Slitherine

Have been looking at the Jin army list and spotted Bow* Lancer cavalry on it, can somebody explain the benefit of Bow* for Shock Mounted troops who unless I CMT them every turn will charge if they have anybody in bow range.

Irmin wrote:Have been looking at the Jin army list and spotted Bow* Lancer cavalry on it, can somebody explain the benefit of Bow* for Shock Mounted troops who unless I CMT them every turn will charge if they have anybody in bow range.

from my Byzantine experience:
- They are more versatile than straight lancers so you can park in front of troops and possibly still get somewhere. Particularly when LH come up hoping for two dice of shooting against your cav.
- They are usually drilled so they should be in a good position if you have used their drilledness well so nto that much of an issue if they charge witout orders
- They are usually drilled so are unlikely to charge without orders
- when are in front of enemy you can expand to get the shooters in front of things the lancers dotn like ro to try adn concentrate fire elsewhere.
- You are on equal or better footing that all straight lancer cavalry.
if you think of the lance as the primary weapon adn the bow as an extra the behaviour seems fine too.

Interesting troop type. You would shoot when you came into range and in your opponents turn then they may be disrupted when you charge. As you say you cannot guarantee being able to stand off and shoot.

The enemy just need to come to 5 MU and you are buggered. You can attempt not to charge, and then see 1 of your BG fail and get beaten piecemeal, or just charge and curse paying for the Bw*. Its rubbish.

(FAO RBS something about destroying carthage again)

Bow* whether mounted or foot seems a weak compromise. You don't get enough shooting power to do much but the cost of the capability means you have less troops when it comes to close combat. Shock troops with bow* get a particularly raw deal. As Phil says, any attempt to stand back and shoot weakly risks charging in piecemeal.