Slitherine

OK grognards, with a new LOEG season on us, I know you guys are analysing all the options......can you share some of your ideas about armies? I will volunteer to cut and paste it from this thread into the wiki.....the specific army sections are very very thin......

It would help me if you formated a little:

>Why is it your favorite?

>Some tips on the main DAG choices you face at 500 points

>Some generic tips on tactics

If an example helps, there are a couple here....
http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com/Gallic
http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com/Later ... +Highlands

Need not be comprehensive...even 1 or 2 comments on an army represents forward progress.....

These are the two armies that I used in season 4 . . .

War of the Roses Yorkists

It is basically a knights and longbow army that is best deployed in defensive positions. Your longbowmen can double up as very useful medium foot troops in terrain. The main dilemma is the size of your mounted contingent and whether you want to dismount your knights and just use the mounted currours to chase off skirmishers and "scavenge" on weaker enemy units at the end of battles. You can also choose two mercenary pikemen units that are very useful in halting enemy mounted attacks. Select archers stakes if you think the enemy will have a lot of cavalry or mounted knights.

These comments are also true for the other 4 WotR armies - Lancastrians, Richard III, Yorkist Pretender and Tudor.


Brutus and Cassius

I really got to enjoy the flexbility that this list offered. I could pick a smaller orthodox Roman army with many elite legionaries in it to confront pike and barbarian armies - or I could deploy lots of mounted skirmishers and foot archers to harass cataphract type armies. A great selection for a league campaign where you are fighting lots of different opponents.

Mid Republican Roman

Great army that can be successfull vs most opponents , impact foot are pretty good vs anything and can stand toe to toe vs pikes.
At 500 AP's it is generally not worth IMHO taking an ally. Your strength is your legions so concentrate on those, preferably w a good mix of superior and average armoured types ( I take 8 and 8 each) which gives one a decent amount of compulsary light foot and 2 superior and 2 elite triarri. You will also have enough points to balance out your army with mediums and some cavalry .
Protect your flanks vs cavalry (that is what the triarii are for) and chew thru softer targets . Be carefull vs Pike armies as I feel these are some of the most balanced line ups in the game and bad dice can ruin you.

Weaknesses:
Lancer based armies that have a lot of light dodgy missle type troops (ie Bosphorans)
MRR also struggle in bad going terrain.

Early Medieval Germans

Great army if you like to maneuver powerfull bodies of offensive minded troops.
Take a lot of knights and the swiss allies and you will have two very powerful groups of shock troops, plus enough to purchase auxiliary lights and some mediums for flexibility. You need to have an offensive minded plan as playing defense with anarchy prone knights and pikes will be problematic, and there are better armies suited for that play style.

Weaknesses:
Suffers greatly in bad going terrain, especially steep hill maps which are your worst enemy. Even if you take a lot of medium protected offensive spears, the types of mediums your oppoent likly will have in the rough will generally be bettter and in greater #'s than yours.

The danger of being swamped out by horde like armies is a great danger as well (Anglo_irish, Irish, Scots Islanders types etc) If yor opponent deploys on a boad front you will be encircled and soon your powerfull troops will become scattered(even if successfull in one on ones) and eventually be overwhelmed one by one.

Early Mediaeval Scots in Britain

Not exactly a 'killer' army, but can be surprisingly successful- I've beaten HYW English, those Early Mediaeval Germans, and even French Ordonnance (an army I've now met 5 times out of 20-odd SoA games- surely a candidate for 'most popular'?). Even when you lose, you're doing no worse than the historical prototype.
The vast bulk of the army is of course average, protected heavy offensive spearmen; but at only 7 points a throw, with impact foot capability, they're surprisingly tough. And you do get a vast bulk- you can afford to deploy in triple lines, and wear down your better opponents by attrition. At 500 points, you're looking at around 50 BGs/break points. Morale with this army is critical- not that of the troops, but yours- you need the mindset of Stalin, calmly ignoring the losses & the broken troops streaming towards the rear, while throwing fresh men forward trusting that the enemy will hit their break point before you run out of peasant infantry.
The supporting troops are just that- aids to the spearmen who will win or lose the battle- but still quite useful. I take the maximum number of light archers- cheap, with longbow, and useful as your only lights, although you can take some or all as mediums if you like. You are rather bizzarely forced to take 2 superior French knights, but can pad them out with average French men-at-arms and the average Scots nobles to have a useful force of 6 mounted knights to surprise your opponent. Cavalry seems to work best as a mobile reserve behind the lines rather than risking itself as a flank arm.
Highland allies give a medium foot capacity and some more bows- and can often be regarded, given the size of your army, as expendible (which is just as well, as they can be prone to spectacular collapses as well as moments of heroism). The Islanders give a useful heavy weapon, as well as yet more spears.

