3rd rank LF archers support

[rbodleyscott]

The point of 2 LF in the second rank and more HF in the back rank would be to throw a shooting die in Impact against mounted, but reduce Melee dice by 1 because they lose 1 per 2 dice in Melee.

If spearmen they would also lose their spearmen POA as the 2nd rank isn't spearmen.

In other words, it is not a useful tactic - cheesy or otherwise.

[lawrenceg]

The point of 2 LF in the second rank and more HF in the back rank would be to throw a shooting die in Impact against mounted, but reduce Melee dice by 1 because they lose 1 per 2 dice in Melee.

If a front rank base is lost, then one of the HF in the back can fill in to the front rank, but the LF are still down a die.

I probably shouldn't say this without checking all the applicable rules, but what if 1 LF is in the second rank in one file and one LF is in the third rank in the other file? Both shoot in Impact, no dice are lost in Melee, and the third rank can feed into melee as an overlap in melee if eligible, giving a total of 5 dice in melee with HF factors. Is this too Byzantine to be allowed?

Code: Select all

EE
HH
HL
LH

expands to
EE
HHH
HLL

Yes, that's allowed. The points cost per dice is little different from that for pure HF.

[nikgaukroger]

Useful for Impact foot such as legionarii though

[shall]

Oh Richard don't put him off before he's tried it out on the table and reported back ... spoils all the fun!!

To be fair as he says it probably won't do you much good. What it creates is a very high risk formation.

But if you find a good use for it in practice I'll be all ears as I like my Byzatines and Arabs - let us know how it does.

Si

[rtaylor]

Third-rank LF are good loss-filler when they back up legionaries, auxiliaries, and other troops that don't depend on two ranks for their POA. But with spears, a single second-rank LF base keeps the dice but loses the POA. Given a choice, I'd rather have spear in a 3-3-2 or 4-4-2 formation than spear/LF in 2-2-2 or 3-3-3.

[martindneiluk]

In an earlier response Simon said : "In addition once you lose a few legionaries 2 LF give 1 dice in melee at the factors of the legionaries."

Does this mean that if he legion is armoured skilled sword the two LF are too?

This comes as a bit of a surprise. Can you point out the relevant rules for this?

Thanks

Martin

[Ghaznavid]

Well it assumes of course that you place the LF in the 2nd rank. In that case the rules state that each front rank base uses his own POA and rear rank bases use the same POA as their front rank (p. 94).