things are horrible! How to best handle them?
4) Do legates etc have special effects?
5) is ammo infinite?
6) The combat results can sometimes be quite unexpected

1 They will be ok for a while but dont hang around too long or slow attrion or cohesion losses could be a problem! Also standing still with Romas will mean your flanks likly will be turned , partially because of #2 :
2 Average quality cavalry always underperforms , especially vs Romes historical foes , Gauls Spanish Carthos. Hmm, not sure why they couldnt charge n that sceanrio as all the Roman cavaly is regular, not light horse Howver, if they were fragged they cant charge( no unit can do so in that state) or if the were disrupted they have to pass a test to charge)
3 They are a pain, but they dont like charging into/ fighting spears, like your triari Also, skirmishes actually do well vs them in close combat
4 No, leaders behave the same regarldless of what army they are
5 yes, its the magical "quivers of plenty" at work.
6 oh boy wont touch this one since there are so many threads about combat results LOL

[Darthvegeta800]

Thanks for the feedback.
I play wargames a lot so I can understand the 'erratic outcomes'. It is inevitable.
Played 40K and plenty of other dice involved wargames. And if dice are involved or cards then 'chance' can always mess things up. And that's good i think. As long as it's not the norm.

>_> brings back some horrible horrible memories of elite units routed or wavering at the worst of times against the most unlikely of foes lol!

A few basic questions:

1) Skulls are a sort of wounds?
2) Desorganised units are more likely to rout i presume?
3) Is it best to keep your legate inactive and just lingering behind the men?
4) Any advice on how to use skirmishers best? They do tend to give free 'points' to the enemy. I tend to send them out early on and later on use them to give 'support advantages'. Is that fine?

It does annoy me i have to attack. Though I think i understand the underlying thought behind it. The enemies are abstractly in contact.

[TheGrayMouser]

Your follow up questions leads me to believe that you, like myself tends to jump right into playing without reading the manuals.

basically there are 4 states a unit can be in moral wise: Steady, disrupted, fragmented or routed After every close combat the LOSER takes a dice roll "cohesion test" to see if they dropp one (and sometimes 2) levels of cohesion until they rout. This is where it can be consfuing as there are quite a few modifiers to help or hinder passing that test. some examples: medium troops roll -1 when they are rolling a cohesion test when losing to heavy troops, all infantry roll at -1 if they lose to impact troops (like legions) lancers same vs any troop type. Units adjacent to a friend that routs also need to test to see if they drop a level.

Leaders basically have a command radii that can give a + modifier for troops in range when they have to test for things like cohesion tests or anarchying (charging without orders). Aditonally the unit a leader is in gets a combat bonus ( baically they fight as if that unit was one quality level higher) Of course a leader can die which causes mal things to hapen to that unit, as well as adjacent friends.

Skulls: each skull basically is a visual reminder that you have lost 25% or more troops per skull. Units auto rout when they drop below a certan threshold: poor 65% average 55$ superior 45 and elite 35%
Units also lose combat dice the more causalties they take and many units (spears pikes) also lose POA's when they drop below certain %'s

Skirmishes are an art to themslef, since every unit is worth the same in breaking the enemy army, you cant squander them. the key is avoidning situations where they cant evade and get pinned One thing is you can set you evade priorites on units that have that capability by right clicking on the unit All lights as well as non lance cavalry and light chariots can evade. The deafullt is AI choice wich means the unit wont eveade if the combat is euqal. You can set to always evade or Nver evade , althought light toops set to never have pass a test to hold firm when charged by heavioes.

Hope this helps a little, likly I havent even scratched the serface of things but FiOg is deceptively simple, and the ease you can start playing and enjing it magnifies that. One place to definatley take a peak at when playing in the maula are the POA charts that expaln the interaction of various weapon types vs other. Note their are many conditionals of effect which even veteran players overlook or forget.

Cheers!

[stockwellpete]

I also picked up 'Storm of Arrows'. I must say I'm a bit dissapointed Crécy and Poitiers don't seem to be in it. But I may have missed them.

But is there something planned around 'Teutonic Knights in the Baltic'?

I have made versions of both Crecy and Poitiers. Go to page 3 of the Scenario forum and you can download them from Dropbox. You will see lots of other 100YW scenarios that I have done, Enzo has done some of these as well and some are included with the various expansion packs.I have also done Schaulen 1236 from the Northern Crusades. That is also somewhere in the Scenario forum and it has also been included with "Eternal Empire". I will be doing a major Baltic series soon, hopefully before Xmas.

[Darthvegeta800]

Aah my thanks. I hadn't noticed the scenario thing yet. I think i'll go snatch a few up

[batesmotel]

Later period for the Teutonic Knights is included in Eternal Empire. Earlier version will be included in Oath of Fealty.

For more info about the game than is included in the on line help, you should check the wiki at http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com.

Chris

[Darthvegeta800]

Later period for the Teutonic Knights is included in Eternal Empire. Earlier version will be included in Oath of Fealty.

For more info about the game than is included in the on line help, you should check the wiki at http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com.

Chris

Thanks. Gah... now i'm tempted of getting Eternal Empire and the Greek addon too.

[Darthvegeta800]

A question. What is the difference between field and troop for the commanders?

Also in game there are tents and defences one can build, what are their effects.

I checked the wiki but i'm having trouble finding what I need there.

[deeter]

It's all in the "help" files, but briefly FCs have a command range of 5. TCs have a range of 3. Otherwise, identical. No tents or the like, except for the required camp in a DAG game.

Deeter

[Darthvegeta800]

Thanks! Gah keep forgetting there is an ingame wiki.