HUSSITE QUESTIONS

I was looking at getting a Hussite Army and was wondering if anyone else has used or fought against one and how it performed.

According to the rules, any Wagon that moves is automatically Disordered and so would only ever move once per activation and that seems rather slow as it only moves 5U per turn.   Has anyone else found this to be a problem?   Would you even bother to try and Rally a Disordered Wagon if you planned on moving next turn?

Secondly, it cannot Charge an enemy and with only minimal mounted and foot units, it is not a very strong or mobile army and it would seem that an opponent would be annoyed trying to fight a slow moving, juggernaught with no baggage to capture.

How competitive would a Hussite Army be? Even employing the actual Hussite tactics of wearing down an opponent with Artillery and waiting until he was annoyed enough to try and assault you and then charging out with your mounted and foot troops seems rather tedious.

I like the idea of the army purely for annoyance value against any opponent (which is exactly what the Hussites did).

Thoughts please?

Dennis

The creeping wall of death.

Often thought they could be interesting.

For about a single game...

That's what I was thinking.   Definitely not a Comp Army.

It doesn't quite specify in the list but if I upgrade a Wagon to Arty B, does it have VBU 6? I would say Yes because that would just mean I have upgraded a normal Wagon to VBU 6 and then upgraded that same Wagon to Arty B.

Dennis

Arty Wagenburg fires with VBU1 plus range and other modifiers if you choose to use the Arty function.

Otherwise you can use the VBU of the base unit for melee or various weapons missile fire and also for receiving missile fire.

As for comps - Arty with protection ranging out across the board so you can shoot anyone at any range they can possibly reply then if they close you get even stronger.

And given it is a comp if people want to get the win they are going to have to get in and mix it with you.

Could be nasty..

I fought wagenburg recently. He made the mistake of setting up in front of my artillery A... or rather bad luck.
Didn't find them a problem hehehe

But yes otherwise nasty to deal with for sure.

Thanks Guys. I realsie the value of the dual VDUs. Comp wise I was thinking as the Hussites it would be hard to chase down anyone else for a win. Hard to rely on attrition and hoping someone else will commit suicide.

Still like the idea of a mobile wall of death though.

Dennis

Historically in some of the later battles it seems that the Hussites advanced their wagons in columns towards the enemy and then halted and deployed. They didn't start the battle deployed. But there seems to have been no way that warwagons could advance and still fight and fire as warwagons whilst advancing

Jim

Thanks Jim, I guess that's why they are constantly Disordered whenever they move and don't have an Impetus bonus.

I still might do the Army up as something completely different to try, but a lot of my Armies are like that.

Dennis

I do wonder if there ought to be an option for warwagons to have multiple moves.
Something like mounted infantry, the warwagon can start off in a 'transport mode', move multiple moves and then 'deploy'
Once deployed it should be awfully tough to move them again.

Then you might see something interesting happen with A class warwagons led by an excellent general
Something for our Hussites to experiment with?

Jim

Interesting concept Jim. I haven't actually used them yet but the transport option seems viable. Could also make it like the reverse of Impetuous troops and make them have to deploy as soon as they are within 30U of enemy. Once inside 30U from enemy they could be restricted to a single move and automatically Disorder if they do move.

Just a thought.

Dennis

Dennis Maxentius wrote:Interesting concept Jim.   I haven't actually used them yet but the transport option seems viable.   Could also make it like the reverse of Impetuous troops and make them have to deploy as soon as they are within 30U of enemy.   Once inside 30U from enemy they could be restricted to a single move and automatically Disorder if they do move.

Just a thought.

Dennis

I don't think I'd bother imposing the 30u limit.
I think it's up to the generalship of the player and whether he's willing to take the risk. After all if he's got the guts to move his wagons so they enfilate the enemy battle line at a range of 10u, and still gets the roll to make them deploy, more power to him

If he gets caught half way through because he blew his rolls then life's tough

Jim

hi

my limited match ups against Ken Nat were always very close and interesting games but whilst they suggested to me that Hussites are hard to beat, it is just as hard for them to win. they tend not to win, it is their opponent that loses!!!

if their opponent isnt aggressive then most games will be drawn....so not thought highly as a "competition" army

That's what I was getting at Frazer. Interesting to use but not a Comp Army if I had to wait for my opponent to commit suicide.

Assuming you go rolling battery they'd do pretty well in 28mm given the relatively smaller table.

That's another way of looking at I suppose but I was going to a 15mm version.

Dennis Maxentius wrote:That's another way of looking at I suppose but I was going to a 15mm version.

Actually I feel that with 15mm It would be well worth trying attacking with the wagons and trying out the modifications I suggested earlier

Jim

Thanks Jim. I am getting more and more inclined to do the Army just to see how it performs (and to annoy people that keep telling me it's a useless Army).

Cheers,

Dennis

As Frazer said, my experience with Hussites in competition at 28mm\300pts is they are reliant on the opposition to allow them to win. That being said, the point about competitions is that the opponent DOES (usually) want to win, so given the combination of the natural aggressiveness of the competition environment and the natural arrogance of competition players (just because I know xxxx got butchered trying to get the wagons doesn't mean I will - after all I'm better \ my army is better) did mean they did rather well in competition. My experience against artillery was rather surprisingly positive too - unless there are multiple A class arty the Hussites just tended to get disordered - and would then just rally it off. Bowfire was generally ineffective too, in fact the only missile types that worried me were gunpowder armed T types (Hi Neil)

If I were to say the troop types that caused the Wagons the most trouble it was Pike, who if left to fight ALWAYS beat the wagons.

The real value of the Hussites in my mind was as a total block to those bloody annoying light horse armies, who may as well just ride off into the sunset. My experience of LH armies is they are usually run by the more competitive players. Knowing there may well be a Hussite army in the mix may well give them pause for thought as the chance of getting anything out of a battle with Hussites is slim, and the chance of a big win is zero. If you are interested in a high finish in competitions you need 3 wins - 2 wins and a bloody draw will usually not cut it.

The interesting point is that all applied to 300pts - in the new 350 pt format I think the min \ max changes will make the Hussites rather different.

Dennis Maxentius wrote:
It doesn't quite specify in the list but if I upgrade a Wagon to Arty B, does it have VBU 6?   I would say Yes because that would just mean I have upgraded a normal Wagon to VBU 6 and then upgraded that same Wagon to Arty B.

Dennis

Lorenzo clarified this - the option to upgrade to VBU 6 is only available to normal wagons not those with the arty

Just a passing comment - that single light horse is priceless if you are facing a lot of arty - you just mill around in front of it and cause it to target the LH.

Thanks for the input Cyrus, appreciated. My Army would be in 15mm at 500 points so I fully realise your comment about it performing differently at a higher points level.

Couldn't see anywhere about the upgrade to VBU 6 only applying to normal wagons so I assumed you upgrade and then upgrade again because in real life they added extra troops whenever they could to any wagon.

My lists all include 2 CL.

Cheers,

Dennis

Hi Denis.

I cant really comment on how it will work at 500pts, and the dynamics of the 15mm playing area and base size may be different too.

On the plus side, it was worth it just to see the look on most of my opponents faces :-)

That's the main reason I want to do it, to see the look on my opponent's faces and to disprove the doubters.

The dynamics in 15mm is rather different. It allows for more options and the tactics are different allowing for the size of the battlefield.

Dennis