Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Rob Turnball]

Hi
Wanted to post a quick summary of my experience at cold wars.
Played Warrior in 25 mm Mini (Carthaginian), 15 mm theme (neo-babylonian),
and 25 mm NICT. Firstly bar one game I had a blast. The one game involved
being called a cheater for getting the umpires opinion on a charge, which
showed that neither of us were correct and we then did the correct thing.
Otherwise got thorouighly shellacked by Eric turner in the mini, even though
the result was only a 2-1. Great example of keeping fighting even when all
appears lost. Then won two games 5-1, against incas, and then 5-1 against
bactrian Greeks, despite failing my personal morakle role when I took the all
spanish list and found he did not have a foot figure on the board. I believe
it came down to him not being able to concentrate his figures., and dealing
with impetous mounted one at a time. Very satisfying win.
Then on to the theme, where I got an opponent first round who had never
played his army before and so ended up thith no support for the dispersed
foot units. Elamite HCh rolled straight over LHI 1/2 jls, D, Sh, 1/2 b, while
the regular chariots routed his chariots who had no general attached (5-1).
Round two met Bill low using sumerian, A long line of Pike accross the board
with irr li, jls, and I believe a HC unit on the right flank, I know I ended
upo routing the LI bound one, with impetuos LC, that did everything they had
to to succeeedd including rolling up in pursuit and +4 on combat, then my
command flamk marching on that flank arrived and it just became a question if
I could rout that flank before my left flank , containing about 450 points vs
1000 was overwhelmed. In the end I got some luvck in the center and lost no
troops on the left for a 4-1.
Finally I fought Jon Cleeves using Midianites. A very tough game in which
there were two key happenings, my left flank march routed his general on a
single stand while two reg D LMI held off three camel units. In the center my
li sling tired a unit up and then a lmi bow unit that got a 1-1 shot at his
tired camels rolled up 3, 11 cpf on a 18 man unit and then routed them the
next turn. No heroics on dice for Jon and away he went.
Nationals saw three very tough games, Derek Downs where my peltasts (uneasy
C's passec 4 wavers when charged by elephants and sent them packing.
Game two was Tod Kaeser with Aztec, where I got a unit disordered with a
scythed chariot, and routed it with a general and some LC, and in the center
caught a unit with peltasts and then finished it off with a pike unit. ANd
from there on the game just went away from Todd.
Last game Chris played well and diced better, and my dice caught up with me,
a 5-1 with o0ne D unit passing 5 wavers for chris, and me failing 5 of 6 with
A, B and C units from a single rout. Chris has no shortage of guts, two
generals charged Peltasts in good order frontally. One he shouild bounce, I
waver and shake and he routs me and the other I pass the waver but his CinC
rolls up 3 instead of routing.
meanwhile he was pasting my elephants and forcing my left flank. Great tough
game.
Great tournament
See you there Next Year
Robert

[joncleaves]

Historicon AAR

My after action reviews on cons always contain game notes and ramblings as well
as notes on the Warrior hobby in general, so this is more than just a ?battle
report? and also somewhat long ? be warned?lol

