Rules Question Thread

[Eddie]

Are there rules for the British Mastiffs? If so what set are they in?

[Big Al]

Only just seen this.
No there aren’t. They are just nice models that Warlord produced for variety. You would just use them to fill out ranks in a Warband.
What you could do is create a tiny or small unit of them and play them as fanatics or something similar. Give them an appropriate Special Rule or two and you’re off. They won’t be over powering or anything and just be a nice unit.
The Special Rules Eager and Fanatic are the most obvious, but you could replace one of those with Wild Fighters.

[Eddie]

Thanks. They are so cool I definitely want to use them. I don’t know that I would have thought of substituting them for another unit.

[Juan]

I have a question:
My friends and I are going to play our first game at 300 points
Do I need a minimum of three divisions?
Can I organize my army in only 2 divisions? (right wing and left wing). THANK YOU

[Big Al]

You can organise your army however you like. Why do you only want two divisions, though? I can see that two divisions with a lot of units would make it difficult to have a broken division, but then, your army would break quickly as half of your divisions is broken. Swings and roundabouts, really.
Also, with only two divisions, you will only have two commanders (ok three counting the general). This means that there is a high risk of most of your army becoming static due to failed command rolls.

[Juan]

Thank you, VERY MUCH

[Edward Green]

So here is a question, that may seem obvious, but confuses me as written in the rule book. The rule book (A5 sized) states for both Roman and Ancient Britons, “Divisions must contain 4+ units excluding skirmishers and must be led by a commander” (pages 127 & 128 respectively). So for a well-rounded 300 point list the third division seems a bit difficult to manage without using a skirmishing unit as one of primary four units (in at least one division).

Army Builder (software), incidentally does allow skirmisher units to fulfill the 4 unit minimum as a legal division. Is Army Builder correct or am I granulating the rules too much?

Attached are my two armies comprised of the miniatures that I have. I have had to collect and paint up both the Roman and Celtic armies so that I can lure some folks to play ancients with me. Thanks for any advice in advance.

The reason I ask, is that having a third division does make sense as per your recommendation in terms of losing the game when one division gets shattered or turns to a Monte Python moment and yells, “run away!”

Attachments:

1. 

   Army-Builder-Roman-300.pdf
   

2. 

   Army-Builder-Ancient-Briton-300.pdf
   

3. 

   Army-Builder-Roman-300-1.pdf
   

4. 

   Army-Builder-Ancient-Briton-300-1.pdf
   

[Colin]

Had a game tonight where a Roman light artillery were involved in a combat which they lost, but not badly enough to make them shaken. They took a Break test and got a final result of 12, but we could not work out whether they are considered to be infantry or skirmishers for the purpose of working out what happened to them.

Since the rules state that Artillery and Baggage that are obliged to Give Ground are destroyed, they must be able to take a break test to get this result, but which line do we use?

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Colin, The answer is on p73, top left. Infantry includes artillery crew, and Skirmishers includes Baggage, for the purpose of the Break Tests Tables.

[arcole]

Unless there has been an errata, then an army is defated when “more than half of its divisions are broken” (page 84 – Defaat).

Therefore, if you have only got 2 divisions you will fight on until both divisions are borken.

Personally, in my (limited) experience, I need 350 points to field an army, unless I start using lots of poor quality units.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Arcole – I’m not sure what the question is? Assume it is about the break point for a 2 division army. With the “> half of the divisions” rule I guess it can seem a bit odd. With smaller or differently organised armies (e.g. 2 very small divisions and 1 very large division) I have used a rule of > half of the units in the army as a break pint, ignoring the divisions themselves. Seems to work. Try it and see.

[Colin]

If a TestuDo charges or is charged, it automatically forms a battle line. There is nothing in the rules to say that it does not get the Pilum bonus, but it seemed unfair to us as they are reorganising to battle line as they are being contacted. Have we missed something or is this correct that they get the Pilum bonus.

[Mattia]

Hi Guys,
I have three queries after a nice battle fought recently.
1) One friendly unit is engaged in a follow up combat won by an enemy the previous turn. The follow up move opened the possibility, for an unengaged friendly unit, to try to charge the enemy with a flank contact charge. However, the friendly isn’t facing the enemy so it must use 2 orders to charge (1st order turn to face, 2nd order to charge). If the friendly only rolled to move once, can it still go in support of the friendly engaged unit as it can’t charge? Or this is simply solved by stating a “Try to charge the enemy and, if not possible, go to support the friendly” order?
2) Do Shaken units do follow up move to keep contact?
3) What happens if a unit wins a combat, but doesn’t shatter the enemy unit, and contact another enemy formed unit that lays in the path of the pursuit move?
4) If a unit previously doing support is contacted by a enemy, and the combat result is a draw, it will still provide support to the original engagement?

Thanks
Mattia

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Mattia.

[arcole]

Hi Mattia,
My thoughts on your questions are:
1) You have ordered the unit to charge the flank, so that is what it will do. If you do not get the dice roll it attempt to complete the order as much as possible, and cannot convert it into a different order. Pay attention to how the unit is moved to ensure that it does not find itself “facing” an enemy within 12 inches that would force a change on its ability to move.
2) On page 55 it says that a Shaken unit cannot charge. Page 66, they cannot move to join an engagement as a suppoty. On page 78 “Sweeping advanced” it states that shaken units cannot make a sweeping advance. A follow up is neither of these so presumably permitted.
3) incidental contacts see page 79.
4) I am not 100% sure here, but think that once a unit becomes engaged in its own right it cannot provide support to another unit unless it beats the enemy off first.

[John Towles]

While playing the Damascus scenario from the Hail Cesare rule book, two questions came up.

1. The rules state that light units may enter woods in open order with no problem. However in the same rule section on open order it states that other unit types may go into open order to enter terrain that would otherwise cause issues. It the game, an Arab light cavalry unit in open order entered an orchard in front of the approaching Crusader army. The Crusaders stated they wanted to exercise the option with their heavy cavalry to go into open order to attack and drive the enemy out of the orchard. The question is; is the rule allowing any non-light unit to go into open order just for maneuvering or may the unit using this option initiate combat?

2. When using a range attack against certain unit types, the firing unit may take a -1 because of the armor of the target (i.e. heavy infantry from the front). Does that -1 also apply to naphtha since the fire fluid really does not care about armor?

Thanks in advance for any insight you may provide to the above questions.

[Author]

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