Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

Digression: y'know, I love living in the Sierras 98% of the time, but right
about now is when it really hits home that (a) most miniatures players are on
the East Coast, (b) it's a three hour drive just to get to the airport, (c) it
takes me an hour and a half just to get to an interstate highway -- you pretty
much can't live further from a highway and still be in California, and (d) I've
just invested four days' time for effectively a one day event.

But I would and will do it all over again. Had an absolute blast this weekend,
as did my (very tired) son Alex.

On to the gaming.

Alex and I played Shang Chinese. Not an army I'd ever play in the NICT, but an
army that enabled me to experiment with a couple of ideas I've been mulling
over for a year now: first, the value of chariots as shock troops, and second,
the value of _really_ massed bowfire (on a scale that makes 100YWE look meek).
I learned a lot more about one of those experiments (chariots) than I did about
the other (bowfire), for somewhat subtle reasons; see below.

Here's the army:
- CinC and 2 other generals in 2 chariot units, each unit crew of 1 w/LTS,B and
1 w/JLS,B. One chariot has 4 horses, the other 2.
- Another unit of 2 chariots, both 4 horse.
- 2 units each of 3 2 horse HCh, with 2 LI B on the base; by list rule, these
can skirmish
- 1 unit of 6 light chariots, crew of 1 w/LTS,B. 2 chariots w/4 horse, 4 w/2
horse.

Some notes about the chariots: on this list you can have any mix of 2 horse, 4
horse, light, and heavy chariots that you want, and every chariot has LTS.
Every heavy chariot can have 2 crew with bow, and you can get chariot runners
that are LI B. This is the _only_ list in _any_ book that enables that
particular combination. Your bow armed crew are double-armed, 1 with the
addition of LTS, and 1 with the addition of JLS, and all your chariots are a
very efficient Irr B. Again, no other list gives you that combination. Put it
all together, and you have, in my opinion, the best chariot army in the game
bar none.

If you have the right support troops. Still working the kinks out of that one.

- 1 unit of 8 stands Irr C MI LTS, half Sh
- 2 units of 2 stands Reg C MI LTS,Sh
- 1 unit of 4 stands Reg C LMI LTS,Sh
- 3 units of 2 stands Reg C LI B
- 1 unit of 6 stands Reg C LI B
- Ally general with 6 stands of Irr B LMI JLS,Sh, half with 2HCW
- ally unit of 6 stands Irr C LI JLS,Sh
- ally unit of 6 stands Irr C LI B, half Sh

Then there are the archers:
- 5 units of 12 stands Irr D MI B (73 points each; take all these away, and you
still have an entire 1600 point army left over)
- 2 units of Reg B LMI B

A few notes on all this: that's 376 figures of bow between the foot, LI, and
chariots (noting that one chariot crew gets to count double). That's 514
figures total. Just the MI B, LMI B, and the 2 2 horse HCh units cover 36
elements' frontage boot to boot, on a table that's 40 elements wide. So traffic
control and space management are MAJOR issues if you're going to play this army
well.

Alex, by the way, is 11, and has previously played about eight non-tournament
games of Warrior that are a mix of historicals and Fantasy Warrior, and three
tournament games running Shang at 1600 points.

Game 1: I'm pleased that there are 14 teams since (a) that's a great turnout,
and (b) chances are good I can ease Alex into his first national tournament game
with something less than a full throttle experience, given that it's 9:00 AM
which is 6:00 AM in California. No such luck. We draw Dave and Ewan, playing
Sassanid Persians.

Our plan is to push in the middle with the skirmishing heavy chariots, and try
and bring up either our Barbarian ally (LMI 2HCW,JLS,Sh) if the elephants
stroll too far forward, or our chariots if we get a crack at the SHC. I'm quite
worried about the matchup of bow-armed SHC and shieldless MI B. Alex faces off
against Ewan with a hill to sit on and defend, and I push the middle with
support on my left against Dave.

