Slitherine

Where mobs are optional in a list, are there any good reasons to take them? I've got the Early Crusader list in mind. Is anyone fond of using mobs? How do you use them?

Thanks

They are useful at supporting the spear & crossbow line.

but they do not provide rear support, correct? since the support has to be "steady friendly non-skirmishers of equal or better quality" p. 135

IIRC Early Crusader mob are average and that is fine to provide rear support to average spear and crossbows.

Large BGs (10 bases) of mob are pretty good at pushing away enemy skirmishers on the flank. Even with no armour and no capabilities 10 bases of average troops are not easy to ignore for skirmishers.

hammy wrote:Large BGs (10 bases) of mob are pretty good at pushing away enemy skirmishers on the flank. Even with no armour and no capabilities 10 bases of average troops are not easy to ignore for skirmishers.

but I suppose that if sitting on a flank, they'd also be a very inviting target for enemy mounted!

vingthorr wrote:

hammy wrote:Large BGs (10 bases) of mob are pretty good at pushing away enemy skirmishers on the flank. Even with no armour and no capabilities 10 bases of average troops are not easy to ignore for skirmishers.

but I suppose that if sitting on a flank, they'd also be a very inviting target for enemy mounted!

Well, real mounted are a problem but light horse aren't so bad

hammy wrote:IIRC Early Crusader mob are average and that is fine to provide rear support to average spear and crossbows.

ahhh, I guess I was just thinking that the mob weren't of the same quality, simply because they were mob. what shallow elitist thinking of me, frowning down my nose at the mob.

so I guess mob would provide an good inexpensive way to support my line of spear and crossbow, without having to dish out the points for more spear and crossbow. I'm sold!

hammy wrote:

vingthorr wrote:

hammy wrote:Large BGs (10 bases) of mob are pretty good at pushing away enemy skirmishers on the flank. Even with no armour and no capabilities 10 bases of average troops are not easy to ignore for skirmishers.

but I suppose that if sitting on a flank, they'd also be a very inviting target for enemy mounted!

Well, real mounted are a problem but light horse aren't so bad

aha! but then i could put some vulnerable-to-a-cavalry-charge looking mob on a flank, backed up by some knights ready to intercept whatever BG is foolish enough to charge the mob, and then . . . it's all coming together

Mobs minies can be had in 25mm metal 30 to a bag from Old Glory. OG even has more than one period to choose from.

There's just something about the idea of a low, low points cost LARGE unit, wandering/milling around guarding the rear. Then there is the challenge of being the enemy and getting the points for causing a mob to break and run.

vingthorr wrote: so I guess mob would provide an good inexpensive way to support my line of spear and crossbow, without having to dish out the points for more spear and crossbow. I'm sold!

So you should be! In a game on the table next to me on Monday night the Early Crudaser Spear line held on thanks to the mob sitting in the village behind cheering them on!! IIRC said spear line had lost the impact and CT and were more than likely to go fragged in Melee (vs upgraded Carthiginian HF) until they remembered they should have counted the Rear Support. Game saving !!

Steve P

The normal reason to take a BG of mob is simply to increase the no of BGs in your army, so making it harder to break. A BG of 6 or 8 poor mob is only 12 or 16 points, so is a very cheap way to increase the size of the army. I would always try to take a BG of poor mob if allowed, along with any BGs of poor light foot available (for the same reason).

I'm painting an Army of Spartacus slave revolt in the moment.... with about 5 mob-BGs in it, and 19 BGs in total.

Will be a very interesting army (135 bases)

The 1000 point Slave revolt army Martin and I used in Scotland at the doubles had 138 bases plus generals. It worked pretty well.

hammy wrote:The 1000 point Slave revolt army Martin and I used in Scotland at the doubles had 138 bases plus generals. It worked pretty well.

Talk about covering the table--wow. Did you and your partner deploy in a long line, or in depth, or both? My mind boggles at the sheer amount of bases involved

Dale

daleivan wrote:

hammy wrote:The 1000 point Slave revolt army Martin and I used in Scotland at the doubles had 138 bases plus generals. It worked pretty well.

Talk about covering the table--wow. Did you and your partner deploy in a long line, or in depth, or both? My mind boggles at the sheer amount of bases involved

Dale

We normally had a solid line of impact foot in the centre with some strategically placed mob and the cavalry to give rear support then we pushed had on the flanks with big BGs of mob and light foot.

We had:
IC
3 TCs
4 BGs of 8 protected impact foot
4 BGs of 6 armoured impact foot
2 BGs of 4 suprtiot armoured impact foot skilled swordsmen
1 BG of 4 protected cavalry
2 BGs of 8 poor light foot javelinemen
1 BG of 8 poor light foot slingers
3 BGs of 10 mob
2 BGs of 8 mob

mobs are for padding out your army if you have spare points buy them and pop them at the back

alexandathegreat wrote:mobs are for padding out your army if you have spare points buy them and pop them at the back

Poor quality mobs with no capabilites are really only much use for this but several armies, specifically Early Crusader and Slave Revolt have average mob and in the case of the Slave Revolt list they even have light spear as an impact capability so are a lot more than filler.

hammy wrote:

alexandathegreat wrote:mobs are for padding out your army if you have spare points buy them and pop them at the back

Poor quality mobs with no capabilites are really only much use for this but several armies, specifically Early Crusader and Slave Revolt have average mob and in the case of the Slave Revolt list they even have light spear as an impact capability so are a lot more than filler.

A really good point to keep in mind--I intend on using the average mob in my Early Crusader for support--something I had not considered before this thread. As for your slave revolt, since mobs count as MF you have another troop type for terrain, too.

Dale

Mobs really are MF. The just look different. So the slave revolt Mob costs the same as some MF, Av, UD, LS, -