Slitherine

Hi All,

I've raised this topic before, but want to ask again in the hope that I get a different answer

I run the Palmyrans with a lot of Romans.

I also have had a bad experience with Undrilled Cats, so prefer to take Drilled (which is what got me attracted to the Palmyrans in the first place).

Given my bad experience with Cats was Undrilled Saka, I think the situation may be different.

For instance, one 'bad experience' was having my Cats moved upon by swiss pike. I could never turn them. I kept failing attempts, and ended up having to charge headlong into the pikes. As I didn't really have anything else to put in the way of the Pike, this was a real problem.

With the Palmyrans, I naturally have legionaries that I can put between the Pike and the Cataphracts if a similar disaster was coming their way.

Does anyone else think that the Undrilled Cats are going to be less of an issue for someone like Palmyrans than they will be for someone like Saka?

Thoughts?

Ian

I run Palmyran and have no problem with Undrilled cataphracts, maybe its all the light horse and drilled foot that is for pinning, and the Cats are the punch. Think Cataphract delivery system......
You must have been extremely unlucky to have yours sitting in one place for so long when you only need to get a general nearby.

I still prefer drilled since they are guaranteed to make that move you want them to over luck of the die and they sit there discussing which way is right and what the term wheel actually means.

Now if you can hold them back and pin a target then that is good but undrilled is still pretty much point it and run straight into it for the best luck, no fancy manouvering unless you are Blathergut who's undrilled troops did not miss a difficult move roll in our last game, fortunately he didn't fare so well on death rolls

I still say drilled is the safest bet, I've had undrilled who spent the game standing around because I could not get them to wheel toward the enemies exposed flank.
well thats my opinion from my own experiences anyway.
Either way good luck with them

deadtorius wrote:I still prefer drilled since they are guaranteed to make that move you want them to over luck of the die and they sit there discussing which way is right and what the term wheel actually means.

Now if you can hold them back and pin a target then that is good but undrilled is still pretty much point it and run straight into it for the best luck, no fancy manouvering unless you are Blathergut who's undrilled troops did not miss a difficult move roll in our last game, fortunately he didn't fare so well on death rolls

I still say drilled is the safest bet, I've had undrilled who spent the game standing around because I could not get them to wheel toward the enemies exposed flank.
well thats my opinion from my own experiences anyway.
Either way good luck with them

Yeah, I might run one bg of 6 and one bg of 4 drilled rather than 2 of 6 undrilled.

Ian

I think undrilled cats are fine. I've been playing them exclusively for the last few months and they generally behave themselves.

Deploy well back and get them out of the way of anything they dont want to fight.

What the bejesus are they doing in front of pike in any case?

4 TCs

2 * 6 cats
1 * 4 cats
5 * 4 Lh bow
4 * 6 LF 2sling 2 jav
1 * 6 MF poor drilled off spear
Hatrene ally
2 * 8 undr MF Bow
4 * Lh Bow

Anthony

DaiSho wrote:Hi All,

I've raised this topic before, but want to ask again in the hope that I get a different answer

I run the Palmyrans with a lot of Romans.

I also have had a bad experience with Undrilled Cats, so prefer to take Drilled (which is what got me attracted to the Palmyrans in the first place).

Given my bad experience with Cats was Undrilled Saka, I think the situation may be different.

For instance, one 'bad experience' was having my Cats moved upon by swiss pike. I could never turn them. I kept failing attempts, and ended up having to charge headlong into the pikes. As I didn't really have anything else to put in the way of the Pike, this was a real problem.

With the Palmyrans, I naturally have legionaries that I can put between the Pike and the Cataphracts if a similar disaster was coming their way.

Does anyone else think that the Undrilled Cats are going to be less of an issue for someone like Palmyrans than they will be for someone like Saka?

Thoughts?

Ian

expendablecinc wrote:I think undrilled cats are fine. I've been playing them exclusively for the last few months and they generally behave themselves.

Deploy well back and get them out of the way of anything they dont want to fight.

What the bejesus are they doing in front of pike in any case?

I took three turns at trying to wheel the Cats away from the pike. If they failed their CMT they can't do anything else right except stay still or get closer. 3 turns is about 18" of movement for the Pike!

DaiSho wrote:

expendablecinc wrote:I think undrilled cats are fine. I've been playing them exclusively for the last few months and they generally behave themselves.

Deploy well back and get them out of the way of anything they dont want to fight.

What the bejesus are they doing in front of pike in any case?

I took three turns at trying to wheel the Cats away from the pike. If they failed their CMT they can't do anything else right except stay still or get closer. 3 turns is about 18" of movement for the Pike!

nasty, sounds like you needed some lucky dice

DaiSho wrote: I took three turns at trying to wheel the Cats away from the pike. If they failed their CMT they can't do anything else right except stay still or get closer. 3 turns is about 18" of movement for the Pike!

But they can wheel if more than 6 MU away. This is a simple move. It only becomes a difficult, and therefore complex, move at or closer than 6 MU. At which point if you fail once there is no getting away. Because the next turn the pike are in your and their charge distance.

philqw78 wrote: But they can wheel if more than 6 MU away. This is a simple move. It only becomes a difficult, and therefore complex, move at or closer than 6 MU. At which point if you fail once there is no getting away. Because the next turn the pike are in your and their charge distance.

You're assuming the Pike were the closest enemy. Not so, what about the light infantry who were actually successfully beating my lighthorse in melee about 6" away?

Ian

Keep a general close by then. Then at worst you could go and beat the LF up, even if it means pursuing into the pike.

Hi Ian,
in the last tournament in Italy in May I played with Palmyran (I was 3rd ................. too different than Rome where I played in a bad way)
Me too i don't like Undrilled CT's, too hard to manouvre.
And I guess Palmyran are better without footmen, only CT's, LH and LF.
With HF you have to sincronize CT's with them and in my opinion if you want to use HF it's better to play with Dominate because of more choice of kind of troops.
Sergio