Battle Groups sized bases

[gozerius]

Having played today with a large 15BG army vs another large 16BG army, I'm beginning to see the wisdom of building unit trays for my forces. It would speed up setup and the advance to contact immeasuably. I used 9 BG of skirmishers and thats a lot of work refacing them every move. With unit trays I cut my workload by up to 87%. Managed to eak out a marginal victory. (Winning draw to those absolutists). Had fun. Todays matchups were Thracians (me) vs Rajputs,
Seleucids vs Carthaginians, and Arab Conquest against more Carthaginians.

[pezhetairoi]

Sounds like a good idea. Especially with skirmishers.
Might get awkward when changing formation, making charge moves, or feeding bases into melee.

How did the Thracians play out? What "period" did you use? I am tempted to try that army myself .. they are fun to paint.

[gozerius]

My figs are Old Glory, so its MF HW for the main troops. I'm using the Bosporan infantry to represent northern tribes MF with thrusting spear. I prefer free range Thracians, not the domesticated variety. No pseudo-swarm for me. So my army fits in the 350 BC and forward range. I had 4 TCs, 2 BG 4x armored cav, 3 BGs 8x MF/HW, 1 BG 8x MF/OSp, 2 BGs 6x LH/J,Ls, 2 BG 4x LH/Bow, 3 BG 8x LF J,Ls, 2 BG LF/Bow. I generally try to deploy with two brigades of 2 BG MF paired with one BG cav for rear support/ tactical reserve. a screen of LF J,Ls in front. the LH and the LF bow hover around the flanks. I try to put down as much uneven ground as possible to give the LH an edge, with some rough for the LF and MF. If in agricultural or developed and the other guy has lots of shooters I go for enclosed fields. My biggest mistake is getting the LH J,Ls trapped between the enemy and my battle line. Then they either have to stand and die and rout through the line, or evade through the line making a mess of things. Eventually I will paint enough LH Bow to run a Getic army with a bit better stand off capability. I have some other ideas, but first I have to paint the troops.