Slitherine

I'm in the process of buying and painting some cataphracts, that will be used in a variety of armies such as Parthian, Indo-Skythian, Armenian, Palmyran. What would be a good number of bases for me to get ? I'm thinking 12 would be about right, to use up to 3 BGs of 4 bases each. Or would they be better in 6 base BGs ?

16 min. 20+ ideally.

Undrilled are by far better in sixes, drilled do well in 4's as they maouver better. I would take as many as possible. At least 16, 18 undrilled. If you can have some as just armoured lancers go 50/50 in an open competition.

If you are going to be playing doubles 24+ is a good idea

Well, my Palmyran Cat's have never accomplished anything but dying; so I always take the minimum of 6 in 1 BG and use them for rear support. Hate wasting the points that way but so far has worked pretty well.

John

my Palmyran Cat's have never accomplished anything but dying

You just need more practice. The drlled Palmyrans are manouverable and very hard in the right place. Which, like all troops is where they need to be

Polkovnik wrote:I'm in the process of buying and painting some cataphracts, that will be used in a variety of armies such as Parthian, Indo-Skythian, Armenian, Palmyran. What would be a good number of bases for me to get ? I'm thinking 12 would be about right, to use up to 3 BGs of 4 bases each. Or would they be better in 6 base BGs ?

Hi,
when I play with Palmyran I use 6 BG' of 4 bases so 24 bases minimum.
Sergio

Well, maybe it's my style (or my dice ); but they never work for me.

Minimum Cats
Max Lh
Some Lf
Solid Roman contingent
and maybe some MF Bow if you feel lucky They have performed miracles and also failed horribly.

John

FWIW I think 4 base BGs make the most sense for superior cataphracts. That's what I'm planning on doing with my Parthians

Dale

daleivan wrote:FWIW I think 4 base BGs make the most sense for superior cataphracts. That's what I'm planning on doing with my Parthians

The main reason for putting Superior Undrilled cataphracts in 6s is that you really need a commander with each cataphract BG so that it can wheel within 6" of the enemy without taking a CMT. This is much easier to achieve if the cats are in 6s. Also you get more benefit from putting a commander in the front rank.

rbodleyscott wrote:
The main reason for putting Superior Undrilled cataphracts in 6s is that you really need a commander with each cataphract BG so that it can wheel within 6" of the enemy without taking a CMT. This is much easier to achieve if the cats are in 6s. Also you get more benefit from putting a commander in the front rank.

I dunno why, but I'd never thought of bigger BG's benefitting from commanders in the front rank. It's obvious. If you could have one big BG going all the way across the table the whole thing would get the benefit, but for some reason it hasn't occurred to me. It may re-think the way I do things. Although, for the most part I only use LH in BG's of 4, which rarely get a general.

Ian

recharge wrote:Well, maybe it's my style (or my dice ); but they never work for me.

Minimum Cats
Max Lh
Some Lf
Solid Roman contingent
and maybe some MF Bow if you feel lucky They have performed miracles and also failed horribly.

John

Hi John,
probably it could be yours dice

With your Roman Army try to play against Palmyran with 6 BG's of Superior Drilled CT (4 bases for each one). Deploying CT's in fronto f one of your wings and skirmishing your centre of solid HF, generally speaking you could lost your wing and risking of not to use your HF because they are too slow.
As CT ae Drilled you can manouvre easly
Sergio

rbodleyscott wrote:

daleivan wrote:FWIW I think 4 base BGs make the most sense for superior cataphracts. That's what I'm planning on doing with my Parthians

The main reason for putting Superior Undrilled cataphracts in 6s is that you really need a commander with each cataphract BG so that it can wheel within 6" of the enemy without taking a CMT. This is much easier to achieve if the cats are in 6s. Also you get more benefit from putting a commander in the front rank.

Good points

What about having an IC behind the cats for the CMT tests to wheel within 6" of the enemy? OTOH the IC still only has a 12 inch command range, so perhaps you'd be better off sticking with four TCs instead?

I definitely take your point about the value of a commander with each BG and of course the benefit for having him in the front rank

Thanks!

Dale

daleivan wrote:

rbodleyscott wrote:The main reason for putting Superior Undrilled cataphracts in 6s is that you really need a commander with each cataphract BG so that it can wheel within 6" of the enemy without taking a CMT. This is much easier to achieve if the cats are in 6s.

What about having an IC behind the cats for the CMT tests to wheel within 6" of the enemy?

With an IC nearby (and not with the BG/BL) they will still need to score 6 on two dice to wheel. With a TC with the BG they don't need to test at all.

While your cataphracts are in a BL, one general will allow the whole BL to wheel, but you will soon find that you need to wheel BGs out of the BL to oppose enemy threats and then you may (and hence, by Murphy's law, will) come unstuck if every BG does not have a general.