Help With Principate Light Archers

[mbsparta]

I finally have a dozen stands of LF Auxiliary archers to "back up" my Legions with.

The army list mentions treating attached LF-bow as if they were the same as the Legionaries they are with. But there is also a separate stat line for them in the army list.

How do you create these BGs that have, say, 4 Avg. Legionaries and 2 LF bow attached. What do the LF cost?

How is the BG treated? As a BG of 6 stands I am assuming? Do the 2 stands of LF fight as light foot or Legionaries??

Thanks for any help.

Mike B

[ShrubMiK]

They are LF rather than HF, and unprotected rather than protected or armoured. And obviously they are armed with bow rather than being impact foot, swordsmen

They do need to be the same quality rating as the rest of the BG, however.

So they are costed by choosing the separate line in the list with the appropriate quality rating.

If you deploy them in the front line, then no they don't fight at all like legionaries!

Assuming you have them as a third line, as is the intention, they get to shoot ONLY in the impact phase, and only against mounted. (This is true of v1 - not totally sure it hasn't changed in v2). And they won't fight in melee at all.

Their benefit in a continuing melee is that a) they increase the size of the BG and make it a bit harder to inflict an extra -1 on a cohesion test for 1 hit per 3 bases. Although TBH I don't think I have seen that make a difference on more than a handful of occasions; and b) when you lose a legionary base, a LF ends up in the second rank to replace the base that fills in the hole in the front rank. That LF base does fight exactly as if it is a legionary - it contributes one dice (LF lose 1 dice per 2 in combat against mist opponents, so when you only have one LF dice to start with they don't lose any) at the same POA as the front rank base. A bit odd perhaps, but that's the game mechanics. When you lose a second base however, you do lose a dice now that you have 2 LF bases fighting.

So the general feeling is that they are only cost effective in a BG of relatively expensive troops, because the effect that 2 bases of support LF produces when added to what would otherwise be a 4 base BG of MF/HF is not too dissimilar to the effect that you would get if instead you added a single base of MF/HF (if you were allowed to do so).

Thus adding 5 pt LF bases in support of average armoured legionaries costing 10 pts is more or less break-even for cost-effectiveness. Adding 6 pt LF to superior armoured skilled swordsman legionaries at 14 pts looks like a distinctly good deal.

In V2, the -1 POA for shooting during impact is removed, so the appeal of LF archer support when you expect opponents to have a lot of shock mounted may be increased.

[AlanCutner]

In my Dom Rom list I use legions of 4 HF + 2 LF. These are frequently deployed in 2 ranks not 3. The LF still get to shoot in impact against mounted, but the legion fights as 3 files maximising effect at impact. The downside is counting 5 bases in melee instead of 6 - but they're superior and good chance of disrupting enemy in impact.

[grahambriggs]

Another benefit is that the light foot are cheaper than the HF, often by quite a margin. Hence a 4+2 BG can give you all the resilience of a 6HF BG for less points. Plus you get the minor benefit of the LF support at impact.

If you have a reasonable number of BGs of legionaries, the cumulative saving can be enough to afford an extra unit of supporting troops.

[ravenflight]

Another benefit is that the light foot are cheaper than the HF, often by quite a margin. Hence a 4+2 BG can give you all the resilience of a 6HF BG for less points. Plus you get the minor benefit of the LF support at impact.

If you have a reasonable number of BGs of legionaries, the cumulative saving can be enough to afford an extra unit of supporting troops.

If pushed, you can also expand so that you are:

LfLfHf
HfHfHf

This gives you a loss of a dice, BUT you're a lot less expensive. It kinda adds flexibility. Think it costs too much tho.