Slitherine

My initial thought when I read the deployment rules was "excellent!" as that aspect is one of my weaknesses under DBM and the order of march means I can react much more to my opponents deployment and am less likely to be caught by surprise. Yes I should probably be trying to force him to react to me but as I say, it's a weak area for me.

Over the games though it's struck me more and more that my ability to have a "cunning plan" has been neutered as well. I've only ever completely out-deployed my opponent once in DBM with a clever reasoning through potential deployments and it was glorious (even if ultimately I drew the game through carelessness) but the same thing would be impossible in FoG as his latter troops in the order of march would just be positioned to counter my previously unexpected plan.

Possibly the best players find that their deployment plans under DBM and FoG are very similar and that FoG just speeds things up by removing the drawing of maps part, but for me it reduces the chances that I make a blundering error by putting a unit where it will have minimal impact on the game and also reduces the chance I can catch my opponent on the hop. Speaking as someone who is regularly on the wrong side of that interaction it's still a shame it's lessened.

Although I agree full blunders are rare, we still have had many surprises and BGs neutralized solely through bad deployment. Although we rarely use flank marches the use of ambushes as a way to hide some units, forward deploy others and just bluff about army size is a must. Maybe that is why we usually take all the gentle hills allowed.

Our marching orders have changed with time. At first we tended to place all lights first, then non-winning BGs, then the heavy-hitters (knights, ghulams, elephants...). Lights are still the first, though we may keep one for later if we want to get local superiority and chase the opponent's. But then often a few heavy-hitters go into obvious places (knights in front of the large flat spaces, infantry in front of the camp, whatever). That lets you hide or do some prestidigitation with supporting troops, and mess with the opponent's plans (how many knights has he taken? Are the ambush markers real? What is he keeping for later?). Or bluff. Or leave the camp undefended and use it as bait...

Each army has its personality. Even in deployment.

If both deploy trying to avoid mistakes, the battle will usually be a crash of strong lines with maneuvering on the flanks. Be creative. Mobile/Drilled armies can seem to deploy in a balanced way and suddenly refuse a whole wing and try to turn the battle 90º, from the long to the short side. All great plans usually run some risks as well.

Jose