Had a bit of an awkward game today - mostly lancers with some shooters on the Byzantine side vs. Greek Long spear with a bit of light foot.
The lancers couldn't charge, as long spear is a very tough target. (+2 LS vs 0 for cancelled CL)
The Greeks didn't really want to either for fear of the lancer's shatter effects, plus losing flanks and so on.
Shooting had little effect due to shield cover - except when the Greeks did charge, further entrenching the Greek position not to do so. (one charge vs skilled shooters killed 2 1/2 bases!)
And the terrain was not conductive to flanking - woods in the center of the table.
So it was 4-4, with one TUG killed on each side by the bell. We could have easily played for another 2 hours to get a final result.
I think the Greek player could have been more aggressive, deploying 3-deep and accepting the nasty (pro-Byzantine) charge for the equally nasty (in his favour) melee phase.
I have a terrible fear of flank marching as I've never seen it work but I think in this case I should have given it another try as the payoff could have been big, so maybe that was my mistake.
Byzantine tried to work the flanks but was never quite fast enough - he always managed to scrounge up a reserve to plug the holes.
Any other thoughts on what could have / should have been done?
A wall of Long Spear foot is pretty invulnerable frontally to mounted and should be.
One of the most extreme match ups possible as the spears have sheild cover too!
So you have to either:
a) punch a narrow hole with whatever you have got than can do so and work from there
b) work the flanks and ignore the middle
c) As long as I had the command structure set up for it I would have almost certainly flank marched it.
d) Who won the PBS? Perhaps you need to invade with the Byzantines to get first move.
e) If you had any flexibles you could right round an open flank to cause trouble.
Greeks should have pushed forward and crushed you gradually risking a charge. Best set up is to be 2 TuGs deep somewhere with one 3 deep in front. Drive it like a wedge at the byzantines and keep going. Risk charging. Even if you lose the second TuG will usually mop up whats left of a puursuit (note cant be held if CL). A fine example fo a second line working in MeG.
Essentially any time you face an extreme army match up you need to think extreme in terms of tactics.
Got to get extreme and creative on both sides.... rules spot on methinks.
Si
Sounds good to me. Just a very odd matchup.