Feigned flight
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:59 am
The suggestion that AoW already caters for this with the CMT for shock troops to avoid charging is only a partial answer. My reading of history is that the troops most vulnerable to feigned flight was the inexperienced (undrilled) ones - a good example being Hastings where it was the Fyrd who were suckered, not the huscarls.
Knights especially were prone to this but are covered in the shock troop rule. What I'm suggesting is that undrilled troops who fall victim to a feigned charge (fail their CMT) drop a cohension level if they don't make contact. This seems to be how Mongols defeated Polish knights by continual evading, pulling units out of formation, disordering them and then pouncing!
Feigned flight should certainly be a tactic for Lt horse armies and perhaps for non-armoured cavalry as well. (Was Hastings really a feigned flight or did a unit of Norman cavalry have a wobbly and retire? In the victor's post-battle write up King William then insisted it was planned all along to do this!!) Undrilled troops should be susceptible to falling for the feigned flee and to be degraded by it through charging in penny packets with loss of order.
Knights especially were prone to this but are covered in the shock troop rule. What I'm suggesting is that undrilled troops who fall victim to a feigned charge (fail their CMT) drop a cohension level if they don't make contact. This seems to be how Mongols defeated Polish knights by continual evading, pulling units out of formation, disordering them and then pouncing!
Feigned flight should certainly be a tactic for Lt horse armies and perhaps for non-armoured cavalry as well. (Was Hastings really a feigned flight or did a unit of Norman cavalry have a wobbly and retire? In the victor's post-battle write up King William then insisted it was planned all along to do this!!) Undrilled troops should be susceptible to falling for the feigned flee and to be degraded by it through charging in penny packets with loss of order.