Art De La Guerre

[chris6]

Hi there,

I participated in the kickstarter from Forged in Battle with there nice 15/18mm Ancient Miniatures. Till End of Oktober I have to decide which miniatures I will take....

I had the idea to order a mixture of bags that allow me to build a couple of armies. Like say the thrace are in almost any Pike Army from Alexander to the dawn of the Pike when the Legions start ruling.

They offer a range from Alexander and his opponents to the legions after the reforms of Marius and of of course the opponents of rome in that time...like germans.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832150598/war-and-empire-the-miniatures-game-of-ancient-warf

What armies would you say have the most equal units? What would you do?
Barbarians? Romans? Alexander? Persian? Indian? Alexander successors?

Need some help....

[sebastosfig]

Hmmm. Hard to say.

First of all, do you have any favourite army? If so, it will be easier to tell you anything.

On the other hand, with some pikemen, you can do a lot of armies, from Alexander to Mithridates, for instance. And lots of armies used mercenaries such as Thracians, Rhodians, Gauls/ Galatians...

If I recall, a Forged in Battle bag will have 24 foot or 12 mounted. It means either:

- 2 pike phalanxes
- 3 heavy infantry
-4 LMI/ medium infantry
- 4 LMI javelinmen, with an extra 4 minis
- 12 skirmishers
- 6 mounted light horse
- 4 medium/ heavy cavalry


For example. Should you take an Alexandrian army, compatible with successors, I'd take
one pack of heavy cavalry (4 units),
1 or 2 bag of skirmishers, depending on the type (javelin and/or bow, slings)
3 bags of phalanxes ( to get 6 units)
1 bag of Thracian infantry (4 units)
1 bag of Thureophoroi (for some added variety, 4 other units)
1 or 2 bags of light horse, once again depending on the type (javelin/ bow)
maybe 1 bag of late hoplites
you can add some Indians to represent a late Alexandrian army, or a GReco-Bactrian army (pretty effective)
Or maybe a bag of heavy Gauls/Galatians to get extra mercenaries...

You have too much variety to get a precise answer. Better for you to tell us which one you like most
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[chris6]

You are right with the packiging of the miniatures. 24foot and 12mounted and 2elephants.

Well, what would be nice is to have a Pikearmy with some variations. If the supporting troops can lead to another army like galatians or thrace it would be great.

Or as a base the carthagians and then spaniards and gauls and numidians?

Or do you think I can paint the gauls and galatians just the same?

The Kickstarter offers some personalities. I would like to go with Antogonos one Eyed. King Sitales of Thrace and maybe King Porous of India?

Argh....so many options is as bad as no options.

[sebastosfig]

Spaniards, Gauls and Numidians are ok for a core Carthaginian army.

As for Gauls and Galatians, paint them the same way. No one will complain
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[chris6]

I decided to go for at least one Pike-Army. What is a good number of Pike-Units to have in it? Most Lists offer up to 6, some even more. If I take 10 its already halve the army and maybe to unmanoeverable?

So what can be a good number of Pike-Units as the centerpoint of my army?

[sebastosfig]

Most people tend to take 6 pike units, either as one group of 6, or 3 groups of 2 , or 2 groups of 3.

Unless you have a massively heavy army, in which case you can have easily up to half of your army. ( Such as the Swiss, or Flemish). I don't have much experience playing phalanxes in Ancients, so I would guess, 6 units, maybe 8, to get supports. I know a guy in my club who played Seleucids with a corps of 7 Phalanxes, and some skirmishers. Main objective: move forward and crush everything in its path. Easy
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[chris6]

With too many Pikes I am a little worried to get outflanked? Groups of 2 seems to small to me. they get easily overlaped.

I think i will let me the option to field 8 Pikes. 2 Groups of 4 with lights or cav to protect the flanks. With only one phalanx its maybe to easy for the opponent to avoid them.