We're wrapping up movement on bound 2 and I realize that Alex has left a
shieldless LMI B unit in approach+charge range of one of Ewan's SHC. Measuring
that app+ch distance for enemy shock cav is second nature for experienced
players, but Alex doesn't yet think to that level of the game. With some mixed
feelings, I suggest to Alex that he might want to ask Ewan for permission to
retroactively put the unit in skirmish. This is one of those awful parenting
moments when the desire to prevent something unfortunate from happening to your
kid wars with the realization that some lessons can only be learned the hard
way. I don't know if Ewan will or even should allow Alex to change his move.
Alex, however, just says no. He's going to leave the move as is, and play
through it. OK; one of those bittersweet moments when you feel proud and said
at the same time. Ewan charges the LMI, routs them, and Alex begins a long
morning of rolling 5s and 6s on waver tests.

Ewan took this flurry of passed waver tests with good humor, and in truth it
really just delayed the inevitable. Instead of Alex's flank collapsing on Bound
3 it was more like Bound 5 or 6. It's a strange feeling to know at 10:00 AM on
Saturday morning that you won't be playing Sunday morning. Kind of liberating,
though; makes the rest of the day much more relaxing.

We have some chances in the middle where, not for the last time, we surprise
Dave and Ewan with the shooting power of skirmishing heavy chariots, even when
disordered. We needed a little help from the dice to nail that elephant unit,
though, and Alex had sucked up all our dice luck passing wavers with uneasy Ds.
Dave did an excellent job of circulating his skirmisher line on my left, meaning
that essentially nothing happened there. I make a couple of desparate moves
towards the end, including an ill-advised chariot charge into an LTS unit, in
an attempt to shake or break something, but 'tis for naught. We go down 5-0.

Game 2 we go up against Scots Common Army. Again, not our favorite opponent. 32
figure blocks of Scots spear are not going to be particularly vulnerable to
either missile fire or chariot assaults. They make a big terrain placement
mistake -- though a common one -- putting us on the path to a possible 1-1
game.

They put down a bunch of brush on our side. This is obviously for their Irr LMI
foot to attack through. The problem is two-fold however. It slows their LMI
down to close order foot speed, meaning they won't get into the fight quick
enough. It also means that, with our archers awaiting on the far side of the
brush, they are going to have to get to close shooting range before they can
charge the archers. I leave Alex in charge of that wing, and concentrate on
what I'm going to do against MI LTS out in the open. There's only one way to
go: use the barbarian ally in tandem with a chariot unit to impetously charge
the end unit of the Scots line, attempting to break that unit and start rolling
up the flank.

This almost works. We charge and disorder the Scots, very nearly routing them at
contact with a big up roll. We beat them again on the second bound, and they
fail a waver test, recoiling shaken. The next key bound, though, they roll up
4. So instead of likely routing, they hold steady and my Barbarian ally hits
exhaustion. We do some damage on that flank, but actually lose.

Alex, meanwhile, has handled his flank nicely. One Scots LMI unit does finally
get into an LMI archer unit and rout it, but it is immediately met by chariots,
ultimately leading to a series of routing Scots units and a Scottish command
going into retirement. It's a up and down game. Going into the last bound I
think we're likely to win 4-1. After resolving my combats, however, it looks
like we will lose 4-1. Alex salvages the game for us, and we end up with a 3-2
loss.

Game 3 we fight the other Sassanid army. They do not buy the army as smartly as
Ewan and Dave (not enough LI), and they do not set up as smartly. Their SHC are
concentrated in the middle with their elephants on the wings of the SHC. This
means we have better changes of getting our archers to the elephants than if
the SHC were on the outside. We set up to hold on our right and push on our
left, at which point Alex pipes up and announces that he'd like to command the
attack wing. It's game three. I'm tired and mentally fatigued; I know he must
be wiped out too. But if he wants that command, it's all his.

