Art De La Guerre

[Za Otlichiye]

This is a personal analysis/critique based on trying to replace the QSR chart with a matrix. It raised issues, some petty, some significant. I've invented some terminology to avoid excessive verbiage.

There are about a gross of unit match ups which result in die roll modifiers, classed as Combat Factors, Bonuses, and Special Abilities. The Combat Factor is modified by ten adjustments:
LI Weakness
Last Volley
Phalanx
Open Terrain (2)
Battle-ready
Artillery Weakness
1/2 Impact (Cv vs LMI etc.)
Solid Front (Cv vs HI)
SCh Effect

Most are alternate factors, but four are "Bonuses" which add to the Combat Factor:
Last Volley
Phalanx
Battle-ready
1/2 Impact

These look much like Special Abilities. In fact, Battle-ready is presented in italics like the Special Abilities, and Last Volley is listed both under Troop Descriptions and Special Abilities.

Special Abilities that add to the die are:
Polearm
Impact (Impetuous)
Javelin
Incendiary
Panic
Stakes

The difference between a Bonus as part of the Combat Factor, and a Special Ability are:

Bonuses count for Melee Support, Special Abilities do not.

Bonuses do not count under Strong Surround (flank or rear attacks by non-light, conformant units)
but count under Weak Surround (flank or rear attacks by LI, LH, or non-conformant units).

Active Special Abilities: Polearm, Impact, Javelin, and, presumably, Incendiary, do not count when Surrounded.
Passive Special Abilities: Panic, Stakes, and perhaps Battle-ready do count.

What this means for the Bonuses.

Battle-ready - WWg (without blades) do not have flanks and cannot provide Melee Support so the only possible difference would be if they were considered Special Ability would it count against SCh, and then it should be treated like Stakes.

Last Volley and Phalanx are both 1st round, receiving charge on the front edge effects, like Polearm, so they cannot count for Melee Support. They differ only in that they still count when Weakly Surrounded. I have no idea if that nuance is important to maintain.

1/2 Impact I think is broken and should be a Special Ability.

First some speculation why it is part of the rules.
If impact foot is charged by Cv front to front, then impact Cv cancels the foot's Impact and applies its own for a +1 differential. If it does not have impact, the differential is -1. Probably the 2 point swing is considered too much against LMI and MI swords.

But unfortunately the rule has some weird results. Cv provides better Melee Support if it does not have Impact!? And likewise when Weakly Surrounded!?

This disappears if you consider 1/2 Impact as a Special Ability.
And it's quite clean:

1/2 Impact is Impact which applies against LMI and MI swords*, except:
o 1/2 Impact does not cancel foot Impact
o 1/2 Impact does not provide Furious Charge against MI

*In fact, if you accept a +1 against MI spears when Cv 1/2 Impact is the main unit on a flank or rear attack, you can apply it to all MI.

[KevinD]

What is 1/2 Impact?

I think the interactions are better thought of as a flow chart than a grid.

[Zoltan]

I know you said your OP was a personal analysis/critique but do you actually have a question for the group?🤔

For me ADLG is a simple game if you use the rule book and QRS as they are. Maybe less over analysing and more dice rolling to have fun?! 😆

[Hazelbark]

Well I scanned briefly your list. Have fun. Not worth reading and by the way, I am not at all certain you have the rules correct, but not worth trying got decipher your nomenclature. This may sound rude, but my intent is not to be rude, but to say you are inventing stuff that does not help a game that is very popular and widely played. Some terms may not be your preference or my preference. Some of this is from 4 languages and 13 years of playing. I don't know who you really are or where and whom you play with, if your local group likes these fine. But new nomenclature is not progress

[Za Otlichiye]

HB,
Thank you for the good wishes. I am having fun. Thinking about this and writing it up was not brief, so I do not expect anyone to gain much from a brief scan. Other than a sense whether it's their cup of tea. Different strokes for different folks and all that. I am a bit puzzled why you think my club (don't have one) is trying to foist some nefarious set of nomenclature upon you all. As I said in the third sentence, I just want to avoid excessive verbiage. There are 10 modifiers/bonuses which, unlike the Special Abilities, don't have names, so either I label them or spell them out.
However, since it seems to have a bit flummoxed Kevin as well as yourself, let me define the four bonuses of interest:

Battle-ready - War wagons

[AlanCutner]

Why?!!! How does this add to the game?

[Za Otlichiye]

If you can present two categories (yes there are plenty of other modifiers) rather than three it is easier to assimilate and retain the rules. This is something you only see when you first start looking at them. It's old hat to the old hands so they often don't see the benefit.

And non-impact Cv bettering impact Cv is just ugly.

[AlanCutner]

[Hazelbark]

Alan,

ignore this bizarreness first off. This thread is counter productive to rules understanding.

Second. No when spear cancels the impart of mounted, the mounted do not get the +1 for not having impact. The rules are clear:
Mspear cancel impact p13
CV only get the +1 again LMI and Med Sword. They NEVER get the +1 vs Med Spear for non-impact.

[Za Otlichiye]

I have to amend this a bit.

The first contact against an enemy unit must be a charge (or pursuit) page 41.
Subsequent contacts are a move into simple or melee support. pages 51, 60.
A move is not considered a charge and therefore no first round effects apply page 63.

So if a unit charges a LMI, and then non-impetuous Cv moves into melee support on the LMI flank, it would not be considered first round combat and would not receive what I've called the ½ Impact bonus.

In this case, there is no anomaly between Impact and ½ Impact as neither would count in melee support.

Now there is a bit of a glitch. If the Cv attacks the flank of the LMI first this is considered a charge, but a unit cannot move into the front of the LMI as support, so that too is a charge.
But now you have two charges. Probably better to think of it as a move into the flank and a charge into the front edge even if the temporal order is wrong.

There does remain the difference between Impact and ½ Impact when Cv is attacked by LMI in the front as well as simple support attacks on the flank and rear.

Which, again, would disappear if ½ Impact were defined as a Special Ability.