Middle Earth

mepbmlist
#21

Isn't the performance of the different troop types reflected to some

extent

in the program now? I have seen comments like "the mountainous terrain
restricted the movement of you cavalry" - are we sure that some of these
'anomalous' combat results aren't partially caused by the "hidden" (but
logical) impact of terrain on troop types?

Tony

RD: Yes they are, but they don't actually STOP heavy cav from charging thru
mountains/forests/swamps, which defies all logic. These factors need to be
magnified ENORMOUSLY to reflect realistic performance of troops in hostile
terrain.

To make life more interesting and less predictable, there should always be
at least a tiny chance (say 1/100) that hc (in the above example) could
break thru. High morale on the part of the hc should increase their chance
of success.

DIferent period I know, but I always recall the Polish lancers (high
morale!) in Napoleon's service who charged and captured a vital Pyrenean
pass from Spanish inf (poor morale) when any decent inf would have seen the
lancers off, no problem.

Richard.

From: Richard John Devereux <devereux@lineone.net>
To: <mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 28 August 2001 15:22
Subject: Re: [mepbmlist] Middle Earth

> RD: One way of making the unused troop types more useful would be to

have

> rules which more accurately refIected their historical performance in
> different terrain. The whole point of having a variety of troops types

in

> an army is so that it can fight in any terrain.
>
> For example, hc have only one tactic, charge, which realistically is
useless
> in mountains, marsh and forest. Even heavy infantry is hampered by such
> terrain. The Romans invariably used light auxiliary troops to clear

such

> terrain before following through with heavy-armed legions. Whole

legions

> were wiped out by German light troops in the Teutoburger Wald, and some

of

> Julius Ceasar's cohorts were chopped up by Briton chariots charging out

of

> ambush.
>
> Therefore, the solution is, to amend the program so that troop

performance

> is substantially influenced by terrain. Already the program has

preferred

> terrain for different races, so why cannot this be applied to troop

types?

···

----- Original Message -----
From: "TONY A & JANETTE S" <janton@cwcom.net>
To: <mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 7:14 PM
Subject: Re: [mepbmlist] Middle Earth

----- Original Message -----

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#22

--- In mepbmlist@y..., "TONY A & JANETTE S" <janton@c...> wrote:

Isn't the performance of the different troop types reflected to some

extent

in the program now? I have seen comments like "the mountainous

terrain

restricted the movement of you cavalry" - are we sure that some of

these

'anomalous' combat results aren't partially caused by the "hidden"

(but

logical) impact of terrain on troop types?

Tony

Not nearly enough to matter. The best advice to new players is to go
into the rulebook, circle the 400 and 408 orders, and take all of the
other hire troops orders and cross them out with a black magic marker.

It comes down to how many strength points you get per base per turn.
I get 4000 defence/turn from a major town with 400 HI; if you hire LI
you get 2000 defence/turn. I will beat you, every time, if we both
recruit full up and meet - virtually regardless of tactics, morale,
equipment, and terrain. If you could raise twice as much LI you could
win...but, then, if you raised twice as much HI you'd beat me even
more decisively.

HI in wood/none and HC in steel/steel are the two orders - the first
is essential, the second is important in the late game when you can
afford to maximize the power you get from each base.

cheers,

Marc

#23

The best advice to new players is to go
into the rulebook, circle the 400 and 408 orders, and take all of the

other hire troops orders and cross them out with a black magic marker.

EXCELLENT ADVICE. Its easy for us vets to talk about the hypotheticals (see
my post last week) but thats after enough experience to know how to look
under the hood and see what your gold is being spent on.

It comes down to how many strength points you get per base per turn. I get

4000 defence/turn from a major town with 400 HI; if you hire LI you get 2000
defence/turn. I will beat you, every time, if we both recruit full up and
meet - virtually regardless of tactics, morale, equipment, and terrain. If
you could raise twice as much LI you could win...but, then, if you raised
twice as much HI you'd beat me even more decisively.

HI in wood/none and HC in steel/steel are the two orders - the first is

essential, the second is important in the late game when you can afford to
maximize the power you get from each base.

···

cheers,

Marc