And he handles it beautifully. After the Sassanid skirmishers are shot away on
our left, they bring up a unit of HC L,B to charge a shieldless MI B unit. Alex
sees this coming about 2 bounds ahead of time and starts pushing a small 8
figure unit of LTS up along the outside flank of the MI B unit. The HC charge,
and on even rolls we should plaster them with shooting sufficiently to avoid
taking a CPF. Alex rolls down on shooting, however. The MI B are recoiled
disordered, but the HC are now at 10 CPF. Next bound the LTS unit charges into
the flank, while our big LTS unit and our light chariots charge a bit Sassanid
LTS unit to keep it from intervening. Alex doesn't rout the HC, but he does
beat them and exhaust them. Waver tests ensue, and they don't pass them all.

In the middle, our opponents make a subtle mistake. Initially, the elephants and
SHC are advancing together. The two outside el units get shot up, however, and
have to halt. The bound this happens, I can see that in about two more bounds
the SHC are going to be too far ahead of the elephants for the elephants to
exert a disordering effect on my chariots. I can also see that by contracting
one unit of MI B and advancing another, I can create a gap big enough to, well,
drive a chariot through. Sure enough, the temptation of charging shieldess MI is
too much for the SHC and they come pressing forward, even on the critical bound
when I have the initiative and get to move second. I get the first of my
approaching chariot units (2 more will follow next bound) into charge range of
his lead SHC, and though he declares a charge on my MI, my chariots are able to
enter the path of his charge and peel him off to fight chariots instead.

This doesn't start out as a really great matchup for the SHC, and when he rolls
down and I roll up he routs. Several units -- they're all bunched together in
the middle -- fail waver tests, and their center collapses. Alex and I wrap up
with a 5-1 victory.

A few comments on sportsmanship: this was a wonderful event in that regard. Dave
Markowitz is always a gentleman to play against. It was my first game against
Ewan, and though I can see that he is a serious competitor, he played the game
with good humor in the face of Alex's die rolls, and made a point of making
Alex feel comfortable and welcome. Our second game was against my previous
partner Bill Chamis, one of the nicest guys around, and Jamie Gentry, who I've
not played before but was a real good sport. Craig Scott brought a first time
player as his partner, and they were our third round game. Craig's always been
one of the friendliest opponents, and it's good to see him bringing in someone
new. And to whoever nominated Alex for the Sportsman award, thanks; that's a
small gesture that means a lot.

Summing up: I'm really impressed with the chariots. We had one rout against Dave
and Ewan, but lost none the rest of the weekend. As a guy who plays kngiht
armies a lot, i really liked having 2 stand units that count as 10 figures
rather than 6, and the chariot LTS does a lot to minimize the worst case
scenario.

As for the bow units: I don't like the way they played out, but not for the
obvious reasons. After the first game, we only had one of them rout. And in
that size they aren't particularly vulnerable to shooting. We took two waver
tests as a result of shooting the whole weekend. But without shields, there are
_many_ situations where the bowmen are vulnerable enough that you have to hold
back. And that creates problems. A good counter-punching army -- and that's
what the Shang are trying to be -- can hang back to a point, but needs the
ability to go over to a more aggressive move forward once your opponent has
committed himself. And without shields, the MI B units just can't do that where
it matters most.

So _that's_ the problem: the inability to push the line when you need to in
order to create opportunities for your supporting/shock troops behind the line.

I'm happy to have the archer figures. They'll show up in some other Oriental
Warrior armies from later (shielded) periods as a build out my collection. And
I'm happy to have the chariots; this is the best chariot army. But in the
future I'll have to make a choice: I can have a big archer army, or I can have
a chariot army, but not both.


-Mark Stone

[Ewan McNay]

As ever, Mark's a better writer than I.

Mark Stone wrote:
> But I would and will do it all over again. Had an absolute blast this weekend,
> as did my (very tired) son Alex.

I'm very glad.

> Alex, by the way, is 11, and has previously played about eight non-tournament
> games of Warrior that are a mix of historicals and Fantasy Warrior, and three
> tournament games running Shang at 1600 points.
>
> Game 1: I'm pleased that there are 14 teams since (a) that's a great turnout,
> and (b) chances are good I can ease Alex into his first national tournament
game
> with something less than a full throttle experience, given that it's 9:00 AM
> which is 6:00 AM in California. No such luck. We draw Dave and Ewan, playing
> Sassanid Persians.

