question for those successor open tourney players

pyrrhus · Post by **pyrrhus** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:47 pm

In an open tourney how as a succesor/ alexandian player do you deal with the shooty armies? (light horse /ottoman mongol )
Do you buy large BG's of 12 stands of pike ? can they stand all the shooting (pike would seem to be vulnerable to shooting what is your experience)

Just trying to get an Idea of how to deal with these buggers !

paulburton · Post by **paulburton** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:05 pm

Pikes in 12s will be better against shooting (needing 3 out of 3 hits to get a Cohesion Test rather than 2 out of 2 for 8s (if in 4 ranks). You can also open out to 3, or even 2 and a bit Ranks (4-4-2 for units of 10 is good - especially for spears - as you need 4 out of 4 hits from Light Horse/Bow armed cavalry to generate a test) as Pikes/Spears are still death to Horses.

Then you need to push forward until they run out of space and use your own cavalry aggressively as you have top quality Lancers and their cavalry will be in one rank, just don't let them get overlaps on shooting (against Light Horse I have had LH-Cataphracts-LH used against me effectively so interspresing your Light Horse with heavier cavalry may be effective - I think I have a solution but it needs trying out)

Otherwise you can hunker down and make them attack you or get a draw which will be as bad for them as it is for you.

Bear in mind I have not tried this and my record against Mongols with Ancient Spanish and Foederate Roman is 3 losses so my theories have yet to be proved effective. All I can say is try it and see,.

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:32 pm

Dealing with light horse is a very different matter to dealing with cavalry. Light horse can turn and move back in the same move. Cavalry can't. OK cavalry can evade but only if you charge them. I have managed to beat up a decent number of cavalry BGs by getting another BG behind them so they can't evade.

If you are using pike against a shooty army don't deploy 4 ranks deep, spread out your troops, 3 or even only 2 ranks can be enough. Make sure the BGs that are likely to be shot most have rear support and a commander in range.

In the end it is hard to beat light horse with a successor army but if you play the successors well it is hard for the light horse to beat you.