Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[John Murphy]

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "David Markowitz"
<markowitzd@n...> wrote:
> So?

Well, since you had to go and ask (actually I had this ready to go
and your inquiry just gave me an excuse), this is a long one,
abandon all hope ye who enter here!

Here is my report on the battles we fought at the Cold Wars 15mm
doubles tournament. Let me say I had a great time this weekend (here
and at the demo games I played on Friday including a look into the
new WHAB "Beyond the Golden Gate" Byzantines where I got a chance to
play alongside Warrior list contributor Paul Georgian). The relaxed
atmosphere and high level of sportsmanship has made the Cold Wars
Warrior doubles one of my favorite tournaments every year, in fact
probably _the_ favorite.
This is list that we played, in 15mm, as best as I can remember it...
Feudal Warrior #34 Medieval Spanish, Aragonese, Early Period (1350-
1390)
6 units of 2E Irr B SHK/EHK L,Sh (1 CinC w PA, 1 Sub w P, 4 others)
3 units of 6E Irr B LMI HTW,JLS 1/2-Sh
1 unit of 7E Irr C LC JLS,Sh
1 unit of 4E Reg C LMI B,Sh
1 unit of 8E Irr C LI S 1/2-Sh
1 unit of 8E Irr C LI B
1 unit of 8E Irr C LI CB
1 unit of 2E Reg B SHK/HK L 1/2-Sh (Ally w P)
2 units of 6E Reg C LMI LB,Sh
For the most part I took the English ally and some of the Spanish (2-
3 units of knights, a unit of moogs, the slingers, sometimes the
jinettes) on our right while Mark Hissam handled the rest on our
left.

Mark and I have teamed up for this event for something like three
years straight now, running various lance and longbow armies which I
must say he knows very well how to handle, and in that time I have
learned a lot about the game playing under his tutelage in a sense.

All of the following of course reflects the games as I somewhat
parochially saw them, so the greater detail concerns events of
signifigance on my side of the table, and those more recent in
memory, with all the inherent bias that represents - and please
forgive any errors resulting from that.

Our first round drew Jonathan Becker and Charles Yaw with the
Italian Condatta of Naples and some other allied city-state. Though
I knew better I have always had an indelible image of Sean Scott's
NICT list burned into my brain and was expecting something similar.
Well, the condotta are one of those truly wonderful lists where you
can pretty much build it to be whatever you want. And this was a
much different approach.

We put a major water on our left, the condottieri put out some brush
about the field including a significant piece dead-center, and we
put some woods along our right. The battlefield was therefore
somewhat constricted especially on our left where most of the troops
gravitated. Jon squared off against Mark on our left while I faced
Charles on our right. I sent the jinettes to the far side of the
woods where they squared off against some Turks, marines, and light
archers. Eventually lack of action to my front left me sending one
of the longbows thru the woods to secure the area after the jinettes
were inevitably dispatched (too early due to some mishandling on my
part). To my front the slingers survived three consecutive charges
by some very worn-out stradiots before finally shaking, then the
longbows moved up to keep the Italian mounted away. Over on Mark's
flank he got into a lot of action with both his knights and moogs
against the condotta feudal elmeti and moogs, catching some
handgunners in the process. But the wily condottieri brought in some
marines off their boats and landed in Mark's rear area. Meanwhile
that central brush became the decisive point of the battle. The
condottieri moved in the CinC and a sub-general with their bodyguard
elmeti (all-SHK) which the Black Prince somewhat recklessly (and
with the blessing of Pedro of Aragon mind you, a truly double-blind
decision) decided to oppose, in the brush, with his English
bodyguard and some spanish hidalgos. Realizing too late that we were
fighting SHK with HK and EHK we were committed to the fray. But St.
George carried the day as Edward Prince of Wales rolled up 2 and the
condottieri sub rolled down 3 to break. The condottieri captain was
not comfortable weeing his lietenant fleeing the field pursued by
the Black Prince on his flank and shook going into combat against
the hidalgos. Another miserable down-roll ensued for the condottieri
resulting in the breaking of their CinC and tthe cascading failure
of their army morale resulted. So the Aragonese and their free
companies won a touch-and-go 5-3 (iirc) victory against the
Neapolitan mercenary army.

