5-6 man skirmish units run into a few small problems. You only need to kill two guys to force a panic check. Most skirmishers are only looking at LD 5-6 (LD 7 Skirmishers are gold by the way) so can't be counted on to pass that. At short range…one 12 person opposing unit can averagely force a check. Once one unit panics they can make others go (depending where they end up) with the "fleeing friends within X inches" rule as well. Also, they can get charged off pretty easily by opposing light infantry. If they break…they'll most likely take some others with them through panic checks and then you get a cascade of small units rallying and having to check again as friends flee around them.
Skirmish units in WAB usually work best in the magic numbers of 5, 9 and 13+. I tend to use 12 because I like the look and I'm lazy and most figure manufacturers make packs of 4-6 figures. For combat skirmishers (Thracians, Auxilla, Velites etc…) I sometimes go more 14-16 range for some missile surviveability.
As for cavalry…much of it is overcosted I agree. But the Byzantine/Sassanid is pretty darn deadly. I don't know the specifics…were your late romans heavy throwing spear armed? There are some tactics that a Sassanid army could employ to break up a solid infantry line and attempt to defeat piecemeal. If they can get the elephant and Clibs into the same combat they should be able to crack that unit and break through (elephant removes rank and close order bonus. Clibs do some killing…both are hard to do wounds back to).
Also what kind of warmachines were you running? Scorpions etc… or the stone throwers. Stone throwers are my pet peeve and I only think they should be in scenarios and siege games. They are pretty broken in the rules and not very historical for field battles.
-Brinton
--- In WABlist@yahoogroups.com, "paul.tysoe@..." <paul.tysoe@...> wrote:
>
>
> Interested in your views on skirmish unit size.
>
> I watch a competition recently where a warband army used many 5-6 figure skirmish units. When spread accross the table flanks they seemed quite effective. Usful sacrificial units to draw out such as beserkers or get in the way of enemy moves - they did not appear to be badly hampered by being small sized.
>
> Moving onto a different point:-
>
> I feel with WAB is that cavalry are hampered and ineffective compared to their points cost.
>
> I recently played Late Romans against Sassinids and won confortably with my dart & javelin heavy weapon Roman infantry - supported by two artillery peices on a hill (great as they have no respect for enemy quality or armour yeh baby). Anyway the darts gave me a response (albiet weak but numerous) to the superior bow fire of the sassinid cavalry and elephants. The combination of which encouraged my oponent to charge me with three Clib units and an elephant.
>
> I comfortably held him off. Great for me but it was not even close given my hits, ranks, close order etc? I rolled many more dice than my oponent which gave me more hits,ok he had better stats to hit and to save but sheer volume counted in my favour. Are we doing anything wrong re the cavalry as they just feel expensive and out of kilter with an infantry based army.
>
> I have a half painted byzantine army which at present I am less than enthused to continue with.
>
> cheers
>
> Paul
>
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