MF Bow (tactics and opinions)

[SirGarnet]

Thanks for that. We always tend to miss out on certain nuances in the book and end up playing differently.

With the MF doing a CMT to charge, skirmishers excluded, do they also have to CMT to move into combat, that is, during the movement phase to join a combat and become the overlap??

The CMT is just for charges.

Manoeuvre into overlaps is CMT free and encouraged (p75). Troops can ignore restricted areas, shift sideways half a base width, and are even exempted from CMTs otherwise required to wheel or make a short move, all to get them into overlaps.

Mike

[DVeight]

Thanks for that. We always tend to miss out on certain nuances in the book and end up playing differently.

With the MF doing a CMT to charge, skirmishers excluded, do they also have to CMT to move into combat, that is, during the movement phase to join a combat and become the overlap??

The CMT is just for charges.

Manoeuvre into overlaps is CMT free and encouraged (p75). Troops can ignore restricted areas, shift sideways half a base width, and are even exempted from CMTs otherwise required to wheel or make a short move, all to get them into overlaps.

Mike

Fantastic, thanks Mike.

I will be playing with my middle period Serbs in a couple of days. Have a MF bow BG of 8 and two BGs of 4 with 4 BGs of LF bow. Plenty of bow power. Will se how they go and utilise the tactics discussed here which have been appreciated. I am hoping not to be extremely dissapointed as I was earlier on when I started FoG. Wont let the MF go out ahead of the line on its own and have them with the spearmen and the cavalry protecting the wings. See how that goes and how the extra dice go for me. At the end of the day it wil also come down to how well the dice roll and how many hits I do take. If undrilled MF can work than this system is even better than I thought.

[SirGarnet]

I will be playing with my middle period Serbs in a couple of days. Have a MF bow BG of 8 and two BGs of 4 with 4 BGs of LF bow. Plenty of bow power.

Serbian Archers must be in 6s or 8s.

Wont let the MF go out ahead of the line on its own and have them with the spearmen and the cavalry protecting the wings.

Are you taking the 12 Spearmen in one BG of 8 or in 2 BGs of 6 bases as breakwaters to protect the Bows while they shoot?

Mike

[DVeight]

I will be playing with my middle period Serbs in a couple of days. Have a MF bow BG of 8 and two BGs of 4 with 4 BGs of LF bow. Plenty of bow power.

Serbian Archers must be in 6s or 8s.

Wont let the MF go out ahead of the line on its own and have them with the spearmen and the cavalry protecting the wings.

Are you taking the 12 Spearmen in one BG of 8 or in 2 BGs of 6 bases as breakwaters to protect the Bows while they shoot?

Mike

DOH!!!!! Had it all worked out in my head. Thought the list would just support my draft.

Well will nee dto re-configure that one. Maybe one BG of 8 and two of 6 and others as LF. Then 4 cavalry BG's. The spearmen will be in BG's of 6 therefore 2 of them. That list should relly have 18 bases of spearmen not 12, but thats just me.

Spearmen, being defensive spearmen, will perform that very particular task. hope I can draw my opponent in, shoot him up a little to slow up his progress and then jump in with the cavalry. Cumans work my flanks and keep any trouble at bay.

[SirGarnet]

Cumans work my flanks and keep any trouble at bay.

Those Cumans - just be sure they don't work your camp!

[DVeight]

Cumans work my flanks and keep any trouble at bay.

Those Cumans - just be sure they don't work your camp!

They havent dissapointed me yet, better not start now.

[DVeight]

OK, I have had my encounter last night. (As a side note I also won )

I was a bit cautious so only used one BG of MF bow and had 4 other BGs of bow in LF formation. My MF was a BG of 8. Had them stuck in between two defensive spear BGs and anchored by noble cavalry on either end with more LH skirmishers.

The MF went up against a BG of legionaires, which went fragmented and decided against moving forward any more. The other BGs I went against were two Roman MF bow in BG's of 4 each. They were protected against my unprotected MF. This is where the dice roll saved me a little and I also CMT'd to expand the MF so I could get more dice shooting. One MF went routed and then I became bold and CMt'd to charge the remaining MF bow. Not a good idea. Dice rolls were not that good and in melee he had a + for the better armour. he joined a general there after they went disrupted and brought them back up. My dice rolls were poor so it became a quagmire.

Lesson learned, never charge your MF bow, even if the opposition is MF bow. Just shoot it out. MF bow with LH or LF bow support will just annihilate anything. I played against Romans and what won it for me was the shooting I did overall. Two legions, one spear, two LF and two LH routed just from shooting.

Thanks for all the tactical tips and now I am pleased that MF bow can be usefull to your list, even if they are unprotected.