From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com)
Date: Wed 21 Sep 1994 - 13:41:33 EEST
Martin Crim:
Martin is kind enough to praise the Warhamster rules, then he reveals his sordid wargaming past and wonders why tactics aren't a part of it, since the Cf and Df are solely based on skill and hit points, rather than particular combat tactics.
First I'll nit-pick:
> The Celts in were superior warriors to the Roman legionaries.
>They fought, raided, and practiced with weapons more than the
>Romans did.
I don't think the Celts actually practiced more with weapons than the Legionaries, who practiced plenty. In addition, the Legionaries were trained systematically (unlike the Celts), and were often older and more experienced than the Celts (remember that a Legionary's term of service was 20 years -- an auxiliary's was 25 years). I admit, though, that the Celts were bigger and stronger, and they were absolutely no slouch with their weapons. Probably individually braver than the Romans, too, as Caesar's account of the Nervii (for instance) appears to demonstrate.
>legions rarely lost, and never lost to equal numbers of Celts or
>Germans except the afore-mentioned ambush in the woods.
The "ambush" being the battle of the Teutoburgerwald. My nit worth picking here is that in that battle, it's generally agreed that the Germans in the ambush _did_ outnumber the 3 Roman legions slaughtered. Even so, their victory is rather remarkable, and doubtless due to the fact that the Romans, spread out along the road, could not properly form up to receive the German charge.
ANYWAY, my hope when I originally did Warhamster was that the rules themselves could be used to simulate tactics without any sort of fudge factor. For instance, the Romans believed that the reason they beat their enemies (in addition to their skill) was that they were bunched up tighter, as the Celts swung their long swords around their heads, and the Romans used their short little swords in serried ranks. To simulate this in Warhamster, simply place the Roman legionaries on smaller bases than the Celts. Hey presto!, the battle becomes a mismatch, as the greater number of Romans (and their greater armor) take their toll on the hapless barbarians.
To simulate hoplite tactics against cavalry, just remember that the guys in the rear ranks get to fight, too. Plus there should probably be a morale check for horses charging spears. The narrow ranks of hoplites combined with the multiple spearmen should give them the edge over loosely-grouped disorganized nomads without any fudge factors.
In general, I dislike fudge factors in gaming, and prefer to see the actual problem which the fudge factor tries to smooth over.
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