Spike, here.
Actually, I was pleased to hear of this new project and the tid-bits of information that are posted here suggest an interesting ruleset. Admittedly, I have not read the ruleset and, therefore, am a bit of blind man inspecting the elephant, but nevertheless have a basic question.
As DBx evolved, I bemoaned the rise of the wall of crap armies and gradual weakening of mounted armies, especially the sportscar types (Early T'ang, Mongols, Mamluks, Ghaznavid, etc.). Several comments suggest that AoW steers away from WoC types by (a) reducing the filler in army lists and (b) increasing the difficulty of guarding low value troops. That sounds promising.
I presume that certain basic tenets maintain, however. Namely, mounted troops are more expensive than the corresponding infantry but move faster. In DBx, the value of mounted troops, especially Cv, was that their manueverability permitted them to engage flanks. This diminished as the rules encouraged more frontal engagement and reduced the benefit of flank contacts, etc. Unfortunately, this also lead to armies that were too small to compete.
So, in AOW, what benefits of maneuver might a smaller mounted army hope to obtain? Are any particular advantages to attacking a BG's flank? In my view, flanks in DBM 3.1 are probably too secure, but the dogfights of DBM 2.0, OTOH, made them too much of a focus. How does AoW balance these or otherwise avoid their pitfalls?
Spike
