Point Buy System

Hey everyone, I just got Medieval after extensively playing Commands and Colors: Ancients with all the expansions. One of the things my friends and I enjoyed doing was the point buy system listed in the variant section of the forum over there, and I noticed that the Medieval forum did not have an equivalent. I spent a few minutes and made a quick version of it for the medieval set and thought some of you might like it. Feel free to give any feedback on the makeup of the base armies, as my historical knowledge of this area is sadly limited to the History of Byzantium podcast, and I didn't feel equipped enough to make any later medieval armies than the ones depicted in the base game. I kept each base army starting with 7 units, but obviously with different makeups. Feedback on the cost of units is also welcome.

Here's what I came up with: 

Point Buy System: Commands and Colors Medieval 

Each player chooses one base army that comes with the units listed. Then the players agree to a spending limit for each army, and each player can choose what types of units to buy for the prices listed below. Spending limits of 20, 30, 40, or 50 were common in this variant of Commands and Colors: Ancients. 

The players deploy their troops simultaneously and may react to the other players formation.  

Once finished deploying, the players decide who goes first by rolling one battle die. If a white symbol is rolled, the purple block army will go first, if a colored symbol is rolled the tan army will go first.  

Victory is declared after one army has lost 50% of its units, or when one army no longer has any leaders on the battlefield.  

Unit Costs:

Auxilia: 2
Light Bow: 3
Medium Infantry: 4
Warrior Infantry: 5
Heavy Infantry: 5
Leader: 4
Light Cavalry: 3
Light Bow Cavalry: 4
Medium Cavalry 4
Medium Bow Cavalry: 5
Heavy Cavalry 5
Heavy Bow Cavalry: 6
Cataphract Cavalry: 7
Bow Cataphract Cavalry: 8  

Base Armies:  

Early Byzantine Roman: 
Purple Blocks 

2 Medium Infantry
1 Auxilia
1 Light Bow Infantry
1 Heavy Cavalry
1 Medium Cavalry
1 Light Cavalry 

Sassanid Persian:  
Tan Blocks

1 Cataphract Cavalry
1 Heavy Cavalry
1 Medium Bow cavalry
1 Light Bow Cavalry
1 Light Bow Infantry
2 Auxilia 

Hunnic Armies:
Tan Blocks 

3 Light Bow Cavalry
1 Medium Bow Cavalry
1 Heavy Bow Cavalry
2 Warrior Infantry 

Reformed Byzantine Roman: 
Purple Blocks 

1 Cataphract Cavalry
2 Heavy Bow Cavalry
2 Light Bow Cavalry
1 Heavy Infantry
1 Medium Infantry 

Arab Invader Army:
Tan Blocks

1 Cataphract Cavalry
2 Heavy Bow Cavalry
2 Light Bow Cavalry
2 Warrior Infantry
1 Auxilia Infantry

 

I confess to being very unexperienced with PBS, since I view them as kind of gamey, where players try and build super armies that just never existed, but I have some experience with the effectiveness of units in CCM and I think the point values for the units are way out.

Auxilia I would rate as 0..  they are actually liabilities on the field. 

Conversely Cataphract cavalry I would rate around 12, and 14 with bows.
Light Bow cavalry I'd rate around 6
Leaders I wouldn't rate at all, I think a maximum of 3 on a standard map, but at some ratio to the number of units. 1 leader per 3 cavalry and per 5-6 foot units. 

Warrior infantry is kind of interesting, rating them the same as Heavy infantry is probably fair in terms of effectiveness, but from an economic perspective, mercenary barbarian warbands were much cheaper than training infantry. So is the PBS supposed to discount unit types based on actual costs to the crown? In which case, the barbarian armies like the Huns etc should be quite cheap.

So I don't think I've necessarily helped here, other than to express my disquiet about the point values (and PBS generally).

I appreciate your reply. I wasn't necessarily going for historical accuracy when doing the price points, it was more about creating a balanced battlefield. Your price adjustments would be interesting to try out, and would help keep the player from just spamming heavy cavalry. But that's also why the total points are adjustable, so that players can be limited in what they buy rather than just using all of the blocks in the box.

I know that the point buy is ahistorical and that many purists won't be interested, but for my friends and I it's a good way to take a break from the terrain heavy scenarios and get back to the basics of two armies just lining up across from each other on a flat plain. I haven't gotten around to playing this version myself yet, but I'll be interested to try out your point values when I get around to it!

Hello.
Rather than a point system which is good in itself, but setting up a cohesion rule like in Tricorne will give a little more historical chrome I think.
Lionel

wrote:

Hello.
Rather than a point system which is good in itself, but setting up a cohesion rule like in Tricorne will give a little more historical chrome I think.
Lionel

what do you think the blocks represent?