Grenzers

[hazelbark]

So you can usually pick them as:
poor drilled
or
irregular/ Average but are ALWAYs in skirmish formation.

What do people think of each choice.

My bias is poor drilled is still quite effective and flexible. And the irregualr average are only a point cheaper.

[KendallB]

Poor Drilled.

Poor doesn't affect shooting which is primarily their role. They can also assault enemy units unlike Irregulars. An extra 4 points is not worth buying them as Irregular.

[BrettPT]

Absolutely go with poor drilled - a no brainer in my view.

As Kendal points out, the major benefit of LI is medium range shooting and being poor doesn't affect this (being irregular does). Also having to be in skirmish all the time is a huge disadvantage, in my opinion.

Cheers
Brett

[deadtorius]

I have been thinking of going skirmish myself, so Irregular average. Tried them out in our first game and they were pretty lousy as light infantry. never taken them since but we do have a better handle on the rules now. Advantage to being skirmishers is that if you get stuck defending, turn 1 they can leave your deployment area, stretch out and bugger up your opponents double move options. I really don't think they are really all that likely to want to mix it up in combat with the Froggies so constantly running away might be a better option.
Also its cheaper to buy the lesser number of figures for a unit of skirmishers, I will be going 3 to a base in skirmish mode

[KendallB]

The choice of Tactical or Skirmish as opposed to just Skirmish means the Poor Drilled are more flexible when coming up against the opposition. Plus having two dice to throw instead of one for CMTs and CTs is a big consideration.

[BrettPT]

Advantage to being skirmishers is that if you get stuck defending, turn 1 they can leave your deployment area, stretch out and bugger up your opponents double move options.

Poor drilled can still form skirmish of course - it is just that they don't have to do so. Nothing to stop poor drilled starting the battle in skirmish formation and racing out to delay.

The biggest disadvantage of infantry in skirmish formation is that you have to evade if charged. If facing cavalry you will eventually die, either by being caught or by reaching the table edge.

Skirmishers cannot therefore hold ground - even in rough against cavalry (where they still have to evade if charged). With the poor drilled Grenz, you at least have the option to form tactical when required.

And, as pointed out, Irregular and Conscript LI having to re-roll their 6s for shooting largely negates the effectiveness of their medium rnage firepower - the main point of taking LI ion the first place.

So Average Irregular Grenz:
(a) cannot shoot
(b) cannot charge
(c) cannot hold ground; and
(d) eventually die when caught

Also, as Kendal points out, you drilled get 2 dice for CMTs as opposed to 1 for irregulars. Irregulars do get 2 dice for CTs, and don't need to re-roll 1s for being poor, which is their sole advantage over the poor drilled LI option. Not nearly enough to balance out the disadvantages in (a)-(d) in my view.

Cheers
Brett