Terrible Lydian Army

[lydianed]

I'm currently playing Lydians in the Classical list in LoEG 9 so perhaps should save these plaintive cries until after the tournament ends but am driven to distraction by repeated failures of the Lydians to stand up and bloody fight. I'm happy to admit that I've lost close games because of my poor generalship but in virtually every game the Lydian Hoplites (mainstay of the army btw) crumble, frag and rout when faced with Impact Foot. The Lydians are Average, Drilled, Armoured, Offensive Spear - so shouldn't be a pushover. As an example in a game earlier on Turn 6 my opponent and I were on 6 break points apiece just before the two lines clash. On turn 7, He's on 7 break points and I'm on 17! One particular feature is the tendency for adjacent units to take fright and flee when their neighbours do so. At this stage there's very little chance of a recovery and the game is effectively decided in one turn. In this particular instance the Lydians have the numerical advantage too which makes it more galling.

So two questions to anyone out there willing to offer some advice. 1) Do all Hoplites behave like this? 2) If so, how does a Hoplite commander stop this from happening? Things I have tried include screening with lights to soften up the Impact Foot before they close - rarely achieves more than a disrupt or two; intermingling cavalry units to charge out from the hoplite ranks and take advantage of enemy units that advance too far or Anarchy Charge. What else can I do?

Even a draw with the Lydians would be nice...

[Turk1964]

Gday lydianed
I had a bit of a run with the Lydians and the key with them is there Cavalry as i believe you can have 12 Sup arm light spear sword Cavalry.The Armoured hopilites should be used with a screen of skirmishers to disrupt your opponents Impact foot before pushing them in.At the same time work your cav around their flank and try to get behind them.Let me check out the Lydians and suggest a list for you to try.

Cheers Turk

[Morbio]

I'm currently playing Lydians in the Classical list in LoEG 9 so perhaps should save these plaintive cries until after the tournament ends but am driven to distraction by repeated failures of the Lydians to stand up and bloody fight. I'm happy to admit that I've lost close games because of my poor generalship but in virtually every game the Lydian Hoplites (mainstay of the army btw) crumble, frag and rout when faced with Impact Foot. The Lydians are Average, Drilled, Armoured, Offensive Spear - so shouldn't be a pushover. As an example in a game earlier on Turn 6 my opponent and I were on 6 break points apiece just before the two lines clash. On turn 7, He's on 7 break points and I'm on 17! One particular feature is the tendency for adjacent units to take fright and flee when their neighbours do so. At this stage there's very little chance of a recovery and the game is effectively decided in one turn. In this particular instance the Lydians have the numerical advantage too which makes it more galling.

So two questions to anyone out there willing to offer some advice. 1) Do all Hoplites behave like this? 2) If so, how does a Hoplite commander stop this from happening? Things I have tried include screening with lights to soften up the Impact Foot before they close - rarely achieves more than a disrupt or two; intermingling cavalry units to charge out from the hoplite ranks and take advantage of enemy units that advance too far or Anarchy Charge. What else can I do?

Even a draw with the Lydians would be nice...

It's a feature of all pike (including spear) armies. They are good when steady, but effectiveness drops rapidly when not steady... and when fragmented they are doomed. The key thing is to avoid the loss of cohesion and then you will own many enemy armies. There are many things you can do to help (see here http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com/Cohesion+Tests; 1- Commander next to units receiving impact or melee, 2- Rear support, 3 - Inspired commander (will help rallying and will give +2 for those immediate neighbours and will minimise cohesion loss by missiles before impact).

Note: Average troops with no modifiers will fail nearly half their tests... and this is bad, because of the rapid decline in effectiveness. So, my advice is to go for lots of troop commanders and keep them in rear-support of the line. If your TCs are LH then you will need non-skirmishers to gain the rear support bonus.

[Old_Warrior]

There are some armies in this game that you just cannot win with. Jews in Revolt are another one.

Hoping that the 2nd ver. of the game is better. For now just trying to enjoy the battles and stick with standard armies.