Slitherine

My Carolingian Franks have fewer archers than I would like. So I decided that I would add to my army one battle group of Lombard archers (as allowed on p 39 of Wolves from the Sea) to a force that was otherwise all Franks. Since my three commanders were Franks, I believed that my limitation would be that the Lombard archers (1) could not have a +1 modifier in a Cohesion Test based on a Commander being in Command Range or (2) if their cohesion were reduced, could not be rallied by a Frankish commander. Otherwise, I believed that the Lombard archers could participate in battles. However, my frequent opponent tells me that if I don't have a number of Lombard battle groups, cavalry and/or infantry (with or without a Lombard commander), I am forbidden to add a lone battle group of Lombard archers. What do you say?

The only Lombards allowed in a Carolingian Frankish army are a Lombard allied contingent, which must conform to the "Lombard Allies" list on page 39. That means conforming to the minima and maxima listed for each troop type. The list shows that there must be a minimum of 1 Lombard Field or Troop Commander and at least 4 bases of Lombard armoured cavalry. Therefore you cannot add only 1 battle group of Lombard archers. You would also need to add the Lombard commander and at least 1 battle group of armoured cavalry.

See page 78 of Wolves from the Sea - "Allied contingents can only be used if specified in the army lists. Most allied contingents have their own allied contingent list, to which they must conform unless the main army's list specifies otherwise".

Even though that's a bit disappointing, thank you very much, ShadowDragon.