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Author Topic: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...  (Read 1031 times)

Offline Dave Bednarek

  • Student
  • Posts: 16
Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« on: August 20, 2019, 02:50:42 PM »
   Can any one help me figure out how the army generator works? For instance, using the Athenian Arete, suppose I roll a "3". Does that mean that I have 5 hoplite units, 4 psiloi, and then 2 options?

  So continuing on, how do the options roll work, and what do the symbols on the far left mean? And what does the "ALL" mean as well? Do I roll 2 times on the options table? And say I roll a "4". Do I get all the units under the "4" roll? And then I roll again for my second option?

  Thanks in advance!

Offline El Grego

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  • Posts: 231
    • The Pewter-Pixel Wars
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2019, 10:35:00 PM »
   Can any one help me figure out how the army generator works? For instance, using the Athenian Arete, suppose I roll a "3". Does that mean that I have 5 hoplite units, 4 psiloi, and then 2 options?

  So continuing on, how do the options roll work, and what do the symbols on the far left mean? And what does the "ALL" mean as well? Do I roll 2 times on the options table? And say I roll a "4". Do I get all the units under the "4" roll? And then I roll again for my second option?

  Thanks in advance!

Take this with a grain or three of salt, as I have never played these rules before...

The Basic list for each army gets 1d6 roll per item in the group.  For Athens, you could end up with 6 hoplites, 0 psiloi, and 0 options.

For each number of Options that are granted by the Basic list roll, the player chooses an option and rolls 1d6 to see how many you get.  The roll could be for 0 units...

The symbols, including ALL, represent the epoch or time period where that particular unit type is available.


Best guess to be sure, but I think that the above is close.

Offline Dave Bednarek

  • Student
  • Posts: 16
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2019, 05:17:03 AM »
  Thanks for the input!!

Offline pallard

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 184
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2019, 10:10:08 AM »
Hi
El Grego is absolutely right about army constitution. Take also into account if you are looking for a small, medium or large force. But the lists are just a way to organize your forces if you start from scratch. The game shines inside a campaign contest. The icons on the right are listed at the beginning of the rules, by historical period.
I use the lists as a guide, but feel free to change a few things here and there according to my sources. But this is generally very well searched and trustworthy.
What I think is unique is the feel of a Greek battle you experience out of these rules.

Offline Dave Bednarek

  • Student
  • Posts: 16
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2019, 02:40:29 PM »
  Pallard,
   Thanks for your reply and confirmation! I really can't wait to play these, for exactly the reasons you pointed out. I actually have a few more questions as I try to comprehend the rules, and one of them is, as you mentioned, the size of the battle?
  So what constitutes [ as in the number of units ] a small, medium and large army? I do understand the battle generator, and the scenarios, but I cant find out how you actually build a small army as opposed to the other two?
  How many units are there, OR how many rolls do you make when you want to build any of the three
 different sizes?
« Last Edit: August 21, 2019, 02:50:02 PM by Dave Bednarek »

Offline wkeyser

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 262
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2019, 07:13:53 AM »
I think a small battle is when you roll only once on the army generator, medium is twice and large is three times.  You can also roll on different army lists to create allies.

I agree the game is great we have played it a few times and it is always fascinating to me when designers do such a great job on a very specific period and capture the feel of the period (at least for me). Their game for the War of the Roses is also a fantastic game.  I am also working on some armies for the Spanish Fury game using the amazing figures from Khursan.

Enjoy

Offline pallard

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 184
Re: Hoplomachia Army Generator question...
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2019, 10:53:15 AM »
Dave
The game is centered on campaign generated armies and this may seem uneasy at first, mostly if you generate random battles like explained p.14 on. But I would suggest that you feel free to adapt to your taste and possibilities. I did with much satisfaction. Besides you get explanations of the process at the end of the rules, part: Procedure for generation of Random battles.
Just play the game and then gradually introduce the full complex campaign options if need be: that is my advice, as pleasure is mostly in the actual battle simulation.
The game is set for 15mm, but I use 28 mm miniatures based 4 X 2 instead of 8 X 2 for a standard lochos and it seems to work well:  I need to adapt the other bases: one-two figures for lights and peltasts, etc. I use double stands because I can dispose the figures differently on each one depending on order. For instance, open hoplites formation is two front figures and two others in line behind, with room between to move ulp the back rank to line for clvose order. I only have an issue with the Thessalian cavalry stand: not found a good way to reduce and show the formation at the same time on double stands.
Philippe