Troop Gradings in DBM
DBM - digest # 2797, Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 14:21:43 +0100
..... FWIW here is a sketch of how I would grade armies:
A - Armies capable of taking on all comers. Generally with at least two serious attacking options, preferable more. Must not be vulnerable to any major category or army and must be effective against skirmishers. Generally getting some/lots of freebies. A fairly flexible list is often seen in these armies as well.
FREX - Khurasanians in 3.0:
Capable of fighting 5 feet wide with reasonable quality, thus it can "strange" enemy armies by surrounding them (my favored tactic these days) and eating up their pips.
2 El(O) giving some real punch against enemy mounted and making it very dangerous for enemy Kn to attack
Cv.
Solid Ax(S) corp allowing decent to outstanding capabilities in Rgo including some Ps support.
Strong force of maneuverable mounted (Cv(S)/LH) which will win a skirmishing battle against all but the most serious skirmishers.
(New for 3.0) strong force of Reg Sp(I) + Ps(O) which allow the army to stretch out against big mounted foes (Mongols, etc.) or allow concentration and a careful attack against HI or Kn.
B - Strong armies but more possessing one or more of the following features: one-dimensional (E. Samurai), vulnerability to some common enemy army, some disadvatageous troop requirement, narrow with little ability to "cover".
FREX - E. Samurai
Immensely powerful shooting. If it can line up against something it shoots to death its all over.
Rather narrow.
Second trick is a weak HI attack with Irr Bd(F).
Third trick is a rather weak ability to try and be a Cv/LH army.
In serious trouble against a solid force of HI (Sp/Bd/Wb(S)) this is only worse under 3.0 were the (I) guys have a rather better chance.
C - Armies possessing some strong features (good troop types, freebies, something), but saddled with one or more of: severe one-dimensionality, detrimental troop requirements (i.e. 12 Irr Cv(I)), very narrow, serious vulnerability to skirmishing.
FREX M. French
Dismounting Irr Kn(S) are still the best troops in the game.
French command and control very dubious (especially without Ps glue - my entire philosophy of running the French revolved around Ps glue).
Little else redeeming in French army (Reg Sp(O), Bw(O), Ax(X) all ok, but shrug).
Very vulnerable to skirmishing, little ability to respond.
Difficult to secure flanks against determined opposition.
D - Armies with some redeeming features but so
oddball, saddled with odd command structures, or lacking useful troop types that they are pretty hopeless. Capable of a surprise with a good match up or a bit of luck.
FREX E. Libyan
Highly unusual army structure of Irr Ps(I)
Very large
Capable of swamping opponents taken by surprise/unskilled in dealing with huge enemy armies
Limited ability to be really threatening frontally
Vulnerable to just about every serious troop type in game
Very vulnerable to shooting as well
E - Hopeless armies so saddled with poor troop
types, c and c problems, etc. as to have nearly no chance against competent
opposition.
FREX Various Amerindian armies
Mandatory internal ally generals
Weak troop types
Limited mounted
Generally good at one thing (Wb against infantry, Bw against mounted, Ax(O), etc.) but not really very good even at that...
FWIW, I think that B or better armies are the ones that are "open comp" capable. In fact just because something is not an A army does not mean it is a bad choice for a comp. A lot of the B armies are pretty good and if you either A) have a feeling about what the opposition is taking or B) want to take a risk then go for that specialized B army. This is something people overlook, if you don't think you are top class then you should be looking to take some risks to try and get an advantage, army choice is a place to do this.
Btw, last weekend in the Observer Sunday Sports section was a great article about the World Champ of Poker. What is particularly interesting is the couple of paragraphs about the final game. Two players, one of which (Amarillo Slim) is much, much stronger than the other. Despite Slim being far behind 280K in money vs 2.8M he starts winning. Appareantly his opponent realized this after a while, realized that playing his best, most sensible game that he would eventually lose to lesser skill. So Slim's opponent got a hand to "gamble" on and reduced the entire championship to this one hand in which only luck _in this one hand_. Despite being in a relatively unfavorable position, he had about a 40% chance of winning the hand, this was better than he felt his chances were in "normal" play. He gambled on the hand and eventually required a 14 to 1 chance to come off to win, which it did.
Moral of the story: if you think you are the weaker player or have had the worse of it then you want to reduce the game to luck as much as possible. Conversely, if you are the stronger player, or have had a run of good luck, try to remove the luck element of the gameas much as possible. This applies to army choice as well. If you are a strong player you want a flexible army that isn't "beaten" by the match-up. Hence, Patricians and Abbassids are popular with very good players. If you are a weak player you want an army that "wins" on the match-up.
Ethan R. Zorick,
contact: ezorick@essex.ac.uk, website:
Ethan Zorick's DBM Page
Department of Government,
University of Essex
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