Slitherine

I tried to finish my Principates to an open tournament next weekend but wont manage it. While painting ive been struggling to find a army compostion that would be able to handle the expected oppostion - medevial lists, all with more or less knights, some with a lot of Longbows etc.

Is there some way to tweek the Principates so that a "box" wont be required. I do like to be the aggressor or atleast not a passive part in a game, its not my style and i handle it bad.

I got some exellent suggestion in Principate army compostion in an erlier thread, but now id like some suggestions on how to handle open (read medevial) competitions.

best regards,
john

Consider Jewish Allies (Rise p 61) MF Offensive Spearmen. There are AARs with those as a flank sweep force with an earlier Roman army that didn't want to box up all the time. Even as MF, those Lance/Sword POA stealers are resented by chivalry.

or there's always the now popular taking lots of BGs and swapping BG for BG by pulling the enemy apart and getting flank charges etc. Swapping for the Knights would be a good deal, but you may not need it.

Cheers,

Mike

Thanks for the input Mike!
I have considered that, probably will order some OS later on to allow me the option in the future.

I am in the exact same process of getting ready an army for an open competition.

Going with Late Jewish with a Roman allied force. The rome are so expensive that they use up half the 800pts by themselves. The jewish troops are a mix of Off spear and lots of lights. The Romans will make short work of any knight army foot troops while the protected spear fight at even odds against knights with the added bonus of being a fraction of the price.

The lights can entertain the enemy flanks (supported by the spear) while the romans get stuck into the enemy center taking out longbowmen/heavy weapons.

Interresting! Which models do you use for the Jewish spear?

Well, i got the army togeather - with the help of a good friend that lent me some minis.

I focused on making an Principate-only list and i liked it, probably so much that i wont be able to change it much exepts some tweeks mayby.. probably I will try-out some jewish allies sometime but i found the army versitile and though enough to handle everything thrown at it. I worked alot with rear support, movement and flanking, drilled troops are a bliss. It was a totaly different type of army compared to my other armies: Seleucid (The way ive played it the few times i used it in FOG, that I havnet really come to terms with since the switch from DBM) and Later Hungarians.

Opponents included; Med. French, Med German, LC, and Later Polish.

I won all four games, broke all the medevial ones (something like 24-1, 25-0, 22-3) and got at 16-4 victory vs the LC. And won the tournament.

It was a great weekend, thanks to the great people organizing the event (SlemCon near Stockholm, Sweden)!

Care to share the list ?

Cheers

Sure!

All superior where possible

4 TC
Fortified Camp

2x (4 legionaries + 2 Supporting archers)
1x (6 prot legionaries + 3 Supporting archers) - these where supposed to be my "anti-knight" unit, hence protected, worked pretty well.
1x 6 legionaries

1x 4 Aux Cv
2x 4 Aux foot
2x 4 Aux bow
1x 4 LH Bow
1x 6 Lanciarii Arm

Poor fillers
1x 4 slingers
1x 4 javelinmen

The thoughness of the legionaries was astounding at times but i felt on several occations that the real workhorses were the Auxilia, both foot and Cv. The Cv, beeing superior/drilled and run in 2x2 was very agile (had a TC attached most of the time) and got several opportunities to threaten/charge flanks/rears. The only times i actually felt having them in a squeeze was when i had them lined up.

The Aux bows worth was questianble, but i didnt follow my own doctrine to palce togeather in two games wich might have something to do with it. But they earned their place in the halls of glory anyway by one of them managed to charge an BG of superior swizz pikes in the flank and togeather with the co-ordinated charge of the Cv started to wear them down - allowing for a Auxilia foot to charge the pikes in the rear in my next turn. Oblidiration.

The Lanciarii didnt really get to do much (think they totalled in killing a BG of poor longbowmen and one BG of crossbow Cv), but they radiated a menence that some of my opponents comented at times as discouraging.

The LH was very useful as a bait, luring knights to charge after them, opening flanks etc. Otherwise they didnt do much, even if co-operating with the Aux bow.

Please pardon if my english isnt correct.

Thanks, interesting looking list.

It was a joy to play acctually, i had my concers as the thread-title can tell. I used it very aggressivly, no boxing, (and tried to place alot of terrain) and thats the key i guess.

some info about the tournament on my friends great blogg: http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/i ... 19.1499165

The camp looks superb !

Thanks! I had big plans for it but had to rush it quite a bit to get it "playable" to the tournament. But i think it will turn out nicely when its really finished.