During the two recent play-test battles that I have fought, I used what has become my standard Strength Values for Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery units ... 4, 3, and 2 respectively. This is also the number of figures I used to represent each type of Unit in earlier battles.
On these two occasions I used Units that had three Infantry, two Cavalry, or two Artillery figures, and each 'hit' was marked on a Unit using small, transparent Roman Blind rings. I soon realised that I did not need as many figures in a Unit as it had Strength Value (which is what I had previously done); what I needed was one less figure than the Unit's Strength Value.
This can best be illustrated thus:
This is certainly something that I need to think about and – if possible – to play-test further.
On these two occasions I used Units that had three Infantry, two Cavalry, or two Artillery figures, and each 'hit' was marked on a Unit using small, transparent Roman Blind rings. I soon realised that I did not need as many figures in a Unit as it had Strength Value (which is what I had previously done); what I needed was one less figure than the Unit's Strength Value.
This can best be illustrated thus:
An Infantry Unit (Strength Value = 4).
An Infantry Unit after one 'hit' (Strength Value = 3).
An Infantry Unit after two 'hits' (Strength Value = 2).
The upshot of this is the fact that I can reduce the number of figures I need to represent Units from the former 4-3-2 ratios I previously used to 3-2-1. (I must admit that for aesthetic reasons the sight of a single figure crewing a piece of artillery does jar somewhat ... but I suppose that there is no reason why I could not increase the Strength Value of Artillery Units to 3, thus ensuring that Artillery Units will always have two figures.)An Infantry Unit after three 'hits' (Strength Value = 1).
The next hit will not need to be marked as the Unit's Strength Value will be reduced to 0 and the Unit will be removed.
This is certainly something that I need to think about and – if possible – to play-test further.
I've actually been going the other way and contemplating adding figures without changing how many 'hits' a unit could take. This is a reflection of 2 factors, 1 is the look of the units, the other is that I would like an excuse to use more of my toy!
ReplyDeleteHowever, the work involved for no change in how the game plays has convinced to continue 'steady as she goes'
Ross Mac,
ReplyDeleteI have been playing around with these Infantry/Cavalry/Artillery ratios for some time, and keep coming back to the 4-3-2 ratio. In fact I have wondered if the Artillery should be beefed up a bit to make the ratios 4-3-3 ... which would enable me to have two crew figures on each base.
I have a Napoleonic version of the rules in mind ... and I am looking at two-figure bases, with 4 Infantry/3 Cavalry/1Artillery bases per unit because I think that it will look better.
All the best,
Bob