Mark and I saw several improvements we needed to make on the basis
of the near-run game Jon and Charles, who played very well and I
think it is safe to say are very good players, fought against us.
First we realized that we wanted a bit more space than we expected -
secure flanks but more room in between them. Some of this was
probably misconstrued because of the concentrated nature of the
first battle but to some degree I think it would be borne out. We
also realized the true futility of the jinettes but resolved to at
least try to make them perform some more useful role in the coming
rounds.

After lunch we drew Bill Low and Mike Mallamaci with the Later Tang
Chinese. A cursory look at the new Oriental Warrior army lists gave
me the impression that these are not one of those new killer-army
oriental lists but I could instantly guess the attraction for Mike
at least since the list seems rather Byzantine in nature in many
ways.

In between the Chinese opening up the board, we managed to put two
large woods along our far left flank and a third one along our far
right. In retrospect I think this may have been actually too much
space for us to cover, but on to the battle. Bill, with it seemed a
bit more of the Chinese foot, fought Mark on our left while I faced
Mike, with it seemed a bit more of the Chinese horse, on our right.
Mark fought Bill pretty well for most of the battle, but I did not
fare well against Mike. I realized right away that there were few
good targets for my knights so I sent them packing to the other
flank. This probably left me stretched too far to cover my frontage
and Mike took full advantage working LC around my flank through the
woods while I was forced to remain focused on my front. An early
shaken longbow unit also made this tough and it looked like Prince
Edward was going to lose us the battle despite Pedro of Aragon
handling his side very well. Indeed, Mike piled up enough pressure
on the remaining longbowmen, stretched to a single rank, to wind up
shaking them and the Black Prince packed up and left the field to
dawdle in the camp sharing syphlis speroketes with his fine Italian
ladies prized from round one. However, we were yet to be the benefit
of further enemy misfortunes. Pedro demanded, and received, the
remaining brave hidalgos from Edward before he shamefully retired
from the fight. Edward sent these into an ongoing see-saw battle
against some Chinese foot in the center when lightning struck for a
second time and somewhere on our left and center the Tang started a
series of failed wavers. In the end the opposing generals could only
count the mass of bodies strewn over the field after an incredibly
bloody battle (iirc 630-ish to 540-ish for a 3-3).

A long tough close fight against another pair of extremely talented
players, not even something one could call a Pyrrhic victory more of
a veritable Antietam, which left little time to grab dinner and make
it back for the final round.

For the final round we drew two more of my fellow NoVa-ers Tim
Grimmett and Don Carter who were running the dreaded woad-painted
Gauls! I had played against Tim when he ran this army in a tourney
about 6 months before so I fortunately knew a bit about them. A bit
deceptive since I think he changed the list significantly for the
doubles event to go with more and cheaper foot but at least I was
familiar with those darn LCh and their effect on loose-order
longbowmen, and on flip side with the fact that the army has almost
no real missile power.

