Stands and Formations

In Classical Hack players will field entire armies and not just wings of armies. Within any army's composition are specific units that make up commands or sub sections of armies. All armies in any period have tactics that are particular to only themselves. Basing figures addresses this with the use of "stands". All stands have a number of figures representing real mem (a figure scale) in relation to units sizes as well as the formation the men will be in.

There are three basic stand types: Open formaton, loose formation and close formation. For more details on the specific stand sizes click here. Here is where Classical Hack takes a definately unique stand that sets it appart from other game systems. This difference permits almost any type of figure such as heavy infantry to be based on stands of any of the three types listed above. This means that heavy and medium infantry units which are usually forced to be in one formation - close order formation - can be in any of the three formations permitted by histoical substanciation. So if Roman hastati are deemed medium infantry a player is not forced in Classical Hack to mount them as close order. They can be in open order, loose order or close order. In fact during the course of a game a player can actually change the formation they are in during the movement phase. No other system permits this to our knowledge.

In our first example, we have the two most common formations heavy and medium infantry assume. On the left, we have heavy or medium infantry in loose order. On the right is heavy or medium infantry in close order. We will take the figures to be 1:30.

Notice that three 90-man figures consume the same frontage as do four 120-man figures. Here are the benefits of using heavy infantry in loose order as opposed to close order:

1. Move through difficult terrain without becoming disordered
2. Cover a wider front with the same number of men in a unit
3. Gives the impression that a unit or army is larger than it really is, viewed from a distance
4. Moving in loose order is less fatiguing