Slitherine

I have FoG2 for a week now; after the Tutorials and a few Quick Battles on Tribune I feel ready to promote myself to Legate and celebrate with an AAR. This is an excellent opportunity for incoherent babble, since after only one week people can´t really complain that I am not an expert.

I am playing the Syracusans, who are rumoured to be a dog, to increase the challenge somewhat.

I see the problem with the Syracusans now: Compared to their natural enemies, the Carthaginians, they have fewer Cavalry, fewer Lights, and, most importantly, they have nothing special to boast about. Something tells me they wouldn´t fare very well against the Romans, either.

What I had in mind at this stage doesn´t really deserve to be called a plan and it didn´t work as intended, anyway, so I just show you a pic.

I call this formation The Stairs; I am pretty much sure it´s not in Vegetius.

A closer look at my Right.

The idea is to hit the weak Right of the AI with my weak Left. Yes, this is as dubious as it sounds.

Once the AI has decided to defend, it is slow to change its mind. That does allow me to destroy its vanguard of Lights.

sIg3b wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:24 pmI call this formation The Stairs; I am pretty much sure it´s not in Vegetius.

Actually it is, although he does not call it that. It is his third formation.

rbodleyscott wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:49 pm

sIg3b wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:24 pmI call this formation The Stairs; I am pretty much sure it´s not in Vegetius.

Actually it is, although he does not call it that. It is his third formation.

I am not so sure. I think Vegetius would want me to attack with my best troops on the left, not my worst. Can´t blame him.

I think what I am doing here is more original than Vegetius´ Strategy #3, though not necessarily better.

At this point it looks like my Left Envelopment is going to work; of course it won´t, because:

1. I am underestimating the necessary number of units.
2. I am underestimating the AI´s reaction.

At least the casualty report looks promising. I believe that losses are a better predictor of the outcome than rout%, reason being that routed units may recover, while the dead are not going to report back to work.

Now they are coming.

A view from the Carthaginian side.

The AI really likes to keep reserves. At the risk of quite a few units never getting into action. This is part of a general AI tendency to err on the side of caution. I believe this makes the game easier on lower difficulty levels and harder on higher difficulty levels, probably a wise design decision.


On the other hand, the cautious character of the AI does allow one to take liberties, and recover from mistakes, one couldn´t afford against many human players.

Now the surprise twist: The AI out-un-strategized me!

It tried to do everything -attack my right and centre, reinforce its right flank and keep a reserve- and overstretched in the process.

Its center-left became very thin -no, I am not talking about politics here!-, allowing me to send my best Hoplites to the help of my Cavalry and gang up on the corner unit of Carthaginian Hoplites with two of my own.

Veteran Hoplites can ruin the day of Cavalry trying to overrun a flank!

My right, 3 turns later:

The middle: A Warband has cleanly broken through my centre, but seems to have lost its way. Probably Warbands are not good at reading maps.

Meanwhile, on the left flank: Lots of slow AI units have collected here. I decide to run and move everything to the center but for a few LI. The AI does not drive my LI away and fall on my left, but rather decides to stand and get shot at. My LI even break a couple Phoenicians.

My abortive attack on the left morphed into an extremely successful unintentional feint that kept a good half dozen Carthaginian units away from the action. I went all-in in the centre, attacking wherever I had 50/50 odds or better, hoping for a break/cohesion test chain reaction. Eventually it happened and the AI´s centre collapsed, resulting in Syracusan Victory by a wide margin.

nice report

TimDee58 wrote: Wed Nov 21, 2018 5:18 pm nice report

Thanks! It´s still short one post with a suitable sum-up and perhaps a little beginner advice, if I find someting to distill from it.

Best beginner advice in my opinion is Watch your flanks, study the terrain, keep an appropriate reserve (and in the right place), be flexible and..... be VERY wary of skirmishers.

I was going to add Be Bold but then I remembered that whilst I make bold moves my overall tactics tend to be based on caution, so that sort of cancels out.

I was more thinking of some advice along the line of "Do not use strategies like this one" , but, as far as serious advice goes:

1. If you have never played Pike and Shot, play your first few games on Centurio level. If you are experienced with P&S or Sengoku, Tribune will be fine.
2. Play the Tutorials; they are good.
3. Read the manual.
4. Once you are comfy with the interface and understand the rules, do some counting:

-Who has more Light Infantry/Light Cavalry/Heavy Infantry/Medium Infantry/Cavalry/Elephants? These comparisons, and the terrain, will give you some ideas about what to avoid. It is critical not to be the dude who makes the LAST mistake, as the AAR above shows.

Nice report. I particularly liked the unit of hapless Carthaginian cavalry who got sandwiched between no less than three units of infantry near the end there!