Realizing that we were now facing an army that would cream us in
close terrain we opted to open up the board. We got all our open
pieces and cleared most of the mid-board while the Gauls got a
couple brush along their own baseline. For this battle we adjusted
our command arrangement and deployment from a lone CinC with the
English on the far flank to essentially putting all the Aragonese
that had previously been on my half under the sub and moving the
English companions into the center. I think a better arrangement for
this army. Mark faced Tim on our left while I faced Don on our
right. The Gauls came right at us, what a suprise. They force-
marched a bit of LI (something we never did in any round, an
interesting experiment which seemed to work well) and brought up
their chariots quickly behind while their incredible number of
warband strolled out of the brush toward the awaiting forces of
Pedro of Aragon and his English free companies under the Black
Prince (who having enjoyed his Italian prizes was now looking for
some Gascon ones, albeit very, very old ones). The Prince of Wales
managed to keep his archers well-supported and while Pedro sent the
jinettes to break a unit of chariots on the left-center the English
men-at-arms kept the chariots on the right-center from getting too
near the archers. Said archers pretty much shot away the Gallic
light troops to their front, though on both flanks the Gallic lights
and the Aragonese lights skirmished indecisively until the Gauls
chased away the light crossbowmen on our left. As expected, time was
not really on our side in this battle and something decisive had to
be done before the wall-to-wall warbands entirely closed the gap.
While Pedro of Aragon fought the initial phase of the battle to his
front his sub-general Sancho had his far right flank held by a unit
of Almughavars which were faced with a large quick-marching warband
threatening to sweep around their right while a tiny warband pinned
their front. Sancho a company of caballeros to watch the approaching
Gauls in the right-center and moved with his retainers and another
company to shore up the far right. Having sampled a bit too much of
the local Gascon produce of the vine that morning, Sancho took his
time using approaches rather than marching and the far right quickly
became very touchy. But fortune continued to shine on the House of
Aragon and the huge mass of warband screaming down on the Almughavar
company on the far right in fact barely overlapped it. Oddly, this
emboldened the Almughavar capitan as it greatly increased their
chances of lasting long enough for the hidalgos to, eventually,
wander up and enter the fray. The Almughavars, with their blood
boiling, charged impetuously into the suprised large warband which
took it at the halt while the tiny warband charged impetuously into
the front of moogs as they hit. The initial moments of fighting saw
the Almughavars tearing into the large warband and forcing it back
disordered with the tiny warband quickly nearing exhaustion but
puushing the Almughavars back in turn - forcing them to break
contact with the larger warband. But "Hollywood" Sancho was now,
finally, in position. Into the far end of the large warband went the
additional company Sancho had brought. And the lady fortuna smiled
once again. The large warband wavered, shook, was forced back in
hand-to-hand by the impetuous caballeros, and broke. The nearly-
exhausted tiny warband saw this action behind their flank and shook
in turn which essentially finished them as they exhausted. Through
the gap the flight of the large warband created in the lines Sancho
could just make out a mass of yet another huge warband approaching
the now very tired Almughavars with the clear intent of ripping them
apart. But the warband now had nothing to guard their flank and a
couple wheels saw Sancho halting their charge by attacking
impetuously into that flank. Again the Gauls, wavered, shook,
recoiled disordered from the charge and broke. And now the calamity
spread to Gauls in the front of Sancho's command as well. After
marching all morning and afternoon and closing in on Sancho's front,
another large Gallic warband opposed only by a company of caballeros
and some slingers was poised to push Sancho's command back and
expose the flank of the English to the seemingly endless hordes of
Gallic warband which were pressing close now. To make matters worse
the Gallic chariots were still within reach of the English front and
as their supporting warband approached were no longer able to be
held at bay by only Prince Edward's men-at-arms. Seeing the chance
they had been setting up all day arrive, the chariots went forward
into the English archers which wavered and shook. But miraculously,
the chariots were unable to break the archers and lacked the extra
momentum required to break through them. But the situation was dire
for the English nonetheless as they were now facing essentially
infinite numbers of warband at close, and closing, range. At this
juncture, however, the huge warband to the front of Sancho's
command, which had been disordered earlier by charging hungrily
through its own skirmshers at the Aragonese slingers, saw the
detioration of the far flank and wavered and shook in turn, just as
it was being charged through the slingers by the company of hidalgos
which Sancho had left to watch them (and which had decided to take
advantage of the disordered ranks of Gauls). This charge rocked the
Gauls back and they wavered and broke. And now the calamity spread
to the Gauls in front of the English. Similar cascading wavers
through the Gallic ranks facing Pedro of Aragon, as his Almughavars
and hidalgos found just the right areas to strike, eventually also
seemed to roll down the line toward the center and Gauls decided it
was not a good day.

The last round wound up at 5-2 or 5-3 and left Mark and I very happy
overall with the days' results and our lucky 13 points against some
real class opposition. The usual high level of sportsmanship was
found in all our opponents and all in all it was a great time.

Oh, the bitterness.

Mark, and Ewan, you really brought the con alive with those reports, and
I thank you. I am so sorry to have missed the doubles.

Wait til' next year....

Chris Cameron

>
>

[Todd Schneider]

"But Scott is quite capable of ruling against anyone.
And usually seems to listen and read, even if what
emerges is not always in line with the clear and
obvious answer (i.e. whatever *I* think happens to be
right) ."

Or whatever Jon thinks is right it seems. 9.5 is a
mess though, and it being contradicted in two other
places doesn't help either.

Rules confusion aside, it reads like evryone hada good
time. Nice to see a large group of players.

What was everybodies impression of the banner?

Todd

[joncleaves]

In a message dated 4/13/2005 07:29:43 Central Daylight Time,
ewan.mcnay@... writes:

Banner?>>


The Warrior banner hanging over the Warrior play area. Todd's wife Beth is
our graphic design person - with great assistance from Charlie Randow - and
designed and had the banner made along with all the table signs you may have
seen.

