Slitherine

Curious on views on what makes sense for these.

The challenging size is 6 elements BGs as in 2 ranks they "waste" half a die and only shoot with 4 dice (3 front rank dice, plus 1.5 dice from rear rank). Which suggests maybe you should go with 8 elements BGs to get 6 dice (assuming all are on target which can be an issue).

What have people had success with? Any thoughts?

The four dice a 6 base shooting group get is good value in my experience and the one they lose if in three ranks is worth it for having six bases.
The six dice an 8 base group get is great if the opponent is likely to have large BGs but I have often found I have had to split such group's shooting due to enemy advancing in pairs of BGs .

Martin

Remember that shooting dice are calculated on a target by target basis not a shooting BG by shooting BG basis.

Two BGs of 6 have exactly the same firepower as one of 8 and one of 4.

I have found that for drilled MF shooters six bases in a 2 wide, three deep formation is very flexible. A 90 turn still gives uou a frontage of 2 bases and 3 shooting dice, combine that with drilled troops being able to turn and move and you can often pick just the right target.

I like longbow swordsmen in 8's though.

8s are good for toughing out exchange of fire as well

I´ve switched from 8 bases BG´s of sparabara to 6. Undrilled BG move much better, can have more amount of BG and drilled BG of immortals can easily change to 2 bases wide front in order to make flank charges. I´ve destroyed BG´s of knights with 2x6 immortals.

I have moved to 8s for Medieval longbowmen

6s are fine. I use them where I can with mass bow armies to get extra BGs.

In practice the difference is not so great. ... lose a base each and its the 8 that is droppong a dice instead

Si