Art De La Guerre

[Strategiser]

Hello fellow Commanders,

I am relatively new to L'art de la Guerre, which I seem to like due to its (the way I see it) modified take on the Field of Glory by making it less dicey and more deterministic (which I certainly prefer!).

My question is: given that the Army Lists in the L'art de la Guerre (AG) are all conveniently collected and included in the rulebook, what is the best way of buying the minis for an army in question? Is there a minis company that produces the specific minis for AG? As far as I could tell, there aren't (or am I wrong?). It seems that the closest representation comes from the Field of Glory: Ancients and Medieval collection, but upon further lookout they seem to be named differently from AG troop terminology. Is there a good way of converting the Field of Glory troop names to AG troop names?

Again, I am quite new to AG so would appreciate your guidance and help on this!

Many thanks in advance!

[sebastosfig]

Hi there.

Sadly, no company has ready to paint armies for ADG, yet . But who knows?

As for the FOG/ ADG classification, all the LMI/ MI/HI have two fog bases per unit:

LF= skirmisher
LH= mounted skirmishers
bowmen and crossbowmen=LMI in ADG, so you can use 2 bases of MF for them
except for the javelinmen, where you can use one base of LF and one of MF, or 2 LF to get this unit
MF= MI in adg, either footmen or spearmen, depending on the equipment
HF= HI, whether heavy spearmen or footmen. For the pikemen, you can use 3 bases
CAV= Medium or heavy cavalry
Cataphracts: you can use 3 or 4 minis per base, as you wish
Kn= Kn.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask

TTFN

Seb
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[Strategiser]

Many thanks, Seb.

I have noticed that FOG uses terms such as Horse Archers (as an example). Would these then be LH or Cv in ADG? Similarly, would Archers in FOG be LI or LMI in ADG? Or does this mean you can simply use them however you like in ADG?

Also, I know that perhaps I should not post the following question here, but since we touched upon this topic, what would you say are the main differences (high level, without going into too many details) between FOG and ADG? Would you agree with my initial understanding that ADG seems to be less luck-based than FOG? Would appreciate your feedback on this as you seem to know both systems rather well.

Many thanks again!

[chris6]

Well....about Luck its very hard to say. In ADG you roll one die for acombat between 2 Units. With the modifiers its predictible.

In FOG you roll as many dices as bases of the units are touching. More dice can produce extrem results, but you can say to that the more dices are rolled the extremes even out.

So what is it about luck? Cant say....

For me the best difference is that with ADG you buy a book clearly written with lets say it easy mechanics as far as i understand the rules. In FOG you have rules for different formations, that is blowing up the mechanics and make it harder to read through.

ADG needs less miniatures what I like too because that means I can have more different armies.

If I like the combats more in FOG or ADG ? Dont know, I have to play some more games with ADG to tell.

Over all the pitty is that in germany where I live it will be hard to find players because everybody is going with FOG for years now and there is a hugh tournament scene.

And as far as I am concerned: What is perfect game good for if you cant find another player? But in the moment i really want to spread it as far as I can in germany.

[Strategiser]

Thank you, chris6.

Regarding the luck factor, I agree with your assessment and what I actually like in ADG is that there is only 1 die to be rolled, which means the variance can be predicted better as you can realistically assess the modifiers (after playing a few times that is). With a dice pool system (e.g. like in the the FOG), although the argument is that many dice theoretically balance out the luck factor, I think this is mostly the case from one game to the other (so in one game you may have really bad dice and this will ruin your strategy and the game - as the combat is deadly, but during another game the fortune will be on your side perhaps to the detriment of your opponent). But I certainly prefer the way it is in ADG as this ensures your one game (as you are playing it for say 4 hours) is not ruined by bad dice rolls!

My background is in Warhammer Fantasy Battles and, frankly speaking, the reason why I am getting into ADG is that I was very tired of the massive dice pool system that WFB presents! You may ponder about the strategy and tactics, execute it perfectly well, only to find out the dice ruining it all at the end! As you can imagine, this can be very unrewarding!

Could you also please advise on my question regarding the Horse Archers and Archers in previous post?

Many thanks once again!

[chris6]

Sure, what is called in FOG a Horse Archer is LH in ADG usually. But !!!
As far as I remember the armylists in FOG call medium horse with bows Horsearchers too.

Its just listed in the armybooks. And it depends on the different armies. Some can have Horsearchers as light Horse and as medium Horse, some just have light Horses.

As with the luck.....hard to say without knowing about which army we speak.

[Strategiser]

Thank you, once again!

[sebastosfig]

Luck... well you can't avoid the dreaded 6/1 which can ruin your attack, but the main goal in adg is manouvering so that you get huge bonuses, meaning the dice will only tell you how big is your win, in that case. Frontal assaults can be lucky, if unprepared, but tell me about one game which isn't in that case

and you have more units than fog, so if something goes wrong somewhere, you should be able to redress the situation.

as for the game lenght, usually it's over in 2h30
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[Strategiser]

Thanks sebastosfig.

Although all games with dice have an element of luck involved (so does life!), what is important for me is that for that luck element to be much in the background (i.e. minimised and manageable), which I think ADG does very well compared to other wargame systems that I know (it is certainly much better than the Warhammer Fantasy Battles in that regard, and seems to also be better than FOG - which I think is great but has more dice and so a bit more luck than ADG, I think). I also love the fact that, apart from the deterministic modifiers which help to minimise the 1D6 variance, you can also upgrade your troops to Elite thereby tilting the 1D6 to your favour! Good system!

The only drawback that I can currently find is the lack of armies ready-made for ADG, and so the need to scout and convert armies from other games/systems - not a problem but an inconvenience nevertheless.

[chris6]

Well, as soon as you figured out the packaging of the miniature maker you prefer its easy to build. Lets say Essex. There foot comes in packs with 8 miniatures. meaning for every hvy foot you need a pack. If you want pikes you need 3 packs for 2 bases because there are 12 miniatures to a base.

Thats the way I will go. I first build myself an army out of the lists with some variations. then I simply count the packages I need.

BTW If you go for Middle Ages or late Medieval Essex are very fine castings even though lttle limited in poses.

[Strategiser]

Thanks chris6.

[sebastosfig]

About luck.
I played a game yesterday evening. My opponent managed to get some staggering bonuses through good choice of troups and opportunities: +4 and even +6. I still rolled the die to know if I would die or not. But I knew I couldn't win those.fights... just a matter of time before my flank collapsed the unit survived for three rounds of melee thanks to the armour capability
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[Strategiser]

That's great to know! I definitely prefer that to the dice pool system where even the clear-cut victory can become a defeat as a result of a very poor dice roll.