 |
Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules A Four Horsemen Enterprises Rules Set
|
View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
Mark Stone Moderator


Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 2102 Location: Buckley, WA
|
Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:03 pm Post subject: chess vs. warrior |
 |
|
--- On April 19 J. Murphy said: ---
> In serious chess, a much simpler game than Warrior, when you decide
> it is time to stop futzing around and really learn how to win you
> begin at the end of the game and work backwards.
As a former tournament chess player (it's been more than 20 years), I think this
is a very fruitful analogy. However, I'd put it the other way around.
When I "got serious" about chess I did some study of the end game. However, I
spent vastly more time studying openings, and opening theory. Why was control
of the center so important? How did one achieve that early? Why was the
Hyper-modern school of thought such a radical departure with respect to
controlling the center? How does pawn structure affect the opening? What are
the problems with bringing your queen out early? Why does no one really play
King's Pawn openings any more? Those are the kinds of things that I used to
spend hours and hours pondering. And I'd study endless variations of the
Sicilian Defense and Queen's Gambit Declined, much the same way I now endlessly
pore over the Medieval Spanish or Nikophoran Byzantine army lists.
So I'd actually say that in Warrior it is at least as worthwhile to study the
opening game. It's also something more accessible to the beginner. Here are a
few questions to consider:
1. What kind of player are you? Do you like to attack, do you prefer to defend,
do you prefer to counter-punch?
2. What troop types are you comfortable with? Do you prefer infantry armies,
cavalry armies, close order foot, loose order foot?
3. Do you like the nuances of skirmishing with light troops, or do you see them
as just getting in the way?
4. Are you comfortable playing in difficult terrain, or do you prefer to play
out in the open?
5. How do you cover your flanks? By filling the table? By anchoring against
terrain? With the use of light troops? Some combination of these?
I'm willing to bet, though it may take many bounds for the consequences to play
out, that most Warrior games are won and lost by the end of the second bound.
That's the "opening" in Warrior. And even a beginner can do a lot to start
thinking through everything up to the end of Bound 2.
Figure out what kind of army (or armies) you're comfortable with based on
questions like 1-5 above. Start working up some army lists. Look at things
like:
1. How many scouting points do you end up with?
2. How much frontage does your army cover?
3. What sort of terrain do you need to be fighting in?
4. How many total figures do you have?
5. How many total figures of shooters do you have?
6. How many units do you have?
Answer those 6 questions with, say, 3 different ways of buying the army, and
keep in mind your earlier answers about what you're comfortable with. If you
can do that, you should have a pretty good starting point for a list.
Once you have the list, you need to think about terrain picks. Picking terrain
_is_ a strategy, and though it is highly abstracted from the decision process
real generals go through, it does attempt to capture the fact that good
generals often succeed by dictating where the battle will be fought. Show up at
a competition game already knowing what your terrain picks will be against a
range of common opponents.
Work out general deployment. How are you going to break your army down by
commands? Which commands are going to be deployed where? Are you going to force
march some of your troops? Is anyone going to flank march? How will you respond
to enemy force marchers and flank marchers?
At this point you'll want to start putting figures down on the table just to get
a good visualization of what happens. Have you really thought about what
happens if your opponent force marches a 2 element unit of LC to the center
line? Look at the table, look at a possible deployment of yours, and see what
impact that would have.
By the end of Bound 2 your army should pretty much be in the position it is
going to fight from. What troops are supporting what other troops? Who are the
skirmishers? Who are the line troops? Who are the shock troops? Who are the
"closers" who hit after the shock troops have created a disrpution? As you
answer these questions, you'll see what "shape" the army needs to have by the
end of Bound 2 if these troops are going to interact with each other properly.
What you'll find, as you think all this through, is that Warrior has a number of
"openings", and a handful of "opening styles" just as chess does. Mastering
them is just as important as it is in chess. Mastering them will also speed up
your play, making 4 hours seem more like ample time to get to a decisive
result.
-Mark Stone
|
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Centurion

Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1373
|
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject: Re: chess vs. warrior |
 |
|
--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, Mark Stone <mark@d...> wrote:
> --- On April 19 J. Murphy said: ---
Not only do I agree with everything Mark said, I would encourage him
to put it to the Spearpoint as an article. Great job.
Wanax
|
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Mark Stone Moderator


Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 2102 Location: Buckley, WA
|
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:29 am Post subject: Re: chess vs. warrior |
 |
|
Quoting "WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com" <WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com>:
> Message: 12
> From: "Wanax Andron" <spocksleftball@...>
> Subject: Re: chess vs. warrior
>
>
> Not only do I agree with everything Mark said, I would encourage him
> to put it to the Spearpoint as an article. Great job.
>
> Wanax
>
So, I'd be happy to rework this a little bit and put it in more of an article
format. To whom do I send Spearpoint submissions? I seem to remember Eric
Turner speaking about this at some point. Eric, would that be you?
-Mark Stone
|
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Centurion

Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1373
|
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject: Re: chess vs. warrior |
 |
|
richrite@...
Richard is the Spearpoint editor. His address is above.
Wanax
|
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|