"Considering a major tweak to AoA rules" Topic

We've been discussing this a bit locally and on the email group, and I think there is a pretty strong consensus that this is a good thing.

Normally, when your rank and file unit is charged before it has moved, it has the option to break into a skirmish during its move. This is the only formation change allowed an RaF unit on the turn it is charged - it can't change facing, expand ranks, do a fighting or covered retreat, etc. The reason it was allowed was a simple bow to feeling real - falling out of formation is easy. The morale penalty for being in skirmish pretty much means the unit will break if they do it, so there is a good trade off.

However, a common tactic now is for flanked RaF units who know they are toast to fall into a skirmish just to try to take as many of those enemy bastards with them as they can before they go. In this case, there is no reason /not/ to skirmish and surround, because the player was going to lose the unit anyway.

This ends up turning good manuevers into pyrhic victories, where the guy who charged does break the enemy, but loses so many troops that he either breaks himself or doesn't have enough left to make an impact after that particular melee.

So, the tweak is to disallow adopting a skirmish on the turn a RaF unit is charged. We considered have a morale check involved, but it won't really help the tactic's prevalence - again, the charged player probably think his flanked unit is toast, so why not take the chance? So just simply disallow it - if they survive the turn, they can do it like a normal formation change on a subsequent turn.

The exception would be in the case that the charged unit had teh mass to overrun the enemy charging units - they could then instead choose to break into a skirmish and surround. This isn't going to be a frequent issue, but it could make a difference in some cases.

The other thing this would do is give another reason to want to move first, to really take advantage of positioning.

I think I'll call this a rule in playtesting for the rest of February, then make it official in march if it seems to be working as desired. We played this way today, and it did make a positive difference.

good point. look forward to see what you make out of it!

we love your work, keep on! thank you!

That's interesting. When I read the rules, I only saw the now-skirmishing unit as getting a 3" move into contact - dangerous, yes, but only fatal if the flanking unit is not very wide.

However, if I'm reading it correctly, the worst part is that the unit *loses* its requirement to take a morale check from facing a superior force when it breaks into skirmish order.

I can think of some other, more complicated, ways to approach the problem, but this one is the simplest - it means that you only have three reactions on the turn that you're charged. (Which is what I first thought when I read the rules - breaking into skirmish order in that situation seems to abuse the intent.)

Hmmm...maybe disallow breaking ranks into skirmish *only* if you're flanked, not for frontal contact situations? That way plowing into the front of a much larger RaF unit is still begging to be surrounded and cut down to a man?

Or has that not been an issue?

Rich

Its not as common for it to happen in head to head contact, unless one unit is clearly going to kick the other's butt. Which is basically the same issue.

It's been a little while since I've read the rules, but just out of curiosity, why was that rule in there in the first place? I'm curious as to the design thought for that. In my opinion, a unit shouldn't ever be able to change formation when being charged.

Kevin

Again, it is because loosening discipline and formation is easy. Keeping a formation is hard. The game penalty was the greater likelihood of having to take a morale check, and the larger penalty against the skirmished unit when it did so.

And when the world is full of ramming chariots and big trampling beasts, spreading out quickly would seem like a sane tactic for any infantry unit to learn.

This change is going to make ramming attacks more likely to be effective, but we will have to see how much more effective.

Okay, I think I understand the problem now. But I can't imagine a formed unit ever dispersing when being charged by any kind of infantry or cavalry unit. Historically units just didn't do this. But disciplined units were trained to disperse when being engaged by chariots to allow the chariots to pass through the unit.

As an idea, could you introduce a special ability that would reduce the effects of a ram attack when that attack was directed at a unit of troops with that ability? In other words, the troops would stay formed, but the effects of the ram attack would be lessened?

Kevin

It is fantasy warfare, so troops are more heroic. After all, they fight giants, dragons, undead, demons, etc. on a regular basis.

I could easily introduce the ability, but I'm not sure it would be used often enough to make it worth the point or two it would cost.