Splitting Persian hairs, upgrading
Greeks, and separating Alexander from his Successors
The Alexander the Great Warhammer supplement splits the
"Alexander" from the "& His Successors" and this can cause some
confusion in tournaments.Usually a tournament organizer would wish to have a supplement
completely override the AoA list, but in reality a number of the Alexander the Great (AtG) army lists do not cover
the whole period in question. To have done so would have involved a much heftier volume.
The AoA Achaemenid Persian list is also split as well, since the Fall of Persia army list
covers only later armies. Many have wished that the AoA Greeks might well benefit from AtG
special rules and I will address that as options. The purpose of this post is to
give some guidance as to what my thoughts are as an interim measure so gamers can plug
some gaps until these armies are covered by their own supplements. In other words give you
all my "intent" so you can make an informed choice.
This following should describe my
position on which lists should be used and which might be retired, and how special rules
may be used to help balance theplaying field between the AtG army lists and AoA for now.
Of course all of this is just a suggestion and tournament organizers will certainly use
some, none, or all of these ideas to make them fit their players and event's needs.
My goal here is not to add yet more errata but to clean up the rough edges
between AtG and AoA.
The lists in AoA affected are the Ancient Greeks (page 14), Achaemenid
Persians (page 12), and Alexander and His Successors (page 16), and the Ancient Indian
army list (page 18). The following Suggestions are offered for fine tuning tournament play. Then I will list some Options that generally bring AoA and AtG in
line with one another, but are mainly my own opinion, and may be controversial to some. To
round things out I also will include the relevant items included in the AoA official errata offered on 03/23/00 by
Jervis Johnson.
AoA Alexander and His Successors
Hopefully the player will find
building Alexander and Philip's army more desirable from AtG, but for the Early and Later
Successors this list can cause compatibility issues.
Use AtG for Early Successors:
Suggestions:
One can use the AtG Imperial list for Early Successors, just remove all restrictions on
(EX) units. Allow epigonoi to be fielded without restricting pezhetairoi, however
treat the epigonoi as "levies". Of course one may not use Alexander as he
is completely dead!
Use AoA for Later Successors:
The AoA Alex and Successor list works very well for Successor Empire armies and with only
a few minor changes is entirely compatible with AtG armies.
Suggestions:
1) Characters and units may not combine a large shield with a pike,
or carry a shield with a kontos (AtG page5).
2) The following troop types are
subject to the Levies rules in AtG (page 9). Levy Phalanx Infantry, Levy Light
infantry, Levy skirmishers.
3) Staff slings cost +4 pts per model
(not +2 pts), and may not be taken by armies that include any barded cavalry.
4) No allies from the AoA Persian or
Indian list are allowed.
5) Barbarian troops from the WAB
ruleset, WAB Nomads, and WAB Ancient Greek allies are allowed. Persian Cavalry are
allowed from AtG (no kinsmen). Mountain Indian archers and warriors are allowed.
AoA official errata:
Hypaspists may be given light armor at +2 points per model (AoA
errata 03/23/00)
Options:
1) Use the AtG phalanx rules for all phalangites, there are no
drilled phalanxes in the AoA list so this does not apply (AtG page 5).
2) Use the AtG wedge rules (AtG page
6).
3) Use the AtG Scythed
chariots regular (page 93) and optional rules (page 95, do not use the prepared ground
rules).
4) Characters on elephants may use
the AtG rules (page 9).
5) Barded shock cavalry with kontos
may not form in wedge, but may use the Massed cavalry rules (AtG page 92).
5) Use the optional AtG Elephant
rules (page 10).
6) African Elephants 'fear' Indian
elephants.
7) Allow shock cavalry to use
half-barding for +3 pts.
Allies clarifications:
1) Indian allies are taken from the
AtG Mauryan list using their options and costs, and may not include "Special
Troops" (page 115). Indian allies may only be taken if an Indian elephant is
chosen from the special troops section of the AoA Alex and his Successors army list.
2) Persian allies may be taken from
AtG list only (page 92) and may only include troops from the "Levies" category.
3) Barbarian allies may also be taken
from AtG list Thracians and Illyrians lists. No rolling Wagons or Slave warriors allowed.
AoA Ancient Greeks
Their are no real changes needed to
use AoA Greek lists with AtG armies. In fact it is recommended that only the AtG Oracles
be used, and then only as afurther explanation. The following ideas are suggested to
'spice' up Greek armies from AoA.
AoA official errata:
The army general may be upgraded to a Spartan army general at a cost
of +25 points. Spartan army generals are drilled and stubborn. Elephants, scythed and
heavy chariots may charge the front of a phalanx, light chariots may not. (AoA errata
03/23/00).
Options:
1) The Army General may chose to wear
any armour he likes, or none at all!
2) Sacred bands and Spartans are
mutually exclusive. You may not have a Sacred Band in an army that includes Spartans.
3) Spartan hoplites count as Drilled
Trained phalanx (AtG page 5).
4) An army that contains no Spartans
is allowed to ignore the validation "every second unit" for Thebes/Thessaly
Heavy Cavalry or Thessaly/Thrace Light Cavalry.
5) A Phocian army may use
the army list from AtG (page 52). Thessalian cavalry are counted from the Greek
Mercenaries points. Stone throwers do not cause 'terror'.
Alexander the Great Rise of Macedon
and Imperial lists for tournaments:
Suggestions:
Generally if players find these lists are powerful on small tables,
increase the size of the table to 8 x 4 and many phalanx armies have less impact.
Note that players using the Oracles:
If playing the Alexander character, a player who wishes to force the opponent to
set-up first, may not re-roll oracles. Rolling for oracles is done after set-up is
complete and before gameplay commences.
Setting up first:
If two characters have the 'set-up' first capability then I recommend that the abilities
cancel out in tournaments... in other venues or one- off games players may wish to dice
off, or find another suitable method.
Options:
I have no qualms with removing the Special characters from the army
lists for tournament play. (Note: I do not consider the "Great King" to be a
special character, only Philip and Alexander)
Jeff Jonas
jjartist@earthlink.net
02/04
AncientBattlesHome
03/10/07