Weaknesses:

Vulnerability to missiles is top of the list. You can't afford to stand around in front of longbows. This means that an army suited for stubborn defence is often forced to attack. You also have very few really good superior BGs to win individual fights, unless you risk your generals. You're not very mobile, and all that heavy infantry makes you vulnerable to terrain. Good uphill positions on gentle slopes are best, but difficult to hold as most of your troops are prone to being suicidally impetuous. Moving deep formations can also lead to undignified traffic jams if you're not very careful. You also need that mindset of Stalin...

Interesting to see other people's takes on armies!

Have been copied over to wiki....

Later Seleucid (post-166BC)

The army with infinite possibilities. This army boasts, both superior and average cataphratcs, elite lancers, superior and average pikes, superior heavy foot impact swordsmen+, armoured and protected offensive spear MF... all of which are drilled Supporting this there are many fast moving mounted options; superior armoured cavalry, average swordsmen-bow cavalry, light horse (bow and javelin), elephants, camelry and scythed chariots. In addition there are plenty of supporting foot; Heavy impact foot swordsmen in both superior and average varieties, MF with heavy weapon, light spear and offensive spear (drilled, but poor). To provide ranged attack you have everything from the ubiquitous superior cretan archers, to archers which are MF or LF, average or poor plus average or poor slingers. To top it all you can have heavy artillery with bolt shooters, massed levies to boost BPs, and a fortified camp!

So with these options you can create a quality army with few weaknesses or go for quantity too. The mounted option can be game winning in itself and the pikes are always a problem for ancient armies... the 2 in combination can be devastating! What more could one ask for?

Well, plenty more.... there are the allies to consider.

Elymain Allies bring more superior cataphracts plus light horse archers and a choice of MF or LF bow. This gives the possibility to create a strong cavalry dominated army which can be great on wide open maps.

Jewish Allies bring 2 options for LF, plus more pikes (4 more, just in case the 15 you can field already aren't enough ) plus up to 9 more MF offensive spear and more archers (LF and MF) and slingers.

Parthian Rebels bring even more superior cataphracts plus lots of LH archers.

So with ally support you can field 10 superior cataphracts, with plenty of other mounted options and missile a plenty for the perfect hit and run army, or simply field 15 pikes, 4 HF and 9 MF for an army that can stretch across the width of many battlefields to reduce movement options for the cavalry armies.

Awesome


Weaknesses:
Very few, the most obvious being not enough points to pick all the desired combinations! Probably the only two real weakness in a battle are;

• The ability to field a really good army to strongly compete in a battleground dominated by disordering terrain. However, having said that, a moderately good army can be fielded by using the Jewish Allies.
• Survival of the pikes verses a good Roman army that has lots of impact foot. Although if the impact phase is survived then the Roman army is toast.

Finally, the possibility of anarchy from the cataphracts and lancers can also result in good, relatively expensive, troops being wasted, although with a supporting commander this can be minimised and when it happens the opponents never escape without losses too!

I like the Swiss from SoA. Mid Rep Roman.

Enjoy playing with the Egyptian armies even if I do not win with them.

I wish that the points were somehow a bit more balanced. It seems that some armies can never win because the matchups (points) never even out.

Some of the armies come complete with all Superior type troops (for the most part) making it very hard to beat them. Add to it that cavalry armies are harder to win with because of the edge of the board/rout off the board if attacked issues. Or should I be allowing my Light Horse/Bow to be attacked by foot troops (setting them to never Evade)?

Anyway, I haven't explored half of the armies. So many now to look at.

My favorite books are still to be done: Wolves from the Sea, Oath of Fealty, Byzantine and the Ottoman books. But these keep me busy!

I feel confident with Medieval French and even with Medieval Welsh (a real underrated army)