Role of LF?

[hazelbark]

Been trying to figure out LF and its effective role. Not arguing for changes but haven't really found effective employments of them.

1) I have had them in overlap and chase a routed foe.
2) They don't really seem to skirmish unsupported as they can get mugged if off by themeselves.
3) I haven't gotten any results with trying to disorder the enemy heavy foot between the closing BLs
4) I have found them useful as mixed BGs with Dailami or Defensive Spear. But I would still think of these as a use for leftover points.

I would be appreciative if people can post their successful uses.

[stevoid]

Can screen vulnerable mounted from shooting.

They cover the outer flanks where other troops feel unease at the edge of the world.

They provide cheap BGs to bolster size of army.

They are expendable bait as non-skirmishers don't test for seeing them break.

Useful to deploy first so as to disguise main thrust of attack.

Steve

[hammy]

When I am using a heavy foot army I like to use light foot as almost a poor man's shooty cavalry. They can operate in front of the main line and evade through if charged. Way back at Usk I think I had 5 BG's of LF in my Visigoths and they worked very well.

[olivier]

Played the same number of BG with my Scirii and they put wreck on ennemy BL at each game.
They are not the elite troop of DBM but the are always very useful .

[carlos]

Personally I think that a bow-armed LF is superior to a Ps(O) in DBM. By themselves they are not that impressive, but together with other shooting, say from LH, it all adds up. Even a HF BG caught in the open by 2 BGs of LF is in serious trouble. Also, they are as fast as CV now and can evade, which means that if you play them correctly, they will never be caught by the CV: you can just angle your evading until you go into terrain. Another fundamental change is that Auxilia (MF in FoG) is not that good against them - they can't catch them and difficult ground penalises the MF but not the LF.

So you combine the qualities above with their low cost, capacity to bulk up the army safely (since they can hide in terrain), and that you can deploy them first without committing the "real" troops, and you have a very good troop type! Honestly, the reason I'm running Principate Roman now instead of Dominate Roman is because you can get much more LF in the former.

[dave_r]

They are exceedingly useful in front of anything, since when they get charged they just evade through the heavies.

They are in effect an annoyance, which if you are lucky can disorder your opponent before the main lines clash. Your opponent has simply the option of taking the hit or charging. Since you charge a variable distance it may be that your line get's disjointed allowing an advantage to the other side.

They are also excellent terrain troops.

In fact most people seem to believe they are too good

[spike]

Personally I think that a bow-armed LF is superior to a Ps(O) in DBM. By themselves they are not that impressive, but together with other shooting, say from LH, it all adds up. Even a HF BG caught in the open by 2 BGs of LF is in serious trouble. Also, they are as fast as CV now and can evade, which means that if you play them correctly, they will never be caught by the CV: you can just angle your evading until you go into terrain. Another fundamental change is that Auxilia (MF in FoG) is not that good against them - they can't catch them and difficult ground penalises the MF but not the LF.

So you combine the qualities above with their low cost, capacity to bulk up the army safely (since they can hide in terrain), and that you can deploy them first without committing the "real" troops, and you have a very good troop type! Honestly, the reason I'm running Principate Roman now instead of Dominate Roman is because you can get much more LF in the former.

Caveat on LF- Bow is that you are limited by lists to 4's then slingers if available are a better option, as shooting at long range is only 1 die, so fairly useless on it's own, and more expensive. So bw need to be in 6's, slingers and javelins are happy in 4's as they don't have a long range.

As for Imperial Romans
Yes its my only complaint about Dominate is the reduced amounts of LF- Foderate can have a pile of LF, Jav if you use the Isaurans, but then you don't have the Superior HF, ImpF, SS buzzsaw or Legionaries to the un-initiated. Principate struggles against mounted armies as its Cav can't hold off a large mounted attack (historical if you look at the battles with the Parthians and Persians, Battle of Rhandeia 62ad, Battle of Nisibis 217ad, and Battle of Edessa 259ad) and its foot is too slow sometimes to intercept trouble if you don't support them. So I'll have to see if you can get an allies to provide LF for the Dominate, as that seems the more balanced of the Imperial armies from my experiance so far.