I'll have to reread my rules on that one.
Assuming you are correct thats another (pretty big) nail in the coffin.
Martin
Are bow too good or am I just useless
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timmy1
- Lieutenant-General - Nashorn
- Posts: 3436
- Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:39 pm
- Location: Chelmsford, Essex, England
Re: Are bow too good or am I just useless
Kevin is correct. There are 3 categories; Foot, Mounted, and Elephants.
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jefritrout
- Corporal - Strongpoint
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 3:50 pm
- Location: The Wilds of Elkridge
Re: Are bow too good or am I just useless
I've been out of the loop here and have run into a couple of these points.
Bows - The army is good, but the key is to choose a spot to attack. When I played Iverson I made some bad mistakes, but I attacked the bow in 4 locations with the Colonial Portuguese army. If my swordsmen hitting his end unit wouldn't have fragged on impact, I think that I could've rolled up both ends of his line. With my swordsmen running, it my my end that was rolled up quicker. I still managed to wipe out over half of his army. Add in the well below average die rolling in the second and third turn on combat, I think that I could've defeated the Qin.
Arquebus - the Portuguese army was mostly arquebus armed and they are deadly in a short ranged firefight. An 8 stand unit of arquebus can walk up to pretty much any infantry and wipe them away. Swiss Keils are a different matter. Add in the Portuguese are impact foot, they tend to have the advantage on the first round. Against bow the bow move to within 4-6 inches and get off one shot at you. Then you move to 3" and don't take the -2 to death die and start outshooting the bow. NEGATING ARMOR IN MELEE IS BIG. My crossbowmen end up as speed bumps for opposing cavalry, but the arquebusiers hold on for a while. Negating armor is important in melee, I say again.
Elephants. I always have run the Portuguese with Sinhalese allies. So I take 3 units of elephants. They really are a glass hammer. Protect them and the can be game changers. The are effective against cavalry, but you can't count on them alone. The need support as one dead elephant means there is now a big hole in the line. There was one game where Dan had 5 units of elephants and I had 3. Colonial Portuguese with Sinhalese against Mollucans? with Colonial Dutch allies. In the end I had broken 4 of Dan's elephants, two by shooting, one in melee, and in charging it while it was fragged. The elephant vs elephant melee was classic. It was won by the warriors in overlap on the side. The key to elephants is to have them in the 2nd line and ready to advance to where they are needed. If you lead with them they will die. The do scare opponents though. I've won games where my opponent spent the entire game concentrating on how to avoid/kill them, and let me defeat him where the elephants were not.
Bows - The army is good, but the key is to choose a spot to attack. When I played Iverson I made some bad mistakes, but I attacked the bow in 4 locations with the Colonial Portuguese army. If my swordsmen hitting his end unit wouldn't have fragged on impact, I think that I could've rolled up both ends of his line. With my swordsmen running, it my my end that was rolled up quicker. I still managed to wipe out over half of his army. Add in the well below average die rolling in the second and third turn on combat, I think that I could've defeated the Qin.
Arquebus - the Portuguese army was mostly arquebus armed and they are deadly in a short ranged firefight. An 8 stand unit of arquebus can walk up to pretty much any infantry and wipe them away. Swiss Keils are a different matter. Add in the Portuguese are impact foot, they tend to have the advantage on the first round. Against bow the bow move to within 4-6 inches and get off one shot at you. Then you move to 3" and don't take the -2 to death die and start outshooting the bow. NEGATING ARMOR IN MELEE IS BIG. My crossbowmen end up as speed bumps for opposing cavalry, but the arquebusiers hold on for a while. Negating armor is important in melee, I say again.
Elephants. I always have run the Portuguese with Sinhalese allies. So I take 3 units of elephants. They really are a glass hammer. Protect them and the can be game changers. The are effective against cavalry, but you can't count on them alone. The need support as one dead elephant means there is now a big hole in the line. There was one game where Dan had 5 units of elephants and I had 3. Colonial Portuguese with Sinhalese against Mollucans? with Colonial Dutch allies. In the end I had broken 4 of Dan's elephants, two by shooting, one in melee, and in charging it while it was fragged. The elephant vs elephant melee was classic. It was won by the warriors in overlap on the side. The key to elephants is to have them in the 2nd line and ready to advance to where they are needed. If you lead with them they will die. The do scare opponents though. I've won games where my opponent spent the entire game concentrating on how to avoid/kill them, and let me defeat him where the elephants were not.