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army design

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:31 pm
by paulcummins
I am finding it quite hard to get an 800 pt army - the requirement of even bases in a bg mean that small points changes require big army changes.

Not really feedback - but..

how big are peoples armies?

I am getting too tempted by all the nice elite and superior troops and ending up with 7 BG

How many generals?

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:02 pm
by plewis66
7 BG is quite small, especially with the way victory conditions work (p 15): ' An army is defeated when at the start of any interbound it has accumulated attrition points equal to its original number of battle groups' (it means to or greater than if I were to be pendantic).

This means with 7 BGs, it would be sufficient to break 3 and frgment 1. Granted, your BGs would be hard to break, being so hard, but on the other hand, they'd present a short frontage, making fighting in two directions a real danger - and thats bad for anyone.

The typical number seems to be 10-15. My EIR used to have 10, my Alexandrians 12 and I've now rejied my Romans to have 12 also.

I do find it distressing how many points are used up by required troops. I think for caual games, we'll probbaly end up mostly playing 1000pts to give the option to use some interesting stuff more frequently.

Three or four generals seems the norm. I've stopped taking ICs, because the points cost doesn't seem to quite justify them at the moment. Maybe as I learn to play better, I'll see the value. I now usually take on FC anf two TCs.

And yes, small initial changes can lead to a big rethink of the army. I just discovered that the list I was going to submit for Leeds contained two errors: I had undercosted two troop types, and after adding up correctly, it took me two points over the 800.

Now I'm used to warhammer, where I would probably have just taken a shield off unit champion or something, but in AoW I had to drop one BG, reduce another from 6 to 4 bases, and add another BG of 4 bases of a different type. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out the way I wanted to do it. Longer than warhammer, but not disasterously so by any means.

Also, I know my warhammer army points inside out, whereas I still have to calculate the cost of troops in AoW with reference to the rules.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:42 am
by paulcummins
another question - allies - how do you choose them?

Re: army design

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:53 am
by rbodleyscott
paulcummins wrote:I am finding it quite hard to get an 800 pt army - the requirement of even bases in a bg mean that small points changes require big army changes.

Not really feedback - but..

how big are peoples armies?

I am getting too tempted by all the nice elite and superior troops and ending up with 7 BG

How many generals?
My armies usually have 4 generals and range from 11 to 19 BGs. Bruce did very well with an 8 BG army at Usk.
another question - allies - how do you choose them?
There are special allied contingent lists. If you are coming to Leeds I can supply the ones you need if you e-mail me.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:42 pm
by neilhammond
11 to 12 BGs in a 800 point army, with either 3 or 4 generals. But I've only played 4 games so I'm no expert. I'm experimenting with IC's and it can work... sometimes.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:17 pm
by jre
For me, four generals are a must. IC depends on the army, as it is more useful for maneuvering and troops that expect to be in shooting contests. Once the battle is joined most of the time I have three generals engaged...

I try to have at least 9 BGs, and have gone as far as 16, but usually hover in 10-12.

However very often I lose some points in change, and it is harder than in other games to spend those last 5 points. It does not change much, either. I prefer a 792 point army I am comfortable with than exchanging a BG I have a use for for a more expensive one I may not use.

Jos?©

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:52 pm
by donm
Steve and I only used 3 generals at Usk. However, the majority of our troops were superiors. We used undrilled troops as we did not feal it a great disadvantage. With the changes for undrilled wheeling etc we would probably rethink that one.

Don M