Wargame Warrior

I was pondering the strengths and weaknesses of Piquet the other day and a few random thoughts occurred that might be worth pursuing in games we set up.  The weakness with Archon 2 in my mind is the lack of drawn out infantry melees. Every heavy infantry whatever their MO has an in-built reason to resolve a melee as soon as they get a card so that they benefit from the "charge" bonus. My thoughts were:

1. Some armies (phalanx based especially) should have far fewer Morale Resolution cards in the deck. They are more characterised as strong defensive troops (very good armour/ shield ) not bulldozers.

2. The MRC card would then represent the rare  Othismos (push or surge)  that might decide a phalanx combat.

3. More aggressive troop types/ armies with an offensive doctrine will play a lot more differently and display their barbarian willdness or sneaky Italian tricks to good effect.

4. We will probably have to add Cavalry Melee Resolution cards to the Archon decks. Not a problem for us. Or maybe an Elite Melee Resolution Card?

5. Phalanx armie would also be useful vs. opponents with more Courage check cards. An army engaged with a phalanx for a longer period is more likely to drawa Courage card and have to test for all its engaged units. Any resultant disorder results will allow the phalanx to resolve melee and push through.

What do you all think?

Interesting ideas.........opens up the possibility of having specific cards for specific troops - Celt/Celtiberian type troops in the Carthaginian army, more 'wild' than the more regular mercenary Celts/Spanish so an additional card just for them.  They already advocate similar things - specifying the 'Advance, Fire, Retire' card for Numidians only, for example.

The obvious one, you've already covered in a way - Phalanx's, mainly used to pin the enemy, and Companions, the decisive strike arm in Macedonian armies (different in later armies where the cavalry quality declined and the phalanx became the arm of decision), a 'Cavalry' Melee Res card might not be the way, not all the Cavalry was used as aggressively, but an 'Elite' or 'Elite Cav' or 'Companion' Melee Res card might work with Elites or Elite Cav being defined beforehand, similar to 'Elites Reload'.  You could jiggle with the make up to try to simulate the 'style' of army and it's way of fighting.  It could over complicate things if used injudisciously though.

It does mean that the card pack could get over large, but we could fiddle with that.

Certainly worth looking at.

P.S Haven't you got anything better to do ? Pondering the rules.............:D

LOL, making use of wasted time when I cannot paint (in the shower etc.)

like special cards,  any addition would have to be used judiciously, or they would make the deck too cumbersome , as you point out.  I am not so convinced that later phalanxes were very decisive, more of a  slow grinding match.  Cavalry were less effective later on  leading to elephants increasing in importance.

I didn't mean it was any better, just whoever won the infantry battle normally won overall, earlier, it was generally the cavalry who won the battle.   It could have been partly the different enemies that were fought earlier to later.  I am quite sure that any steady, trained close order infantry could have rolled over Persian infantry if they wanted to but as shown in several battles, would have a slow slogging match against similar type troops.  If I remember rightly, pike phalanxs didn't just roll over spear phalanxs, it was a bit of a struggle before they won.  I think it was probably doctrine rather than ability or weaponry.

With similar styles of warfare (ie phalanxes) it could simply come down to the difference in quality.