Slitherine

Lysimachos wrote:25. Be aware that light foot in woods are the only units not suffering disruption and when armed with light spears may become a nightmare for your medium and heavy troops!

I have fond memories of a group of my Irish-Scots warband being slowly hacked to death with little knives in a dark forest in Britannia somewhere while I was learning the game.

Im laughing because both ggarynorman and Lysimachos are referring to recent games with me!

schmolywar wrote:Im laughing because both ggarynorman and Lysimachos are referring to recent games with me!

That's true!

mst007 wrote:Great thread!

I`ll add

1) "I thought I understood Zones of control, I did NOT understand Zones of control"
2) Firing up a PBEM turn before work is not always a great idea, it can make you late for work

Hope this helps https://youtu.be/TEK7W1AfdzE

Destroying even a damaged pike unit in square formation takes five other units plus some shooting if you don't have pikes or impact foot available.
If you have massed bows, you can cause pike units to auto break from shooting but it will take a long time and your bowmen had better be on a hill, but if you can keep sniping at the pikemen, do it.

Thanks Vakarr, I watched this earlier in the week, I think it prompted my post haha

26: When an enemy unit is engaged and about to turn their flank to one of your units, it is generally ill-advised to throw another unit into the fight, thus negating the opportunity. This is the kind of idiocy I have unfortunately engaged in repeatedly.
27: Don't expect any cavalry battle to be resolved quickly on the side of a mountain. Actually, don't expect anything to be resolved quickly on the side of a mountain. The sun may go down before anyone actually breaks.

28. Don't get too optimistic when you hide a fragmented unit in the woods. The idiots will proclaim to everyone that they have rallied and then they can be hunted again.

jomni wrote:22. Unexpectedly Finding out a body of water is more than a harmless stream is not good. Don’t assume just based on graphics. Check the tooltip.

The graphics should be of more help here, so that is my suggestion, improve the graphic effect of troops in bad terrain.

Hendricus wrote:

jomni wrote:22. Unexpectedly Finding out a body of water is more than a harmless stream is not good. Don’t assume just based on graphics. Check the tooltip.

The graphics should be of more help here, so that is my suggestion, improve the graphic effect of troops in bad terrain.

Historically it was not uncommon for armies who did not scout properly to get caught out by the depth of streams. It is by design that they cannot be told apart without mousing over them.

Players must be allowed to make mistakes that historical generals made.

(And yes, I have been caught out by it myself).

rbodleyscott wrote:

Hendricus wrote:

jomni wrote:22. Unexpectedly Finding out a body of water is more than a harmless stream is not good. Don’t assume just based on graphics. Check the tooltip.

The graphics should be of more help here, so that is my suggestion, improve the graphic effect of troops in bad terrain.

Historically it was not uncommon for armies who did not scout properly to get caught out by the depth of streams. It is by design that they cannot be told apart without mousing over them.

Players must be allowed to make mistakes that historical generals made.

(And yes, I have been caught out by it myself).

Ah... that's interesting. I was just discussing with an opponent that the marshes look almost indistinguishable to the regular terrain. (Rough ground and patches of open ground can be hard to make out as well.)

It would be nice if impassible streams always had at least one crossing point

vakarr wrote:It would be nice if impassible streams always had at least one crossing point

They are not streams, they are rivers large enough not to be fordable by units in battle. They are there specifically to protect the flank. Sometimes there are crossing points, sometimes not.

Don't forget these ones!:

A mob is better than a veteran legion when attacking a flank
Oh wait! foot troops flanking mounted DON'T cause automatic cohesion drop!
Oh wait! Elephants DO take cohesion drop from foot!
Oh wait! Elephants DON'T take cohesion drop from mounted!
Best laid plans can be completely spoiled by one paltry ZOC.
Oh wait! Light troops don't ZOC Med. and Hvy!
Battle calcs aren't just about what terrain i'm standing in...what's my enemy standing in?
and of course:
Whatever it is i hope my enemy WON'T do, she WILL do.

36: Think your severely disordered phalanx can just roll over those puny skirmishers? Think again! Skirmishers can and will ruin a phalanx's day if its commander is foolish enough to engage on the side of a mountain (or in a marsh).
37: It is seldom a good idea to pick phalanxes when you're fighting in mountains in general. They can fight hoplites... but if you're going to spend that much on your heavy foot, why not just get more hoplites?

(Or better yet, use some skirmishers or medium foot! The latter isn't always an option though.)

38. Don't be overly aggressive. If one of your flanks isn't in position, stop moving the other flank until both sides are ready. It will not hold as long as you want it too.......wait this is supposed to be lessons I have learned.........still working on that one.

39: Sometimes it is better to let a stray unit break than to risk a more valuable unit trying to save it.

Many of us never will learn just when, how, why, for how long and where pursuing units follow routed troops.

Many of your units will be destroyed because they pursued into a very bad spot to be.

Your entire line may be endangered by your units foolishly pursuing out of it.

Great idea to make streams indistinguishable from rivers unless one looks ie actually does recce. Thats my cool view of course - far different from my battlefield outrage when caught at a disadvantage by a "harmless" stream which I failed to investigate in advance or when defending assuming it will disorder the enemy pikes and so move up my mediums to water's edge only to discover too late its a gentle flow!

Marshes too - in a recent battle I got burnt badly by failing to check out the terrain carefully enough only to discover my mistake when two of my units - a pike and heavy cavalry, destined for the enemy rear found themselves instead in a marsh unable to make any impact on some pesky skirmishers who blocked their way; the latter eventually winning the boggy conflict when a passing enemy cavalry kindly took advantage by attacking the flanks of my stranded pair.

Click slowly and deliberately when wanting to about face. The upper (first) icon is to Fall Back, and it is the lower (second) icon to Turn Unit. Clicking the first when close to the enemy (even if they are in melee, or there are intervening friendly troops, and cannot charge you) can be hazardous to your health.