Slitherine

Hi all,

I've been the proud owner of both a classical greek army and the Immortal fire supp for
quite some time now, and can't say that i'm disappointed with both of them (specially
the armoured version of the hoplites).

The only thing i might want to improve is the quality of the MF in my heavy foot army,
as i noticed in the previous rules i've played, i usually tend to get better result when
my medium foot are quality medium foot ( something like armoured, Off spear inFoG).

And i have the feeling that the Thracian i can get with the armoured version of the hoplites
are too few to my taste. I'll deal with it, but was wondering whether there would be in
other supplements (ancient period) other armies with armoured, Off spear with some
quality medium foot ( something close to armoured, Off spear, or a least prot off spear but
with enough number to allow me to get at least 2 of those BGs)?
Like i said i already own Immortal fire, so apart from this book, any chance to get an Amoured
Off spear based army with good MF?

I was thinking of Early Republican Romans as in dbm they were Sp(o) and some (S) i think
or maybe Etruscan? Any idea ?

Strange as it may sound one of the better armies for combining armoured spearmen and better medium foot than early classical Greek is Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian. The SNHC army gets up to 20 armoured offensive spear, 20 armoured defensive spear supported by upto 8 sword and buckler men and 8 alumghavars. You also get decent lighthorse, light foot and knights. Unfortunately to pay for all this can be a problem.

There aren't many armies with lots of armoured spear, the Greeks are one of the few in the first batch of books. Unfortunately historically the early Greeks didn't have much in the way of loose order foot

If you are happy with only 3 BGs of offensive spear I think you might be able to get somewhere with Early Achemenid Persian. 16 Medizing Greeks and 6 Asiatic Greeks as armoured spear plus loads of medium foot.

Always Later Carthaginian as well, Hannibal in Italy can have 18 HF armoured superior Off Sp. Plenty of
terrain troops, although average and protected.

Later Seleukid?

One BG of MF, Armoured, Average, Off Sp
One BG of MF, Protected, Hvy Wpn

It really boils down to how many armoured spears you want and what you consider to be good medium foot.

Thanks for the replies guys!
I'll have to check the Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian even though i first thought that armoured off spear
wouldn't have the same impact on the game in medieval period with all the knights and heavy weapons around^^.

Concerning numbers i think that a minimum of 32 off spear would give me the feeling of playing with a fair amount of
spears but more would be nice. What i consider a good medium foot is once againsomething like an armoured off spear bg
or a protected superior spear/ or impact.

I'll check Later Carthaginians too but might find that 18 armoured Off spears could be too few.

Don't know about the seleukids, they can have armoured off spears?


Too bad those Classical Greeks can't have a second descent MF bg!!

I don't have my army lists here but the Syracusan list in Rise of Rome might give you this combination if its start date is early enough to include armored hoplites. (This is going as much on my memory of the DBM and 7th edition Syracusan lists as FoG, so I'm not sure that it will meet the requirement.)

Chris

Syracusan are all protected spear

Finding an army with 32+ Armoured Offensive spear is not easy.

Late Dynastic Egyptian gets the option of 32 armoured spearmen but while it can have a lot of medium foot the ones it can have are not that brilliant.

hammy wrote:Syracusan are all protected spear

Finding an army with 32+ Armoured Offensive spear is not easy.

Late Dynastic Egyptian gets the option of 32 armoured spearmen but while it can have a lot of medium foot the ones it can have are not that brilliant.

But there good for rear support!

Late Dynastic Egyptian are indeed on my list but i surely wouldn't call there MF quality !!
and for rear support i like those unprot cav by 4 at 28pts the bg^^. Armoured Off spear and
Heavy Chariots are one of my next plan... if i find some appealing 15mm Egyptian Heavy
Chariots that is . But it sure doesn't end my quest for Armoured Off spear based army with
quality MF in ancient period.

I could try to learn to play better with only one quality MF too....

What are you using the MF for? Are your opponents also going to be classical period or any period?

I agree with Hammy that Later Carthaginian is a good choice. You max out at 18 superior offensive spear but can also use plenty of additional protected offensive spear (more than you would ever be able to pay points for). The problem it seems that all the classical era armies will have troops slightly less potent than your looking for. The Later Carthaginians can have some MF protected offensive spear and all the impact MF you could ever want but not the superior kind your looking for.

yep Flamberge, i'm going to play in period, and tend to win on the wings when i happen to
win a game...
Don't know why, it's easier for me to plan the moves of my HF when i know that my MF
(protecting their flank) is going to own most of what could be thrown at them in rough
going.
I'll have a look at those Later Carthaginian Just wondering, how many Prot off spear
can they have apart from the Armoured version?

Now that I look at it what you can have depends on the date your using. If you want to be able to have the 18 bases of superior armored off spear you can only have an additional 14 bases of protected average off spear for a total of 32 bases of off spear. If you pick the earlier date you can't get armored spear but instead can have 48 bases of protected average. A possible choice for MF with this army is they have a lot of protected impact swordsmen (up to 36 bases of which you can make 24 of them HF if you wanted to). Another good flank force they have that are very good in terrain is you can have up to 6 elephants. Basically the army has a huge amount of options. Elephants, lots of spear, lots of impact foot, a good amount of quality cav, plenty of LH,etc.

Bought Legions Triumphant and Rise of Rome today, so will now have a chance to check those
Carthaginians, yes!!