Slitherine

Having found it extremely difficult to choose an army I'm looking for help in making that choice. I know what opponents I'll be likely to face (Romans, Greeks, Med Scots, Chinese and Byzantines) and I'm looking for a "point and shoot" army as my tactical finesse is pretty low.

Any good options?

undrilled armoured classical greeks with 3 allies all TCs (one of them spartan)?

Romans or Hoplites are the army for you.

If you want a 'get stuck in' style army (a good option if fiddly tactics aren't your thing) then you could do worse than medieval French - lots of proper knights plus a backing group. a TC with each group of knights, keep them together, point at something crunchy and off you go.

If you want a 'get stuck in' style army (a good option if fiddly tactics aren't your thing) then you could do worse than medieval French - lots of proper knights plus a backing group. a TC with each group of knights, keep them together, point at something crunchy and off you go.

- I agree point, charge and hope you roll good dice the solution for an easy and fun game. The French army has limited troop choices so not the confuse the army list design and as you get better or want to try fiddly tactics the French can easily be morphed into other medieval armies.

I say go with any of the shield wall armies in Wolves from the Sea. What better army for the tactically inept than a tactically inept army?
Swiss are always a good chioce too. Just line them up and push everything off the table, or roll over anything that's dumb enough to not run away.

grahambriggs wrote:If you want a 'get stuck in' style army (a good option if fiddly tactics aren't your thing) then you could do worse than medieval French - lots of proper knights plus a backing group. a TC with each group of knights, keep them together, point at something crunchy and off you go.

I was initially going to suggest an undrilled knight heavy army (like medieval french) but have taken Latin Greeks twice to comps thinking the games woudl be over quicker and unsubtle (freeing my up to umpire, take pics and hit the trade stands but as the army is so small, getting to the right place and avoiding flank attacks is more tricky than with larger armies.

The swiss being so narrow are also not a point and shoot army either. It takes skill to get them to where they are effective. Other players will just give you the run around and you'll end with a bunch of draws or worse.

Italian Ostrogoth. 3-4 BG of LF 6-7 BG of lancers. Stand lancers behing LF if being shot at. Otherwise charge with lancers.

What about Later crusader with the HF/MF mixed unit option?

Irmin wrote:What about Later crusader with the HF/MF mixed unit option?

Using the mixed BGs does require some care as they will be dog's meat against good foot. So probably not good for a beginner.

Myself I went for Gauls - just remember the mantra "disrupt at impact or we're dead, disrupt at impact or we're dead"

Heck as long as you look good doing it I wouldn't worry too much!!

I've actually yet to play a game (and just went for an army based on theme in the end), but something like: lots of HF armoured, off spear mixed in with decent Cav/Kn Lancers (either foot heavy or horse heavy) and a thin veneer of Skirmishers (because I get the impression that they will matter) was the criteria I was working on when I shopped around the lists.

To me, the key thing was that my more static troops worked ok in most matchups and were all rated the same, since my more skilled and experienced opponents would otherwise just pick out the most favourable matchups (for them) if my list mixed more specialised stuff.

I've tried to do that even with my themed list, except of course that there is no option for decent foot and only 4 bases of decent Cav. On the other hand, the list is much of a muchness all along the line, so there are no key units to pick out!

I see you plan there Xelee, an army with no strengths conversely has no weaknesses - quite cunning that

Historically too, tactical ineptitude didn't stop the Romans.

Lots of solid Spears with some supports works well, drilled on the flanks and undrilled in the middle.

Drilled has the advantage that, if you make mistakes or think of something to do at the last minute, you have better odds of doing something about it.

Someone asked about Islemen and Highlanders on The Miniatures Page - a wall of Spears supplemented by Highlanders and (Heavy Weapon) axemen seems a prospect of this kind as well.