Jon








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Ewan McNay]

Banner?

Todd Schneider wrote:

>
> "But Scott is quite capable of ruling against anyone.
> And usually seems to listen and read, even if what
> emerges is not always in line with the clear and
> obvious answer (i.e. whatever *I* think happens to be
> right) ."
>
> Or whatever Jon thinks is right it seems. 9.5 is a
> mess though, and it being contradicted in two other
> places doesn't help either.
>
> Rules confusion aside, it reads like evryone hada good
> time. Nice to see a large group of players.
>
> What was everybodies impression of the banner?
>
> Todd
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Ewan McNay]

The table signs were kind of cool, but I'm afraid I didn't see any banner.

JonCleaves@... wrote:

>
> In a message dated 4/13/2005 07:29:43 Central Daylight Time,
> ewan.mcnay@... writes:
>
> Banner?>>
>
>
> The Warrior banner hanging over the Warrior play area. Todd's wife Beth is
> our graphic design person - with great assistance from Charlie Randow - and
> designed and had the banner made along with all the table signs you may have
> seen.
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

[joncleaves]

Well you were playing right under it twice..lol. But heck, I want my brain
surgeons to have that kind of focus on what they are doing, so it is all good...

-----Original Message-----
From: Ewan McNay <ewan.mcnay@...>
To: WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:28:42 -0400
Subject: Re: [WarriorRules] RE: Cold Wars



The table signs were kind of cool, but I'm afraid I didn't see any banner.

JonCleaves@... wrote:

>
> In a message dated 4/13/2005 07:29:43 Central Daylight Time,
> ewan.mcnay@... writes:
>
> Banner?>>
>
>
> The Warrior banner hanging over the Warrior play area. Todd's wife Beth is
> our graphic design person - with great assistance from Charlie Randow - and
> designed and had the banner made along with all the table signs you may have
> seen.
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>




Yahoo! Groups Links






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Jeff Zorn]

Howdy,

Even we DBMers saw the big black Warrior banner hanging from the ceiling
above the Warrior tables. Helps to look up from the tables sometimes :-)

Jeff Zorn

At 09:28 AM 4/13/2005 -0400, you wrote:

>The table signs were kind of cool, but I'm afraid I didn't see any banner.
>
>JonCleaves@... wrote:
>
> >
> > In a message dated 4/13/2005 07:29:43 Central Daylight Time,
> > ewan.mcnay@... writes:
> >
> > Banner?>>
> >
> >
> > The Warrior banner hanging over the Warrior play area. Todd's wife
> Beth is
> > our graphic design person - with great assistance from Charlie Randow
> - and
> > designed and had the banner made along with all the table signs you
> may have
> > seen.
> >


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Ewan McNay]

Hmm. Look up from table to something other than other tables?

OK. I understand the concept in theory. I'll work on it .

Jeff Zorn wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> Even we DBMers saw the big black Warrior banner hanging from the ceiling
> above the Warrior tables. Helps to look up from the tables sometimes
>
> Jeff Zorn
>
> At 09:28 AM 4/13/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>>The table signs were kind of cool, but I'm afraid I didn't see any banner.
>>
>>JonCleaves@... wrote:
>>
>>
>>>In a message dated 4/13/2005 07:29:43 Central Daylight Time,
>>>ewan.mcnay@... writes:
>>>
>>>Banner?>>
>>>
>>>
>>>The Warrior banner hanging over the Warrior play area. Todd's wife
>>
>>Beth is
>>
>>>our graphic design person - with great assistance from Charlie Randow
>>
>>- and
>>
>>>designed and had the banner made along with all the table signs you
>>
>>may have
>>
>>>seen.
>>>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Kelly Wilkinson]

I thought it was very nice but didn't notice it until someone mentioned it.

k

Todd Schneider <thresh1642@...> wrote:

"But Scott is quite capable of ruling against anyone.
And usually seems to listen and read, even if what
emerges is not always in line with the clear and
obvious answer (i.e. whatever *I* think happens to be
right) ."

Or whatever Jon thinks is right it seems. 9.5 is a
mess though, and it being contradicted in two other
places doesn't help either.

Rules confusion aside, it reads like evryone hada good
time. Nice to see a large group of players.

What was everybodies impression of the banner?

Todd




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