I have a Saracen and a Byzantine in my campaign, and they're both inclined to shoot with compound bow during battle. My current solution is to allow them two attacks, one melee preceded by one missile attack. That seems pretty straight forward, but is that a good solution? Should I allow the Saracen the ability to fire while retreating, as flee fighting is used by Saracens?


I am all in favor of using and having fun with the exotics.
However, I would not bend the rules for them, especially since it would be at the expense of the regular knights.

The only Saracens with a D double attack are elite Patelamunt troops, a rarity. If he is going to take a Parthian shot during retreat, that is his weapon for the round--better hope you are not caught in melee. To use this efficiently everyone has to have a bow and be galloping like crazy--if the unit is not in a Run Away! then he will outrun them and be Alone.

The cataphract is similar: to get a D everyone has to be acting as a cataphract, shin to shin, trained act on command.

--Greg

I have a Saracen and a Byzantine in my campaign, and they're both inclined to shoot with compound bow during battle. My current solution is to allow them two attacks, one melee preceded by one missile attack. That seems pretty straight forward, but is that a good solution? Should I allow the Saracen the ability to fire while retreating, as flee fighting is used by Saracens?


I am all in favor of using and having fun with the exotics.
However, I would not bend the rules for them, especially since it would be at the expense of the regular knights.

The only Saracens with a D double attack are elite Patelamunt troops, a rarity. If he is going to take a Parthian shot during retreat, that is his weapon for the round--better hope you are not caught in melee. To use this efficiently everyone has to have a bow and be galloping like crazy--if the unit is not in a Run Away! then he will outrun them and be Alone.

The cataphract is similar: to get a D everyone has to be acting as a cataphract, shin to shin, trained act on command.

--Greg




Good point. I wouldn't have thought of the importance of the formation the characters are in, although in retrospect it seems silly not to.