Getting the best out of Velites?

[vj531]

My current tactic with this unit is to firstly attempt to ware down all cavalry flank and elephant attacks when applicable, then to use them as general irritation towards the larger army units.
Is deploying and or fighting out of 'rough' terrain as big an advantage as suggested in the rules?
Im getting quite varied results from combat in and around rough terrain.

[rbodleyscott]

My current tactic with this unit is to firstly attempt to ware down all cavalry flank and elephant attacks when applicable, then to use them as general irritation towards the larger army units.
Is deploying and or fighting out of 'rough' terrain as big an advantage as suggested in the rules?
Im getting quite varied results from combat in and around rough terrain.

They are mostly going to lose against heavier foot even in Rough terrain. In difficult terrain they might win vs heavy foot, but less likely vs medium foot.

They are skirmishers.

[vj531]

My current tactic with this unit is to firstly attempt to ware down all cavalry flank and elephant attacks when applicable, then to use them as general irritation towards the larger army units.
Is deploying and or fighting out of 'rough' terrain as big an advantage as suggested in the rules?
Im getting quite varied results from combat in and around rough terrain.

They are mostly going to lose against heavier foot even in Rough terrain. In difficult terrain they might win vs heavy foot, but less likely vs medium foot.

They are skirmishers.

Yes I understand they will lose against HF in most cases mainly due to size disparity and overall strength. What I'm trying to ask and badly, do Skirmishers, LF and MF gain an advantage in melee attacking in or from rough as opposed to open. And what is the stats increase or decrease from normal, rough and difficult terrain?
I'm trying to get to grips with maximising my advantage using terrain features. Rough, hills and terrain in general all feel a little arbitrary to my unknowledgeable eye.
At the moment I spend some considerable time maneuvering a 'lesser' unit it to what 'I perceive' is a good advantageous position 'terrain wise' only to end up with egg on my face.
Hope that made some sense.

[rbodleyscott]

do Skirmishers, LF and MF gain an advantage in melee attacking in or from rough as opposed to open. And what is the stats increase or decrease from normal, rough and difficult terrain?

Nobody gets any stats increase or POA from attacking in or from rough terrain.

Instead troops who are unsuitable for the terrain ges a combat malus for being disordered - if they are heavy foot or mounted troops and they attempt to attack into, or while in, rough terrain. This malus is -22% combat effectiveness (which is equivalent to approximately -66 POA). In addition pikemen would lose their 4th rank POA bonus at impact if attacking in or into rough going.

MF would get this same (-22%) malus when attacking into, or while in, Difficult terrain, because they are disorderd by difficult terrain. Heavy Foot or mounted troops are Severely Disordered by Difficult terrain, which gives -45% combat effectiveness (which is roughly equivalent to -136 POA), also some POAs (such as for pikemen and spearmen) do not apply at all when severely disordered.

So it is not that the LF fight better than usual in such terrain, but that their opponents (if unsuitable for the terrain) fight much worse than usual.

I recommend you turn on Detailed Tooltips in the Settings menu - which will show you these as well as other bonuses and maluses when they apply. Or you can show detailed tooltips temporarily whenever you want by holding down the CTRL key.

[vj531]

Thx Richard
Brilliant

[Jishmael]

My current tactic with this unit is to firstly attempt to ware down all cavalry flank and elephant attacks when applicable, then to use them as general irritation towards the larger army units.
Is deploying and or fighting out of 'rough' terrain as big an advantage as suggested in the rules?
Im getting quite varied results from combat in and around rough terrain.

velites are amazing in my opinion, they can seriously hold up to enemy cav in the right circumstances (bad cav/favourable terrain) and theyre armour makes them win every "even" skirmisher duel no matter if ranged or melee.
bring enough of them and you got the initiative in the skirmishing phase guaranteed, which really helps the roman list imho.