Converting Standard Units to Small Units

[Targa]

I have the list supplement and am enjoying it immensely. I play Carthaginians and a friend plays Republican Romans. He's a little skeptical about playing the Roman units as small units, as they are shown in the supplement. I have offered to play the Carthaginians as small units as well. To do so, I would simply convert 7-7-3-0-4+-6 units to 5-5-2-0-4+-4, correct? If I wanted to convert a Gallic Warband to a small unit it would be a 7-4-2-0-5+-4...is that accurate?

[BigMike]

I'd try it first - after all the fact that the triarii line offers increased levels of support to a combat while the Hastatii don't count for the purpose of the units being broken mean your opponent will be able to simulate republican tactics more accurately.

Put simply his hastatii shouldn't be able to defeat your warbands in one go - they should weaken them and cause some to become shaken or at least take some hits towards it, then they fall back and it doesn't matter - that was expected.

His fresh Principes then hit your damaged units and should be able to push through. After all they still have an awful lot of attacks for a 'small' unit 5 clash and sustained isn't bad especially when they're hitting damaged troops. on top of which they're given a lot of static combat resolution dice if he has Triarii close behind them.

In short I wouldn't adjust your army to suit his - on paper he has quite enough bonuses already!

[Big Al]

I agree with BigMike. The Romans of that era did field small units called maniples. They only consisted of 60 men (30 for Triarii) so small units are the order of the day. However, he'll have lots of them. It sounds like you're planning to play games with armies made up of a similar number of units in each. If you do that, then your Carthiginians are going to look like a huge army compared to his. He should have two or three units to one of yours, easy. Like Mike says, try it out first.

[rick priestley]

I have offered to play the Carthaginians as small units as well. To do so, I would simply convert 7-7-3-0-4+-6 units to 5-5-2-0-4+-4, correct? If I wanted to convert a Gallic Warband to a small unit it would be a 7-4-2-0-5+-4...is that accurate?

That's right - small units are 2 down on close combat stats and 1 down on ranged/support stats - with 6 hits reducing to 4 - as you have it.

Though you might be better off converting the small Roman units to standard size - which is just the other way round - nothing wrong with that - the feedback from RR players who helped me develop the lists was that they liked the small units - but it would be perfectly reasonable to field the RR as larger units and simply imagine the small tactical level stuff going on. Hey - try it both ways:)

Rick

[Targa]

Thanks for all of the responses. I think we're going to give it a try per the lists. Using small units is also a good way to stretch an army as it is being built. Right nowI have completed 1 unit of 24 legionaries, 1 unit of 24 auxiliaries, and an archer regiment of 16 figs. By splitting them into small units, I have a playable small army of 6 units.