Quick question on Pub Battles Ancients…Regarding Cavalry Charge – What is the benefit of the charge? Is it they can make a partial move…combat…and then move again and combat? I assume the target of combat is allowed to reciprocate and attack as well? Just not grasping cavalry charge.
Normally, you move all your activated pieces THEN resolve all the combats that result.
If a Cavalry piece Charges, it makes a full move and attacks an enemy piece. Now you immediately resolve that combat between the cavalry and the enemy, BEFORE you finish moving the rest or your pieces. You resolve the combat normally with the enemy rolling dice. The enemy doesn’t get any special move or attack back or anything.
After you resolve this combat, your cavalry piece, assuming it’s still alive, MAY move and attack again IF there is an enemy target within 1/3 move. You can keep moving and attacking with that cavalry as long as you want to. Once you are finished with that Cavalry, THEN you can continue moving all the rest of your activated pieces.
Very powerful. Especially if most of the enemy is spent from previous attacks. That gives you the plus mods. With a little luck, the right timing and elite cav, you can ride down and obliterate most the enemy army in 1 turn!
You need to get things setup right first. The key is to get most of the enemy spent while you have Fresh Cav ready to strike!
I’d like to have some light about elephant.
Elephants move and combat. ok
After the combat, elephants Must charge until they are destroyed. oh
Does elephants can turn and combat everywhere the nearest unit ? Because one line of green troop can be completely destroyed in one turn by just one elephant’s unit.
Could you explain the elephant’s charge more clearly ?
I don’t think it is the good way to play elephant.
Great question!
War elephants were usually unleashed at the beginning of a battle. They were great for breaking up formed troops. They would cause a lot of chaos and disruption in the enemy lines. In general, the idea was that the elephants would break up and shatter the enemy line, then your troops would march in behind them and mop up. They were like a shock weapon.
The trouble was that they were unpredictable. Elephants can’t tell the difference between enemy and friendly troops. If you think from the point of view of the elephant, all they know is that they march forward and a bunch of men start trying to hurt and kill them. They get enraged and fight to defend themselves. Fight or flight.
So, many times, the elephants might start running: flight, and then run right into friendly troops, then fight! All the same to the elephant. Just a bunch of crazy men with weapons running around right?
So yes, they can do a lot of damage. They can also get killed quickly. Just depends. They can also end up running back into your own troops and stomp a lot of people. Who knows?
Going off my feeble memory here (correct me if I’m wrong) but I think at Zama, 1 elephant unit ran away. The other ran back into Carthaginian lines, attacked and trashed one of the two cavalry units Hannibal had. Total disaster! It happened.
Elephant MUST frighten the enemy. But not destroyed half the army.
It’s a good idea to switch and turn the elephants if fire with no hit.
The point is, for me, the possibly too numerous fights left and right, friend or not, before the death of the elephants.
I played Zama and if the payer throw elephant first, detachments and lot of roman troops are destroyed BEFORE the second turn. The nearest unit after combat is often to the right ou left, and then, another one, another one. Elephant get +1 and the other -1 , with flank bonus and green units : how stop elephant ? The battle is lost in one turn.
So, in order to limit the number of fights, the idea to allow elephant to combat just in front of him. No right or left. Just forward. Even if have to turn over after a combat roll : just charge front of him…. in direction of friendly units….
That’s my suggestion and understanding of the spirit of the rules : elephant must be scary, powerful, but not “overpower full”.
What if the elephants only flip and retreat units, not kill them?
Elephants charge without stopping through ennemy (or firendly units if no hit and turn over) until they go out the map. In term of play : elephants are destroyed at the end of their first play : or they become killed or they ran away out of the battle map.
I try this way of playing yesterday. My child love create his own army. Good idea.
He chooses Carthage and secretly place 2 elephants units in front of him.
I suppose he would do that and I do like Scipio : detachements in the first line. Regular at my second line and Elite at the third.
The first turn see Carthage play first. The elephants move ( mounted move) against my first combat line.
The first elephant destroyed the detachement, then charge the second line and destroyed one regular unit, then charge the third line and destroyed the last half legion. then get out the map… 3 romans units out.
The second elephant moved, fought the first line composed with green troops ( one hit on the elephant) and destroyed the green. Then charge the second line, destroy the regular troop. Then charge the third line : here the elite unit destroyed the elephant, the last one.
So, at the first move, the first turn : roman losses are 5 units and detachements (5/19 units). They are frightened, weakened, but not completly out of play.
If, at the first turn, first move, elephants have charged all my first line composed with detachements and green troops, eventually the second, i think more than half my units at last should have been destroyed. And the battle should be lost immediatly. How could green troops or detachements flanked (-1) try to resist against elephants (elite +1 and flanking unit, even if just one bonus is allowed, isn’t it ?) ? Their fate is sealed in advance.
This time, elephants hit roman at each time (easy because bonus +1) : so the do not turn against friendly units.
Elephants are a great pleasure to play with or against !
Tell me what you think about this way of playing and again, thank you for making here a great game, the savor of punic war.
We’ll test this and work on it some. There may be a better way…
I was thinking that the whole idea was for the elephants to disrupt the enemy line so that your troops could march in behind them and hit them while they are spent. I’m thinking that maybe they should only flip units and make them retreat, not kill them.
Also if you bring your troops up right behind them -so that you can strike while the enemy is still flipped, there is a bigger chance that YOUR troops will get attacked and flipped too.