Mike

"Drilled has the advantage that, if you make mistakes or think of something to do at the last minute, you have better odds of dong something about it. "

Well that says a lot about my tactical ineptness - Late Republican Romans and only 2x BG's and they are LF so if they run away no one cares, the rest are Superior or Elite and an IC just for fun

MikeK wrote: Someone asked about Islemen and Highlanders on The Miniatures Page - a wall of Spears supplemented by Highlanders and (Heavy Weapon) axemen seems a prospect of this kind as well.

Mike

Spears to hold the line, MF Highlanders for terrain holding, not a bad idea.

Having seen Claudio's Vikings is the list similar to the Scots list in so much as it's HF Spear, HF HW and MF Swordsmen?

Irmin wrote:Having found it extremely difficult to choose an army I'm looking for help in making that choice. I know what opponents I'll be likely to face (Romans, Greeks, Med Scots, Chinese and Byzantines) and I'm looking for a "point and shoot" army as my tactical finesse is pretty low.

Any good options?

I think that the Hoplite options already spoken about are good. The advantage (as I see it) with the Hoplites, is that once you have a Hoplite army you can easily do things as your tactical ineptness decreases and your inner inspirational general grows.

For example:

Early period Hoplite Greek with armoured spearmen is tough as nails.

Add some Greek Cavalry and some medium infantry and you can go to later period Hoplite Greek which is less bullet proof, but requires a little more tactics to use.

Add some more Greek Cavalry and you have a Syracusan army which has a very good combined arms capability.

Add some chariots and/or some Xystophoroi you have a Kyrenian Greek army which has very good impact mounted.

Add some Pikemen and you have Alexanders army.

Add some Legionaries and you have a Seleucid army (but now are stopping using Hoplites, but this is growing over time of course)

Add some more Legionaries and you have a Roman army. What's more, at this point you have two armies and you can chop and change as you see fit AND can find a new buddy to teach the rules to and have fun watching HIS tactical ineptness .

It's kind of like vampirism. You have to slowly take over the world .

Another thought would be Medieval Danish. They are tough as nails, but very small. If you play defensively then they might be good. Once you have the building blocks of Knights then you can play pretty much any knighty army and just add what you need.

Ian

So back to an initial thought I had many moons ago.

Attilid Pergamene List

1 FC
3 TC
2 Bgs of 4 Cav, Arm, Sup, Drilled, lancers, Swordsmen
1 BG of 4 Cav, Arm , Sup, Undrilled, Light SPear, Swordsmen
1 BG of 4 LH, Unp, Ave, Undrilled, Javelins, Light Spear
2 BGs of 8 MF, Prot, Ave, Drilled, Off SPear
1 BG of 6 LF, Unp, Sup, Drilled, Bow
1 BG of 6 LF, Onp, Ave, Undrilled, Sling
2 BGs of 8 HF, Prot, Sup, Undrilled, Impact foot, Swordsmen
1 BG of 4 Ct, Heavy Arm, Ave, Drilled, Lancers, Swordsmen

My concern with this list is there isn't a great deal of foot to fight off a Roman or Scottish Spear army.

Pergamenes are not for the tactically inept. Sorry. You don't want a rapier like Cavalry Lancers. Get something blunt and heavy, with pointy spikes on it.

Against those likely opponents, lots of armoured spearmen are pretty straightforward. If steady against Romans their skilled swordsmanship is useless to them and you get the + POA for spears. If you want to stay in the early period, it comes back to Greeks or something like Greeks.

I was pleased with Late Dynastic Egyptian (26th Dynasty) - up to 32 armoured drilled mercenary Greek hoplites and the required Bow and required Egyptian foot are average and can be used on the flanks of the offensive spears, or in rear support and move out to the sides if needed. The superior heavy shooting chariots are fun solid flank protection -- like Knights they throw 2 dice so a BG of 4 can keep 2 BGs of opposing Cavalry tied up in melee for a while.

The army is pretty much all drilled and fairly tough against shooting so you can take 4 TCs and throw 2 or 3 into combat with the blocks of 8 hoplites and have the rest support the troops.

Mike

Armoured spearmen hey, OK so other than Greek hoplites what are the other choices to get armoured spearmen?