Well - so far I've managed 3 games of CoE, so I thought I might share some
feedback.
In all three games I've used my Late Romans - 2 games against my son's Greek
Hoplites (I know it's not the correct time frame, but it's the only army he
has, and I'm trying to encourage him to finish painting them!).
The third game was using virtually the whole of my Late Roman collection in
a East vs West civil war. I refereed this one, with 2 friends taking either
side.
I'll stand by my original impression that I think it's WAB. It's repackaged,
but it uses much the same mechanics to achieve much the same thing.
Just my worthless opinions of course, but, in no particular order of
importance (and note that I haven't tried out the rules for elephants or
chariots):
Skirmishers seem to be an irritation, but little more.
Like WAB, shooting doesn't seem to be up to much. Again, an irritation
rather than a game changer.
Romans with pila and the 'expert swordsmen' rule are rather good,
particularly if the combat descends into a prolonged scrum. (This sounds
about right to me - the WAB mechanic of Heavy Throwing Spears working
superbly in round one, then the legionaries get rolled over always troubled
me).
One of my friends just couldn't get his head round the metrication of the
rules set. He thinks it was a pointless change - I have some sympathy.
(Strangely - he's the youngest one of the group of us who play regularly)
You can be the world's cleverest strategist - the dice gods will laugh at
you sometimes. That's no different to any version of Warhammer though.
Again, and this is very similar to WAB, if you are only rolling a few dice -
say 6 guys in your front rank, so 7 attacks - the fixed combat resolution
bonuses assume relatively greater importance. (In CoE it's up to +2 for
ranks, and +1 for close order. Nothing for a standard though)
To explain what my logic is, in the fantasy version of Warhammer, it's quite
possible for human sized creatures to have WS from 2 to 9, Strength values
from 2 to 5, and Toughness from 2 to 5, and that's without adding either
ordinary or magical weapons bonuses. WAB isn't anything like as extreme, but
there's a higher swing than in CoE.
In CoE - you're talking 4+ to hit, with 3+ as the exception, 4+ to wound,
again with 3+ as the exception, and most of the 3+ to kill chances come on
the charge. If you combine that with saves of 4+ (not unusual) - you've got
to get fairly fortunate to actually kill anything. CoE also does not have
the opportunity to have a high str/toughness character swing the combat. An
attached character simply adds a number of attacks, but they've got the same
chances to hit and wound as the rest of the unit. So if you add your general
to a unit of levy - don't be surprised if he doesn't add much value.
Units with low Discipline (one of the two 'Ld' numbers a CoE warrior has)
should be deployed to march in straight lines. You need to take a Discipline
test to wheel if you march. Crappy light cavalry seem to be a lot more
manoeuverable in skirmish formation - this seems appropriate. However - you
are limited to the number of skirmish units you can take, and being in
skirmish formation makes them much less likely to get them into combat.
The break test mechanism is nice. Basically you have 4 results. Push Back
5cm (if you pass), pushed back disrupted (fail by 1), Break and Flee (fail
by 2 to 3 AND fail by 4 to 5), and destroyed/dispersed (fail by 6+). Some
special rules can move you up or down one row on the table. For example if
you're beaten by charging warband, you shift down one. If you outnumber your
opponent 2:1, you shift up one.
The combat outcomes are very interesting. You can simply pursue, or if you
take a discipline test, you can elect to hold OR make a normal move. Should
you win in an oponents turn and they flee - and of course you pass the
Discipline test - you can get yourself in a lovely position to roll up an
enemy line.
All in all - it's not that different to WAB, except that it seems (to me) to
be a slightly better, tighter rules set. Not hugely better, and sadly, no
better than WAB could have been had the owners actually given two hoots
about it.
One last thing. I wouldn't be concerned about using both systems either. If
you play WAB - I reckon you'll be able to pick up CoE very easily.
Norm
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