Madaxemans Britcon reports and analysis now posted

[madaxeman]

Cilician Armenians vs

Free Company
Crown of Aragon
Later Danish
Early Ach-wotsit Persian
Late Roman (Dominate?)
Ancient British

All 7 lists are posted, together with the usual pics, commentary, analysis, rules stuff and inapropriate you-tube embedded video etc etc

all on www.madaxeman.com

[babyshark]

Good, solid work. As usual.



Marc

[hammy]

Only up to report 2 and the usual great stuff from Tim.

One mistake you may have made in game 2 though. Charging defensive spear actually get an impact POA against other defensive spear. It is there to prevent just the standoff you thought you had.

[madaxeman]

either....

1. I think I was facing offensive spears in that situation

or

2. I got it wrong

[hammy]

Finished all of the reports now and I agree that light horse are not easy to pin down. That said I have had reasonable results against armies with lots of light horse, it is just the odd BG that can be a pain in the butt to catch. I tend to ignore them now and get my troops off doing something more important instead.

I am a little surprised you found the undrilled cavalry were unmaneuverable. I suppose the killer really is the 8+ roll to do clever things. Perhaps you should have your own IC?

[madaxeman]

Finished all of the reports now and I agree that light horse are not easy to pin down. That said I have had reasonable results against armies with lots of light horse, it is just the odd BG that can be a pain in the butt to catch. I tend to ignore them now and get my troops off doing something more important instead.

I am a little surprised you found the undrilled cavalry were unmaneuverable. I suppose the killer really is the 8+ roll to do clever things. Perhaps you should have your own IC?

I just found that by the time the cavalry had actually won any of their combats, everything else they could catch was long gone, or even if I did turn, the stuff they were trying to reach just walked away faster than I could catch it...

..and I agree not having an IC vs drilled armies that (all) did have one meant my CMTs were always needing at least 2, and maybe 3 (IC has much bigger range too, and most of my opponents were on the defensive so could cluster their troops round the IC) higher than those of my opponents - and the difference between needing 5 and 8 is immense

Light horse are shocking - mainly because of the free turns not reducing what is already an immense movement distance compared to anything else in the game. Theres no point in ignoring them if you need them to win the game, and once they get into column they can do pretty much anything, and finish with a 180 degree turn, giving them total freedom of which direction they evade to. A 2x2 block executing a 90 degree turn can then wheel well over 180 degrees, so its effectively getting a 270 degree+ wheel. And the rules for avoiding evading off table sides and enemy edges are basically a carte blanche to get free turns and an extra move..

Without a pip mechanism you can't catch them, the best I found was to try and chase them and keep pinning them in such a way as to "sheperd" them away from my baggage!

[hammy]

One thing I have found a number of players are rather lax on when using light horse is that they turn and then move as though they started facing in the new direction. If you do a turn 90 you can only make a single wheel, other than that the move has to be a straight line. I have seen a lot of players make DBM style moves after a turn and that is definitely not correct. It does make things a bit harder for light horse.

[Hepius]

I'm sure the rest of the reports were great (and I really appreciate the rules commentary you add in), however I never got past the Danish speeding bit.

Hep

[timmy1]

Was there anything after the Danish video? Can't say I noticed.

[Redpossum]

Madaxeman, I love your site, it's always so entertaining.

But I often have page layout problems when viewing your site. For example your excellent Britcon report, the Army List near the beginning looks like this, with the ads in the middle of the chart.

Great report, though!

If it matters, I am using Firefox at 1024x768

[Quintus]

Very enjoyable and witty as always.

I do miss Hannibal though.

[madaxeman]

Madaxeman, I love your site, it's always so entertaining.

But I often have page layout problems when viewing your site. For example your excellent Britcon report, the Army List near the beginning looks like this, with the ads in the middle of the chart.

Great report, though!

If it matters, I am using Firefox at 1024x768

oops - thats horrible isnt it? Ive done a patched up fix, but I clearly need to get under the bonnet .....The ads should be in the page footer

I'll see what I can do.....

[carlos]

But I often have page layout problems when viewing your site. For example your excellent Britcon report, the Army List near the beginning looks like this, with the ads in the middle of the chart.

You can try using the add-on for Firefox called AdBlock Plus. It will block all ebay/amazon ads and lots of other stuff, too. It should have the madaxeman page displaying properly. Of course you won't see tim's ads...

[Hepius]

Don't all units have the ability to wheel 90 and charge? Doesn't this help undrilled units to get onto flanks and/or exploit gaps in lines?

Or is it just a case of over-pursuit and the subsequent inability to maneuver back into the fight?

Hep

[paulcummins]

I think you were diddled by some of the LH- if charged in the flank or rear they have to evade in the direction of the charge.
They would have been squeezed into the corner by your charge in the pic from the last game, and quite possibly caught.

[madaxeman]

I think you were diddled by some of the LH- if charged in the flank or rear they have to evade in the direction of the charge.
They would have been squeezed into the corner by your charge in the pic from the last game, and quite possibly caught.

Doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are right!! That makes a huge difference.....

[carlos]

Don't all units have the ability to wheel 90 and charge? Doesn't this help undrilled units to get onto flanks and/or exploit gaps in lines?

Or is it just a case of over-pursuit and the subsequent inability to maneuver back into the fight?

Hep

I think it's a case of the latter because you are drawn out of the line of combat and then need to make your way back. If you somehow don't pursue, then it's unlikely you can charge the flank as you won't be in position, ie with all bases beyond the front of the enemy unit. Of course you can go forward, then turn 90 and have a charge ready, but that's a lot of melee phases for your friends nearby.

[hammy]

I think you were diddled by some of the LH- if charged in the flank or rear they have to evade in the direction of the charge.
They would have been squeezed into the corner by your charge in the pic from the last game, and quite possibly caught.

Doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are right!! That makes a huge difference.....

I looked at the picture and was going to make this comment but if the front of the column was indeed kinked then it wouldn't have been a flank charge.

That said remember that if you turn and move you can only have one wheel and you can't contract. People definitley play fast and loose with light horse because that is what you could do in DBM. You can do some things in FoG you couldn't in DBM but also there are things that were OK in DBM that are definitely not allowed in FoG.

[caliban66]

Soon it looked like my army was in such a state it might actually beat itself without intervention from the enemy at all...

Man, great reports. I´m still laughing.

[willb]

Madaxeman, I love your site, it's always so entertaining.

But I often have page layout problems when viewing your site. For example your excellent Britcon report, the Army List near the beginning looks like this, with the ads in the middle of the chart.

Great report, though!

If it matters, I am using Firefox at 1024x768

i've had the same experience. also using firefox at 1024