Slitherine

I am in two minds about the usefulness of the chariots in the Early Pictish army, they don't appear to have many plus points in an open tourney except being able to evade or chase light horse, and do cost 15pts each. Any one else having doubts about them (or other light chariots with Light Spear only)

They do fight quite well, with 2 dice per chariot. If you use the I'd treat them a heavy skirmishers rather than shock troops.

use them to emasculate heavily armoured knights.

can shoot them up if lucky
can always evade if need be
still getting 2 dice in mellee so even there
makes a mockery of armour (as do any chariots)

being superior helps too.

expendablecinc wrote:use them to emasculate heavily armoured knights.

can shoot them up if lucky

Have to be very lucky as they can't shoot.

They also can get cut up by Swordsmen.

As with troop specific types of any army, a lot will have to do with basic military operational principles.

Who are the opponents (enemy) and their troop abilities.
What is the terrain (KOCOA) and how will it hinder or help in the use of chariots.
What is the fighting style (tendacies) of the Commander (you)? You style and capabilities may encourage more or less of a specific troop type.
How important is mobility? (encomy of force and massing troops at a critical spot)

being an effective commander/ player involves more than just showing up on Saturaday and deploying a killer army.

Understanding and studying military science will vasting improve your winning capability. (I did not say improve wins but it would reduce a commander's mistakes to lose a battle.

rbodleyscott wrote:

expendablecinc wrote:use them to emasculate heavily armoured knights.

can shoot them up if lucky

Have to be very lucky as they can't shoot.

ha bloody ha.

I was charging 4 of the buggers with 4 superior heaviliy armoured knights.. I expected them to either evade or get crunched but they survived the impact and in mellee my armour didnt count so not so great there either. Their superiority saved them a couple of failed mellee and lost 2 bases but that was enough time for me to get hit in the flank a few turns later and it all went downhill from there.

I am scarred and flinch now when I see them.

I used two BG of 6 light chariot light spear in a beta test tournament and felt they did quite well. Mind you, the rest of the army (Scots Irish) was unprotected MF light spear/sword.

Possible uses:

I think they would be particularly useful against shooty cavalry, especially isolated BGs, because you get a + at impact and 2 dice per base in melee. I only fought foot armies, so I haven't tried this one out.
Flank marching.
Chasing LH/LF.
Charging foot after they have been shot up by LF/LH. Superior with a general fighting compensates for being a POA down. If you do end up fighting steady foot, you break off.
Moving around and attacking the enemy flanks.
Protecting your own flanks.
Getting over the threshold for +1 or +2 on initiative.

IF the picts have LH then they can do some of these jobs, so there is less reason to have chariots, but the chariots are still much better in close combat.

Thanks for all the ideas.

I do intend to use the chariots to get my Initiative to 4 and have a very aggressive game plan. Combined LH and Chariots, light foot bows and a goodly amount of spearmen that will take over the terrain that I should get at least half the time.

There is no point in having superior numbers if you can't swarm all over the enemy from as many directions as possible. Let's just hope that the dice rolling keeps high on the cohesion test.

Two more practice games before the list gets sent in for Britcon.

Long live the Pictish Nation

Jim, I will try not to muck up your army thought s too much when we play on Thursday then.
John
p.s. thanks for telling me in advance what your pre battle initiative will be

Bah,

Caught out, now I will have to bring another army

Off to the books now, what can I morph my meagre supply of figures into

JimmyThePict wrote: Long live the Pictish Nation

I am in admiration of your dedicated 24/7commitment to Picts.

It is a bit off though when your opponent is dressed only in a loincloth and covered in blue paint.
John

Just to keep things sane at Britcon, I will not be bringing a loin cloth, or fighting naked for that matter, no matter how hot the Barnes Wallis building get.

Thank god for that