weather Caesar vs Pompeii

[Henri]

I have read the manual but it is sparse about weather effects. In the Caesar-Pompeii campaign of AJE, I have noted that in Winter months, if I move a stack, in addition to some loss of strength expected, there is a complete loss of cohesion. As a result I have to move back and then waste another move or two to regain cohesion, and by that time, it is Summer! And this happens in places like Spain and Turkey, which are not at the North Pole.

Another related thing I have noticed is that during my last move (December I think), all of Greece and most of Turkey were covered in snow. Now I know that Mireille Mathieu had a song that it had snowed in Mykonos, but should it happen every day for four months?

Am I right in supposing that the intent of the game is that troops should stay inside during five months of poor weather and fight only when the sun shines?
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Caesar: All right men, get you gear, we are attacking Pompeii today!
Soldier: No way Jose! It is cold, it is raining cats and dogs, and my rheumatism is acting up! I signed up in Southern Italy, so buzz off and go ask some of those Germanic tribes who are used to sleeping on wet ground.

[numahr]

For info winter in Anatolia is very harsh. I traveled there for two months in winter time and several days it looked like going through Antarctica, with snow reaching half the height of our bus. You can have rather Siberian blizzards even in Istanbul where I spent 3 years. From just small hikes I made in these conditions I can tell you that an army in pre-modern times would indeed have a hard time in these conditions. Maybe non-coastal Spain and Greece are the same, whatever the clichés about Mykonos?

[PJJ]

24/7/365 kind of warfare is actually a relatively new phenomenon. In pre-modern times (as late as the 18th century) it was quite common that armies camped for the winter and there was very little action during the colder months.

So yes, you're supposed to fight only when the Sun shines, unless you aren't afraid of higher losses caused by the lousy weather and poor supply. That is completely historical.

[Henri]

Well yes, as Napoleon found out in Russia, moving around in the Winter is not ideal; especially when the men are wearing tunics, there is a danger of freezing certain parts. After more playing, I found that it is sometimes possible to move and attack in the Winter, say in Southern Greece and Southern Turkey, but one should check out the weather first. From now on, I do generally hesitate to move in December and January most of the time, except maybe in Africa.

BTW, are there any other Roman leaders that have Caesar'a ability to assault immediately on the move?

[bob.]

You should check out the weather basically every turn anyway, even in summer there can be rain in some provinces which greatly hinders movement and also (AFAIK) combat frontage, which means if you have a large army it may be better to wait for good weather again. It is often actually worse to move during the bad weather and then continue during good weather than to move only during good weather because your cohesion may be so low after the bad weather turn that you can move a lot less during the good weather turn that you could otherwise. And of course you needlessly suffer losses from the marching.

Sulla also has the assaulted trait IIRC. I can't remember any other leaders having it. Frankly, I think it is a stupid trait anyway. Apart from just being way too powerful from a game standpoint, even Caesar or Hannibal or whatever couldn't just casually walk into a strong fort "because he is a genius". I think this is much better handled through regional decisions.
I mean, Sulla had to siege Athens for months historically, so what the hell does he do with an assaulter trait?

I think (hope ) that the Devs now share my opinion, for example Pyrrhus doesn't have the assaulter trait and at least in my opinion if Sulla has the assaulter trait then Pyrrhus should have it twice.

[PJJ]

Yes, it would be best to have regional decisions for quick conquest of cities. The excellent Hannibal wargame published by Matrix Games has special Treachery cards that can be used to easily capture cities, and this nicely reflects the historical events of that war.

[Ebbingford]

There are a couple of regional decisions that can be played by some factions that make a breach or cause a traitor to open the gates.

[arsan]

Yes, it would be best to have regional decisions for quick conquest of cities. The excellent Hannibal wargame published by Matrix Games has special Treachery cards that can be used to easily capture cities, and this nicely reflects the historical events of that war.

AJE also have treachery regional decisions that causes 3 breaches to allow immediate assault. But there are not many of those in game...
EDIT: ops! Ebbingford was faster!

[PJJ]

Well, maybe we'll see more of them in the upcoming Hannibal scenario! That war saw plenty of cities switching sides.

[bob.]

I like to refer to the game Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War because it is one of my favourite games of all time, where a big battle could make the cities around the battlesite switch sides which I think was a really good feature.

I think there needs to be something along those lines to accurately represent how the cities acted in this war. AS FAR AS I KNOW (and that is very limited, so I'll happily be corrected), there were rather few actual assaults of cities.

EDIT: Noticed that PJJ has actually already referred to this game. Excellent taste, PJJ

[Bertram]

As to the original poster: dont forget that the armies of these times depended heavy on mules for their logistics. (See for example this side for a breakdown of the number of men and mules for a typical 4 legion army... http://garyb.0catch.com/march1/march_intro.html ). More even than the bad weather and the mud, the lack of fodder for the animals during winter hampered logistics. In the summer the mules could mostly get enough to eat from the country, in winter all fodder would have to be brought along. That would bring the need for more mules, to carry the fodder, which would bring the need for more fodder, etc. .... So real bad weather or a deep snow cover wasnt needed to bring operations to a halt, just the regular dying of grass in autumn would be a real problem for armies.