Character to Brigade ratios

[Nat]

Heya, Im hoping to get some insight on peoples views on character to brigade ratios for different armies.

I have read many different viewpoints, and some things seem to be generally accepted, such as 'take your full allowance of wizards', but the number of other characters people take seems to vary a lot, obviously the Ld of the army plays a role but to what extent?

Some general points to hopefully spark a bit of discussion:

Do you use wizards as brigade commanders, or just for offensive/defensive spellcasting? Does their Ld affect your choice?

How many brigades would you give to Ld 10/9/8/7/6 characters?

Do you give fewer brigades to a given character if those brigades have a 'vital' role?


For my goblins I tend to assign 1 character per brigade (2 to the general) as their Ld is so low, but I have been including the goblin shaman in this and Ld 6 bridages have been somewhat slack in their adherance to 'the plan'.

Conversely for empire I have a lot fewer characters partly due to far fewer units and also increased Ld, but how few is too few?

I guess the entire question essentially boils down to: 'how many actions do you expect each brigade to achieve per turn on average'?

[Guthwine]

I usually use 5 characters for 6 brigades + 1 pegasus unit for bretonnia. Although the wizards only command moves, that would be nice (but are not important) or they try commands with alot of penalties where I would have to roll low anyways.

So basically I have my general for 3 infantry brigades and my 2 heroes for 3 brigades of cavalry with my casters helping. But I cant really say that my brigades have special roles other than those that infantry or cavalry have. But the battleplan is always dictated by the dice.

[Lex]

So basically I have my general for 3 infantry brigades and my 2 heroes for 3 brigades of cavalry with my casters helping. But I cant really say that my brigades have special roles other than those that infantry or cavalry have. But the battleplan is always dictated by the dice.

I never pre-form brigades, obviously there are some more logical combinations, but IMHO the only time you can decide what goes where is when you are setting up for battle, know who/what your enemy is and how the "lay of the land" looks.

And in line of what Guthwine says, your battleplan is made when you deploy to engage, and then unmade by your and your enemies actions........

[Jezzails]

Hi every one,
I am new to this forum and I would like to add something if I may.
I  play High elves and having a leadership 10 for a general means for a 2000pt army, I only play 1, general,1 hero and 2 wizards.  Orb of majesty for the General is useful.  Yes I do use wizards for giving orders.

[Haranin]

Generally depends on the leadership ratings of the army, and what the force mix is.

Empire I generally run a few infantry brigades, missile screen, cannons and knights. The infantry need two characters, the artillery group needs one, and the knights need one for each flank. So a minimum of 5 characters.

Wizards - not necessarily a no brainer to max them out. You can get another unit for the empire - if your unit count is even, one more unit means a higher breakpoint. Really depends on who you are facing. HE and undead, two wizards for the empire is handy for the extra dispell gear.

Gobbos - I tend to take one character per brigade, if possible.

Dwarves I tend to get by with just the general and runesmith. Around 2k I might toss in a hero... but I tend to brigade up my infantry in such a way that the general can do it all.

[BlackEd]

I started as a HE player also.  I planned my brigades and number of characters when I created the army.

I read some O&G articles in the Warmaster magazine, by UllGitYer (I think).  The author suggests smaller brigades for Orcs (2-3 units each) and one character per brigade.  Using this advice, I played a few 2000 pt games with O&G and had good luck.

I think that the command phase is the heart of the game, and asking how many characters per brigade will probably get different answers from different players, depending on which army they play.

I have lots of fun playing Khemri.  I command a lot with wizards.  You can get multiple orders off if you pay attention to how you place the Wizard in respect to the brigade.  Actually, this is probably what I enjoy most about Khemri.  Set up properly, a wizard can move units/brigades a long way...

[Nat]

Thanks for everyones insight so far.

I like the idea behind reducing the size of brigades that have dodgy leadership, I think ill try taking an extra character and giving the goblin shamans a few fewer units to command, hopefully the invariably failed command rolls will affect fewer units that way.

I also agree with Lex about not preforming brigades as such, however you invariably need to choose your army before you reach the battlefield and so how many characters to take for a given number of units is, I think, quite an important aspect of choosing your army. How you deploy your brigades and then assign characters is of course largely dictated by the field, but knowing how many characters to place at different points on the line (ie per brigade) will enable me to better implement a given strategy.