Slitherine

How are Auxilia under DBM going to be reconfigured?
I understand that they can be either javelin/dart throwers or Close Order Foot, but how are Auxilia under DBM going to be split?
Will it be dependant on the time period or their role or both?

For instance Romans can have Throwers or Close Order;
would Bonnachts be Close Order, or Javelin throwers? Or both?
Welsh Spearmen wil prolly be Defensive Spears(previously discussed in another thread) but how about Brigans? Just Close Order Foot or likewise Defensive Spears?
How about Almughavars? Close Order Heavy Foot?
Rabble Militia? Poor quality skirmishers or poor quality Close Order Foot?


Cheers,
Jer

The variants are driven more by their tactical doctrine than by being "auxlia" with the troops being given POAs to match this to give the right feel in each case. This is one of the great flexibilities of the POA system. So oin AOW "auxilia" are unbundled into their many true variants and treated differently as such.

Anyone who used javelins before an impact will tend to be classified with a Light Spear POA and perhaps a swordsmen POA is skilled in hand-to-hand melee as well. Others will be classified as Spearmen and fight this way representing semi-formed spear walls. The best "auxilia" might be light spear and swordsmen, and drilled, and be armoured, but most importantly be superior quality giving them re-rolls.

Fighting style is more a factor in whether troops get and HF option or not. This is being mulled over at present. We are not yet decided. All views welcome.

Rabble militia likely to be either: poor quality foot if they fought this way, or Mob which fight and move as medium foot but have DBM Hd bases to avoid re-basing of the swarms that some people have collected. In either case they will again get their own POAs to reflect what they did. A swarm of peasants are likely to be Poor Mob with no POAs to their name - just lots of bases.

Hope that helps give a feel for it. Its a lot easier if you've played a few game of it.

Si

shall wrote:The variants are driven more by their tactical doctrine than by being "auxlia" with the troops being given POAs to match this to give the right feel in each case. This is one of the great flexibilities of the POA system. So oin AOW "auxilia" are unbundled into their many true variants and treated differently as such.

Anyone who used javelins before an impact will tend to be classified with a Light Spear POA and perhaps a swordsmen POA is skilled in hand-to-hand melee as well. Others will be classified as Spearmen and fight this way representing semi-formed spear walls. The best "auxilia" might be light spear and swordsmen, and drilled, and be armoured, but most importantly be superior quality giving them re-rolls.

Fighting style is more a factor in whether troops get and HF option or not. This is being mulled over at present. We are not yet decided. All views welcome.

Rabble militia likely to be either: poor quality foot if they fought this way, or Mob which fight and move as medium foot but have DBM Hd bases to avoid re-basing of the swarms that some people have collected. In either case they will again get their own POAs to reflect what they did. A swarm of peasants are likely to be Poor Mob with no POAs to their name - just lots of bases.

Hope that helps give a feel for it. Its a lot easier if you've played a few game of it.

Si

Si,

Cheers for the reply.

Suspect that :

Welsh Spearmen & Brigans will be Drilled, possibly Protected, Spearmen for the purpose of a Spearwall
Lanciarii will be Drilled, Protected, Light Spear POA, possibly getting Armoured & a Sword POA as well
Bonnachts will be Protected, Undrilled, Light Spear & Sword POA
Almughavars will be Drilled, Light Spear, Swordsmen, Protected possibly AND Superior.
Rabble Militia to make up the numbers

Looking forward to playing it enormously!

Cheers,
Jer

whitehorses wrote: Si,

Cheers for the reply.

Suspect that :

Welsh Spearmen & Brigans will be Drilled, possibly Protected, Spearmen for the purpose of a Spearwall
Lanciarii will be Drilled, Protected, Light Spear POA, possibly getting Armoured & a Sword POA as well
Bonnachts will be Protected, Undrilled, Light Spear & Sword POA
Almughavars will be Drilled, Light Spear, Swordsmen, Protected possibly AND Superior.
Rabble Militia to make up the numbers

Looking forward to playing it enormously!

Cheers,
Jer

LOL - I think you got one of the above right.

'cos I'm feeling evil today I'll let you keep guessing

But all nearly right if I am not mistaken....ah the tension.

Si

All quite close - which I guess must be a positive for the rules

shall wrote:The variants are driven more by their tactical doctrine than by being "auxlia" with the troops being given POAs to match this to give the right feel in each case. This is one of the great flexibilities of the POA system. So oin AOW "auxilia" are unbundled into their many true variants and treated differently as such.

IMHO the 'auxilia' troop type was one of several, erm... 'less successful' attempts at categorization found in DBM, so 'unbundling' the various troops for AoW is a very welcome thing, indeed.

Cheers,
Scott K.

I believe the one you got right is the lanciarii. All the others will be undrilled. The moogs will have the equivalent of a pilum. Also guessing anything that could form spearwall will be defensive spearmen.

Just guessing.

John

Suspect that :

Welsh Spearmen & Brigans will be Drilled, possibly Protected, Spearmen for the purpose of a Spearwall
Lanciarii will be Drilled, Protected, Light Spear POA, possibly getting Armoured & a Sword POA as well
Bonnachts will be Protected, Undrilled, Light Spear & Sword POA
Almughavars will be Drilled, Light Spear, Swordsmen, Protected possibly AND Superior.
Rabble Militia to make up the numbers

Any idea about navarrese "Mesnaderos"?

Mikel

nikgaukroger wrote:All quite close - which I guess must be a positive for the rules

Oooo, do I win a prize?


Cheers,
Jer

malekithau wrote:I believe the one you got right is the lanciarii. All the others will be undrilled. The moogs will have the equivalent of a pilum. Also guessing anything that could form spearwall will be defensive spearmen.

Just guessing.

John

Weeeeell, the reason I say Welsh Spearmen are drilled is because they instinctively knew what to do when facing Knights or Cavalry, certainly in the Llewellyn & Mordog rebellions;
plant spears & wait for the impetuous Knights to impale themselves on the Spears. This tactic was pretty reliable & standard (possibly where the notion for Longbowmen's Stakes came from) practice for facing off Mounted.

The downside of this was it left them very exposed to archery, espec. Longbows.



Cheers,
Jer

Specifically are Dailami still considered a form of Auxila or have they graduated into some other form?

hazelbark wrote:Specifically are Dailami still considered a form of Auxila or have they graduated into some other form?

There is no such thing as Auxilia in AoW. There are heavy, medium and light foot.

Heavy foot rely on formation and suffer more from bad terrain
Medium foot are less vulnerable to terrain
Light foot are true skirmishers

Dailami are medium foot, superior, armoured, -, Impact foot, swordsmen

Essentially they are really nice but cost. They will lose a straight up fight in the open againts Roman legionaries or pike but in period are some of the best if not the best infantry about.

That's daylami, what about the Almughavars? Too many accounts of them being THE best foot troopers of the 13th-14th century to be limited by the Auxilia tag. Most battle accounts have them being able to strike fear in the italian city militia, chase off french kniggets in open and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

If the city spear of DBx are classified as poor Heavies, one wonders where these fit.

Madcam

madcam2us wrote:That's daylami, what about the Almughavars? Too many accounts of them being THE best foot troopers of the 13th-14th century to be limited by the Auxilia tag. Most battle accounts have them being able to strike fear in the italian city militia, chase off french kniggets in open and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

If the city spear of DBx are classified as poor Heavies, one wonders where these fit.

Madcam

Almughavars = MF, Superior, Unprotected or Protected, Offensive Spearmen

This makes them excellent troops in AoW, certainly capable of taking on knights in the open.