Expanding/Contracting mixed Battle Groups

[Maniakes]

Hi

I took the Nikephorians to Warfare and had a great time even though I didn't win a single game. I think my biggest problem was writing my list before I'd played a game. So now I'm thinking a bit more about the Nikephorians and I've got a couple of questions about the mixed battle groups. Suppose I've got a BG composed of 4 Heavy foot Defensive Spear supported by 4 Medium foot Bow is it possible for them to:-

1) contract to (or deploy as) four deep with two ranks of Spear followed by two ranks of Bow. A good formation for receiving charges! From a conversation with Nik Gaukroger I think this is probably legal.

2)Expand from this to (or deploy as) a two deep formation with all the bow on one side(so you have 2x2 bow adjacent to 2x2 spear). This could be useful if you wanted to anchor a line on terrain with the bow in the rough and the spear in the open - and I think it is historical. However I think it may be illegal because bases in a BG should be in edge and corner contact with each other (page 7) which I take to be front and back corners - and that's not possible for HF and MF standing in the same rank because they have different base depths.


So are my interpretations/guesses right?

[terrys]

However I think it may be illegal because bases in a BG should be in edge and corner contact with each other (page 7) which I take to be front and back corners - and that's not possible for HF and MF standing in the same rank because they have different base depths.

A sinlge edge (obviously) and a single corner is sufficient.
A 4 deep formation is a perfectly legel - and often used formation.
Forming up in 2 ranks with bows on one side is also legal - just be sure you don't get your bows hit instead of your spears.

[neilhammond]

I expect you can also go for:

BSSB
BSSB

or

SBBS
SBBS

where B = bows and S = spears.

[terrys]

Under most situations these are much worse than the historical first rank spear, 2nd rank bow formations.

because:
a) you only get to fire 3 shots instead of 4
b) You lose half of your support firing at impact
c) You lose the bonus of counting the 2nd rank bow as fighting with spear. (although you don't get the 'spears in 2 ranks' POA.)

With the side by side formation, half gain a POA for spears in 2 ranks, but half lose at least one, and possible 2 POA's for the bows, and you get the - on your CT for MF in combat.

[neilhammond]

Under most situations these are much worse than the historical first rank spear, 2nd rank bow formations.
....

You can probably tell that I don't have a Nikephorian Byzantine army

[Maniakes]

The only use I could think of for the side by side block of bow then block of spear formation was to get some MF into terrain when you really needed it .... but the more I think about it the worse an ideas it seems! Four ranks deep still seems good to me, giving a 2-Deep Spear POA and a rank of supporting bow.