Meanwhile, back at the fridge...

After a few games on my refrigerator, I can confidently report that (1) I'm very happy with my magnetic armies, and (2) my marriage has remained intact! I can now proceed with the next steps in developing my Warring States campaign using both Rally Round the King and the door to the place where I keep my veggies.

Chinese Levies
Foot Melee, Rep 3, AC 4, Dual, UD
image modified from Junior General masters

The first of those steps is testing out RRtK's compatibility with some of the legendary troop formations supposedly used during China's Warring States Period. Even though I'll be eventually creating a fictitious nation and history in which to play out the campaign, I'd like to root the battle action in some semblance of reality.

But reality is an iffy thing when trying to grasp the ancient world. History, they say, is written by the victors, but the victors in ancient times had no problem dressing up the truth like a two cowry shell whore, so separating the wheat from the chaff is never an easy proposition.

Scholars can only look to a small number of sources to understand the military strategies of the Warring States era. The Seven Military Classics stand as the go-to texts of the time, most notably Sun Tzu's kick-butt jam The Art of War. However, the "ideal" advice of the strategists and the practical techniques that were actually employed often get muddled together because even the few legitimate battlefield reports that exist read as rather larger than life.

So, I'll have to be content with what I can be sure of - iron replaces bronze, the crossbow becomes king, chariots are superseded by massive numbers of levied infantry, and bureaucrats call the shots from afar.

(...and then there were those mythical wandering military advisers...more on them in a later post.)

In Sun Bin's Art of War, which I referenced when I first started this project, there are eight noted troop formations. I see four of them (Square, Circle, Dispersed, and Close) as transitional - that is, they are not the primary strategic formations; rather they seem to be either starting or finishing "shapes" used to deceive or respond to the enemy's forces, but that's just my Armchair Refrigerator General opinion.

The other four formations are interesting enough to warrant a few trials. Can RRtK's reaction system handle them? How would one translate them into RRtK units and bodies? Are they even viable strategies? Here are my interpretations of the center of each of these four formations along with the RRtK Type C tactics I think would fit with each:

THE AWL
Penetrate Center, Counterattack

WILD GOOSE FLIGHT
Static Defense, Hammer & Anvil (var.)

THE BASKET
Static Defense, Hammer and Anvil (if wider?)

THE HOOK
Encircle Flank, Counterattack

Do the above formations appear sound? Have I been too literal? Does this even matter?

As always, opinions are welcomed. Testing commences this evening...