by John Smithen
Heya!
With RH on the way, lotsa people are going to be fielding larger
armies than
they are used to, so I thought Id add my two cents worth for
those people who
will suddenly have all these "extra" units!
Well, gather close and I will dispense of my knowledge of the
Tactical
Deployment.
Often battles are won or lost even before the first die roll,
before even the first laying down of a ruler. Observing the
placement of troops will sometimes allow
you to predict the outcome of a battle with startling accuracy. I
call this phenomenon Tactical Deployment, the art of starting.
This is where real life battle strategies will become most
obvious. Heavy Left, Heavy Right, Balanced centre, Wings, all
have relevance here. Too often people place their army in a
simple stripe, unit after unit, carefully positioning their
“heavy” unit, but just plunking others down.
This is criminal in my eyes, and the losses incurred by such
deployment are all
too deserved in my opinion.
It depends very heavily on what sort of game you are playing, but
for goodness sake, at least deploy your units where they can do
the most good. Quick, light units are brilliant for flanking, for
goodness sake don’t put them in the centre, unless they are
a shield. Don’t try fancy attack lines, stick to the ones
that give you the best chance of decimating unit after unit. To
do this you will need to concentrate all your thrust into a
single area, and to do that you will need to deploy your units
where they can best support each other. If using a cavalry army a
Heavy left or right deployment will serve you best, with your
infantry serving the centre corridor. Heavy infantry armies will
benefit from this deployment only in defence, and for attack a
balanced centre is best, to limit the opportunity for
outflanking. Choose your corridor of attack, and stick to it, you
will simplify your co-ordination, and deny those corridors to
your foe! Use any terrain to your advantage, fast cavalry can
sweep around a hill faster than infantry can climb it.
Set where you are, and where you are going, and deploy
accordingly.
Setup well, and your victory can be so much easier.