Slitherine

Is the only advantage of fielding DH instead of Horse, that DH count as fighting with 2 dice for the front rank?

It seems to me that 3 units of 4 Horse, would be better value than 2 units of 4 DH.

Also differences in breaking off from melee.
John

well, it can be a big advantage .

If the DH get fully deployed, the 2 units would be eight bases wide against the 3 Horse units 6 wide so potentially 14 dice for the DH vs the 12 dice for horse.

DH have their place and can be extremely strong, they have downsides obviously but horses for courses as they say.

cheers
Jim

gibby wrote:well, it can be a big advantage .

If the DH get fully deployed, the 2 units would be eight bases wide against the 3 Horse units 6 wide so potentially 14 dice for the DH vs the 12 dice for horse.

cheers
Jim

I am looking at combining Horse with Command shot. So The main advantage I was looking at, was that it is possible to have more bases counting as being supported by being 2 deep.
H H S H H S H H DH DH DH DH CS DH DH DH DH CS
H H S H H S H H

So the Horse will have 12 bases mutually supporting each other + 2 unsupported Horse. Even though the DH get more dice, there is less supported DH. Do you think that this is preferable , especially when fighting Imperiallist Cuirassiers?

In my limited experience with these rules, it seems that by being in one rank, you can dish out more punishment. However the DH are more likely to receive more hits in the one turn than deeper formed horse. Which will lead to kills & failed tests.

Please bear in mind that just because DH can fight with full effect in 1 rank, does not necessarily mean that that is the best (or most historical) way to use them.

The troops we categorise as Determined Horse tended to form up in multiple lines of shallow squadrons, so a BG of DH formed up 2 bases deep represents this. Whereas a BG of Horse formed up 2 deep represents one deep formation.

The downside of deploying DH 1 base deep is that they get exposed to more shooting and suffer more hits in close combat too.

One advantage of 2 deep DH vs 2 deep Horse is that if the Horse lose a base, they lose a dice, whereas if the DH lose a base, they don't.

So the benefit of DH 2 deep is that their multiple lines of shallow squadrons represent (paradoxically, but borne out by history) a more resilient formation than a deep block.

As was said above, it is horses for courses, and the rules allow various tactical options which can be used depending on the circumstances.

rbodleyscott wrote:Please bear in mind that just because DH can fight with full effect in 1 rank, does not necessarily mean that that is the best (or most historical) way to use them.

One advantage of 2 deep DH vs 2 deep Horse is that if the Horse lose a base, they lose a dice, whereas if the DH lose a base, they don't.

I originally thought that DH were designed to operate in 1 rank.
However it does seem that the DH do well in 2 ranks.

thanks