Slitherine

rbodleyscott wrote: It wasn't used to any great extent. The Romans sometimes put a couple of ranks of light archers behind the legions, but that would not be enough to lay down a significant fire, so we assume they were there to help take the edge off a cavalry charge - e.g. Arrian's order of battle against the Alans.

Large bodies of archers simply could not fire effectively over other troops.

However, light archers are allowed to pass through heavy foot units, so they have a good chance of escaping enemy charges.

Thanks for that clarification! It's always great to understand the underlying rationale and logic for certain design decisions.

Cheers!

Richard - which is why the "Mixed" type units in the old FoG were not effective and quickly folded in fact. One of my least fav. type units to use are those "Bow and Spear" units.

Mixed units were perfectly effective in Pike and Shot and Sengoku though. As this is an upgraded version of the engine for those games, not FOG1, I expect that mixed units, when we get to them, will be more functional than in FOG1.

Confirm. Light infantry is currently very effective.

Any chance we can get mouse wheel/button screen rotation in FoG2? It's just a little thing that bugs me in Pike and Shot.

Impetuous, arrogant, or easily provoked troops were and should be a thing in game.

What is the philosophy about eliminating the drilled/undrilled distinctions?

MikeK wrote:Impetuous, arrogant, or easily provoked troops were and should be a thing in game.

What is the philosophy about eliminating the drilled/undrilled distinctions?

It hasn't so much been removed as included in certain troop types automatically - e.g. warriors, undrilled heavy foot, raw troops.

Its application under FOGAM and FOG1 was always somewhat subjective, and probably over-influenced by the prejudices of Greek and Roman writers.

I have only just found out that a FOG2 is in production and I am very much looking forward to its arrival. I do not run a PC but when you release an Apple OsX or iOs version I will certainly buy it (including future add-ons).

The comment I would like to make concerns the generation of armies for battles. You state that you plan to streamline army creation, removing the need for predetermined army lists. Please remember that those of us from a tabletop background tend to love army lists. Assembling preferred forces by choosing the troop types one likes is a joy in itself. Remembering those forces in a list that can be used again and again is very rewarding in its own right.

I hope that you will not completely abandon this pleasure in the finished product? Would you care to comment?

Regards,
Steve Shaw.

steveshaw wrote:I have only just found out that a FOG2 is in production and I am very much looking forward to its arrival. I do not run a PC but when you release an Apple OsX or iOs version I will certainly buy it (including future add-ons).

The comment I would like to make concerns the generation of armies for battles. You state that you plan to streamline army creation, removing the need for predetermined army lists. Please remember that those of us from a tabletop background tend to love army lists. Assembling preferred forces by choosing the troop types one likes is a joy in itself. Remembering those forces in a list that can be used again and again is very rewarding in its own right.

I hope that you will not completely abandon this pleasure in the finished product? Would you care to comment?

Regards,
Steve Shaw.

The army lists are at the heart of FOG2, so the alchemical pleasure of finding the "perfect" army remains intact. However, the army lists are much easier to use than tabletop army lists, and the selection process is part of the battle setup, on the actual battlefield. We do not currently provided the option to preselect army lists - a) because it really isn't necessary - you will have to play the game to see that. b) because the army lists are dynamic - the minima and maxima change according to the size of the battle.

If after people have played and are familiar with the game, they are still asking for the ability to save army lists, we can probably add the feature in an update, but we think that when people have played the game they will agree with us that it would not be a particularly useful feature.

Note also that we have army list preview buttons that allow you to view each army list and try out selecting forces without actually starting a battle.

rbodleyscott wrote: No. Most units get a free 45 degree turn, unmanoeuvrable units don't, they pay 4 AP for a 45 degree turn. This makes them less manoeuvrable.

Many accounts of 19th-century battles stress the fact that best units were conspicuous because of the swift performing often complicated maneuvers on the battlefield. It surely must have been true in earlier conflicts as well. It seems you are the first wargame creators to have thought about representing that in the game.

Would just love to see that in a Napoleonic-era title... perhaps you are thinking about one?

Rhetor wrote:

rbodleyscott wrote: No. Most units get a free 45 degree turn, unmanoeuvrable units don't, they pay 4 AP for a 45 degree turn. This makes them less manoeuvrable.

Many accounts of 19th-century battles stress the fact that best units were conspicuous because of the swift performing often complicated maneuvers on the battlefield. It surely must have been true in earlier conflicts as well. It seems you are the first wargame creators to have thought about representing that in the game.

In computer games perhaps. It is fairly normal in tabletop miniatures wargames.

Would just love to see that in a Napoleonic-era title... perhaps you are thinking about one?

Not my thing, I fear.

rbodleyscott wrote:
Not my thing, I fear.

I wonder if this could be a mod...

There are now a fair amount of musket & bayonet scenarios available for Pike and Shot. There are battles from the Seven Years and Jacobite Wars, a couple of Napoleonic battles, and some American Civil War and Crimean War scenarios available.

SnuggleBunnies wrote:There are now a fair amount of musket & bayonet scenarios available for Pike and Shot. There are battles from the Seven Years and Jacobite Wars, a couple of Napoleonic battles, and some American Civil War and Crimean War scenarios available.

I haven't played any of the games in question, but need to remedy that, obviously. I was rather tempted to try the Japanese one (Sengoku Jidai, if I spelled it correctly?) because it has command&control in place (and I enjoyed the Total War incarnations of Japanese history)...

The game engine looks pretty interesting and I will give it a go. Still, my favourite period is Napoleonic, and no Napoleonic game is truly complete without forming squares to repell cavalry...

Speaking personally I would love to see a new turn based Napoleonic game
Maybe one day ...

First to finish FoG2!

regards
Ben Wilkins

Benedict151 wrote:Speaking personally I would love to see a new turn based Napoleonic game
Maybe one day ...

First to finish FoG2!

regards
Ben Wilkins

First make all addons for FOG2!

Benedict151 wrote:Speaking personally I would love to see a new turn based Napoleonic game
Maybe one day ...

First to finish FoG2!

regards
Ben Wilkins

Can't wait. For both games

Benedict151 wrote:Speaking personally I would love to see a new turn based Napoleonic game
Maybe one day ...

First to finish FoG2!

regards
Ben Wilkins

Indeed, i have the FOG napoleonic manual and army lits... so i would love to have it; and more i do believe that this engine can be used for any timeline in wargame, from romans to age of rifles ....

A small request. In P&S while in top down view you cannot rotate the board, will we be able to do that in FOG2?

SteveD64 wrote:A small request. In P&S while in top down view you cannot rotate the board, will we be able to do that in FOG2?

Your request is noted.