NICT

Well, the theory is that you learn more from losses than wins, so in that vein I
must make the best of my poor showing by learning a lot.
I played Han Chinese this year and lost 3-5 and 2-5 against two Alex Imperial
armies generaled by perennial top-end players (including a multiple NICT
winner).
First, a history of my association with the Han, which I think, among other
things, illustrates some issues with regards to army selection.
I first made the jump from board games to miniatures in 1985 by learning to play
WRG 6th from my good friend John Garlic. John had a Han Chinese army and things
eastern have always enamored me, so I took an interest in that period of warfare
for the first time and fed off of his enthusiasm for it. I painted the Han in
15mm in the late 80?s and took it into my learning of WRG 7th. As the only guy
playing it in my area and one of the very few at the national level, I became
known as the/a ?Han player?. I struggled with the severe minimums and structure
of the old NASAMW list through the transition to 7th with my new teachers Scott
Holder and Jake Kovel. While I also flirted with some medieval lists, I did try
and make the Han work as best I could, eventually painting and collecting what
would be about 4-5000 points of them in 15mm. In 1993, I moved to California
and left behind a great 7th group to end up with little gaming time and only
DBMers to play with.
I returned to the Han and the 7th game engine in 2000 when I got the opportunity
to be a part of the Warrior project. By this time the majority of players in
what was about to be the Warrior NICT preferred 25mm, so I set about painting a
25mm Han army. I did not agree with the existing Han lists and knew that
eventually what would become the Four Horsemen would publish a list that better
matched my understanding of the period. My thinking was to work on the army
during list development and to practice with it and ?make it my own? at the time
of the release of Oriental Warrior. It also gave me figures with which to
playtest many of the armies from that list book.
I took the Han to the first two Warrior NICTs (using some borrowed figures from
my good friend Tom Keegan until mine were complete). I finished middle of the
pack in both. I took a very hard look at this situation and found that, among
things like having to devote more time to playtesting than practice, I was
completely unsatisfied with the existing list and would take a break until
Oriental Warrior?s publication. For the 2004 season, I played exclusively
Medieval Spanish and had great success, winning three tourneys and taking second
in both the teams (with my good friend Mike Turner) and the 2004 Warrior NICT.
For 2005, now that Oriental was out, I completed my 25mm Han army and played the
Han in most events this past year. Unlike 2004, however, I kept having this
nagging feeling that things were somehow not right. I was not enjoying the
games as much as I had with the medievals and I was often struggling to win in
situations where I was in command before. Dark clouds gathered?.

My games at this year?s NICT were very similar. I played against the same army
in both ? Alex Imperial. I had played the Han against this army several times
during the year and felt I had a good matchup. The first step was to make sure
the center of the table was mostly clear.

Problem #1: The Alex Imperial player wants a clear spot for his pike and the
other half of the table cluttered to avoid the other guy?s shock troops, slow
the game and make use of loose order Hypaspists. I rolled three ?1?s for
terrain in both games. Now, I am not here to blame luck ? luck happens. The
actual problem is that I had no real plan for the other guy getting the terrain
he wanted, which is a situation I should have been ready for and was not.
Fix #1: During this year?s prep for the NICT, I will sometimes permit my
opponent to have all his terrain rolls without me rolling for any. Maybe even
moving to letting him place his four pieces in any legal fashion (one that
?could? have been rolled) just the way he wants them.

Neither player relied on or showed me much in the way of elephants. The Han are
absolute elephant KILLERS, but somewhat more challenged against lots of
competent foot, which is the way both my opponents used the list and I think
rightly so. I worked toward ganging up on an isolated pike block in one game,
but it went to hell mostly because I remembered a rule incorrectly.

Problem #2: Author or no author, I do not have all the rules and list rules
committed to memory. To make matters worse, I have been through seven drafts of
the original book, now three of the revised book and many, many draft iterations
and combinations of list rules. I never answer a rules question without my
rules open precisely because there is just too much old draft stuff rattling
around in my head. Originally, Alex made troops around him eager. To more
properly capture his effect and differentiate him from Hannibal, we made
Hannibal eager-making but at 240p and Alex never-uneasy-making while within 160p
of the enemy. I had the old version in mind when I maneuvered on this pike
block and it hurt me.
Fix #2: I will rescan the rules before every major event. I will see if we
can?t get all the list rules into chapter 18 of the revised rulebook and even if
we can?t, I will make a master file of list rules available free on the web.

The Han list has some tough minima and always has. I think the OW version has
it right, but one major issue of picking a list for this level of competition is
picking one with minima that you can live with. I ?thought? I might be the guy
to make Reg C HC L, CB ?work?. I was wrong ? not sure anyone can make that
troop type ?work? in the context in which it needed to work (as the only HC in a
list with no shock mounted, at least the way I took it). This means that a Han
player has to make 4 elements of Reg C HC work along with the 8 elements of
totally blah foot. I tried a number of combinations and uses and am not happy
with any. Pickup games are one thing, but to win the NICT (as I have already
been 2d, I can only win or do worse?) you need to be getting as much as you can
out of every troop type, and if you find yourself continually bugged by having
to take some of your troops, it will lead to something suboptimal?lol. I made
the 6E of LI CB in the Spanish list work by simply realizing everything beat
them and all they needed to do was grab some ground and then get away from the
enemy ? if they actually shot someone for 1 CPF or more it was a very good day.

