Luddite wrote:
Terrain
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Well, my buddies at my LGS can, if they win initiative, remove most terrain, when needed. For example, if they win initiative, take agricultural terrain choices: 1 road, 2 opens (maximum size of 12"), and 1 mandatory of the smallest variety (4x6"). Then they would drop the mandatory choice where ever the dice decide, but as far out of the way as possible. Then, comes the opens, where they would try to shut down 1 board side. Finally, they would place the road (or does the road come second, I forget). The road should shut down the other board side. Now your 4 choices are your mandatory and 3 rough choices (if you play it smart). Well, your mandatory should have gone down first (after his mandatory). Now, after his next 3 choices go down, you are stuck with only dropping your terrain on 1, 2, 5, 6 (because the road and 12" circles of open can really shut down a great deal of the board). A fast army can ignore your terrain if you roll a 1 or 2. Also, if you roll any 5s or 6s to drop your terrain, then they can hope to push the pieces to the sides. Of course, this is all conjecture, but if you are not ready for this eventuality, you can easily find yourself unable to drop all 3 pieces of terrain and only have a road and 2, out of the way, terrain selections. You would have little to no terrain to protect your flanks!
Luddite wrote:
Stakes
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Hey, I wish you luck. I know many people on this forum do not like stakes. In an ideal world, when I play this particular army, I move into just under 6" (so 5.9" or so) and shoot them at long range. Then if they advance into THEIR charge range, I drop stakes. In an ideal world, if heavily armoured knights get within 6.1", I move into long range and then shoot them with roughly 3 or 4 dice. I can hope for 2 hits and make him test. Well, I usually assume that they have a general and will pass their test. Now, the knights move within short range; I shoot them now for 4 to 6 dice and assume 2 or 3 hits. I have forced another test! On my turn, I drop stakes and shoot them for ANOTHER 4 to 6 dice. If both sides get averages, I have made the same knight group test 3 times. Even on averages, a single knight group should disrupt at least once from 3 tests. On the knight turn, they charge and now their 2 advantages they had (medium foot in the open and lances) go away with my stakes. Without those stakes, the knights have a ++ on impact and re-roll 1 (and 2 with a general). Even with the back rank shooters, I don't like those odds, even when the knights are disrupted.
Luddite wrote:
Ottomans
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Do be careful of those superior, bow, swordsmen cavalry too. With their 5 inch charge, mounted, and armoured, they will still get very decent PoAs against your longbowmen. Your Men at Arms will not get the impact PoA, so expect them to be charged if they ever disrupt from enemy bow-fire. Also, beware of even Light Horse on your flanks. Yeah, you don't drop a cohesion level, but once you are in melee, that silly Light Horse unit is now making you fight in 2 directions and now you are only + to the enemy's ++. Eeewwww! I wish I could say that it hasn't happened to me from those devilish Ottomans (my opponent did that to me AFTER dropping my heavy foot to disrupted).
Luddite wrote:
Romans?
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Ooops! I didn't catch that one...
Otherwise, your build is fine if you don't take stakes. You'll need more anti-cavalry punch if you don't take longbow stakes, so the knights are a decent choice. Also, you'll want to slow down a flank so, 2 BGs of skirmishers are better than 1. So, I see where you are coming from. Test this out a few times and see if it works for you. Personally, I try for better terrain, so the +2 initiative works better for me. Also, it helps me drop the stakes without as much fear. Finally, I only take the Light Foot as I don't have many points left over from the heavy weapon BGs and my 5 to 6 BGs of longbowmen (I usually take them in groups of 6 for greater agility and a higher BG count).
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