Yeah. Without being immodest, Dave and I probably have more Lancaster
tournament wins than any other team there (and some of Dave's are NICT
wins). I was worried, a little, for Alex. I'm not the person that I
would want to face in that scenario - as I think I commented in the
PointCon report, Dave'll take you apart more effectively, but he does it
so silently and subtly that it's over before you notice. So I was really
glad to see Mark's comment that Alex felt welcomed. [Those of you less
concerned with my thin skin might just note that I can be evil and
aggressive.]

> We're wrapping up movement on bound 2 and I realize that Alex has left a
> shieldless LMI B unit in approach+charge range of one of Ewan's SHC. Measuring
> that app+ch distance for enemy shock cav is second nature for experienced
> players, but Alex doesn't yet think to that level of the game. With some mixed
> feelings, I suggest to Alex that he might want to ask Ewan for permission to
> retroactively put the unit in skirmish. This is one of those awful parenting
> moments when the desire to prevent something unfortunate from happening to
your
> kid wars with the realization that some lessons can only be learned the hard
> way. I don't know if Ewan will or even should allow Alex to change his move.
> Alex, however, just says no. He's going to leave the move as is, and play
> through it. OK; one of those bittersweet moments when you feel proud and said
> at the same time. Ewan charges the LMI, routs them, and Alex begins a long
> morning of rolling 5s and 6s on waver tests.

If he were my son, I'd have been really proud; I was pretty damn impressed
(with the demeanour and decision, not the dice-rolling). Honestly, I
think Mark, Dave and I all knew right then that the game was over. As
Mark asked Alex whether he wanted to ask me, I had to work out what the
heck I was going to answer if he did. Urgh.

Of course, I might have just been so scary that he though he couldn't ask.
And if that's the case - well, I hope not.

> Ewan took this flurry of passed waver tests with good humor, and in truth it
> really just delayed the inevitable. Instead of Alex's flank collapsing on
Bound
> 3 it was more like Bound 5 or 6. It's a strange feeling to know at 10:00 AM on
> Saturday morning that you won't be playing Sunday morning. Kind of liberating,
> though; makes the rest of the day much more relaxing.

Taking something with good humour is easy when it's irrelevant, so that
was not much of a challenge. I did try to talk through the stuff with
Alex, and really hope that I managed to do so without being seen as
condescending. As I said to him, the biggest problem was not the LMI B
unit, really (although that was bad, he passed *all* of those wavers, and
my SHC sub would have been out there by himself with HCh on his flank and
no way to protect him); it was the fact that the barbarian ally was too
close and got swept away in the rout, and that was just too many wavers.

I can't stress too much how impressed I was with Alex' reaction to the
impending doom. No whine, no fuss, no complaint.

Of course, I felt about one foot tall, having my first game be against
this new player whose team partner I've been lauding on list for a while
and have just met, and having this happen. Ah well. Would have been much
nicer if the oversight had come in our second game .

> Game 3 we fight the other Sassanid army. They do not buy the army as smartly
as
> Ewan and Dave (not enough LI), and they do not set up as smartly. Their SHC
are
> concentrated in the middle with their elephants on the wings of the SHC. This
> means we have better changes of getting our archers to the elephants than if
> the SHC were on the outside. We set up to hold on our right and push on our
> left, at which point Alex pipes up and announces that he'd like to command the
> attack wing. It's game three. I'm tired and mentally fatigued; I know he must
> be wiped out too. But if he wants that command, it's all his.

...and I'm further impressed that he had the internal confidence to take
that on after the long day. Pretty cool.

Aidan - my son - is only 2. So he doesn't get to play with lead figures
yet . I hope he'll get to handle himself as well, being thrown into a
National championship environment, as Alex did.
Ewan

[Derek Downs]

That's it. I am coming to Cold Wars next year with a team. I know everyone is
scared now.

Derek :)


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