Problem #3: Hateful minima.
Fix #3: Don?t take them.

I had a good track record with the Han during the lead up to Hcon 2005. I won
Call to Arms and Summer Camp, took 4th in the teams at Cold Wars and 2d in the
10-player KC Warrior League. But there were hitches that were not there the
year before. Call to Arms was our first local 25mm tourney. Many of the guys
were playing with borrowed armies and/or ones they had just finished and did not
have much experience with. At Summer Camp, I could do no wrong. Every little
thing fell my way and I was totally ?in the zone?. At Cold Wars, we saw some
real flaws in my list design. It was a very experimental list to get to 2000
with artillery and some other things I should not have taken. Last year our
team list was just more of the same, with units having the same roles as at
1600, just more of them. At Cold Wars, we were playing with combinations I had
not played with and did not play after. In the KC Warrior League, I lost the
finals match-up with our newest up-and-coming hotshot Steve Hollowell. His play
has really improved and he did exactly what should be done with a competent foot
army. There were frustrations there that were shades of the NICT battles for
which I did not have a satisfactory answer. I also keep committing time to
other games ? my biggest weakness. Time spent playing in the Blood Bowl league
and doing the Flames of War tourneys at CW/Hcon instead of the mini/theme takes
good practice time away ? especially that at the cons with different/better
opponents.

Problem #4: Quality of practice was lower. Need more games against better
opponents and more time with ?final? list.
Fix #4: Spend more time directly on improving play locally to make for better
opponents to practice against. On the upside, we had five players qualify and
four play from my area. On the downside, we have been stuck on a plateau of
?play-improvement?. Also, use team tourney as practice and not experiment.
Look at dropping other games in certain ways and venues to make more Warrior
practice time as Hcon nears.

I don?t want to get into another discussion of ?playing style? here. But I can
tell you that I was just not comfortable playing the Han. As beloved as they
are, I need to move on for a while and maybe come back to them in the future. I
was so in tune with the Spanish and knew so clearly how all the pieces fit and
what the plan was for winning each game against each type opponent that I had
this tingling spider sense all year as it became more and more evident that I
did not have the same comfort level with the Han. I am NOT saying it is not
achievable, just that I did not execute my work on the army list as early and as
thoroughly as I had the year before. I can see what changes I need to look into
making, but that would require more work with the army and more painting and,
for me anyway, an army build/prep needs to start BEFORE the year starts due to
my painting speed and the schedule of events. I do believe the list is a good
one and there is a combination out there that would work for me ? just not ready
to go back to the drawing board with it yet. If I am going to play army X at
Hcon 200Y, then X needs to be chosen and planned in 200Y-1. The Han will have
to wait to jump back into the ?cycle? at some later date.

Problem #5: Comfort level with the army.
Fix #5: Multi-year plan to pick armies and work with them in advance of each
tourney ?season?.

The bottom line: I want it, and for me at least with all the other things going
on, I need to be as focused as possible. Some guys might be able to walk in
having only played a couple games and have a shot at the top, but I am not one
of them.

Warrior at Historicon 05.

Awesome. We had the top number of players again among Warrior, DBM, WAB and
Armati (DBA had us, but not really in the same category and we have a plan for
that as well, anyway?) There was improvement in terrain and army quality. I
thought there were less rules issues and more camaraderie than ever before. I
saw no WRG rules books and only one WRG chart (he knows who he is, but since he
won a tourney I am cutting him slack?lol). I am pretty sure I got around to say
at least hello to everyone from WarriorRules whom I had not yet met in person.

On the improvement side, we only barely beat out or matched the top two other
rules systems and, while we had newer players there, we did not have them in the
kind of numbers I would like to see. Not that I mind the old crew being there
every year, but the future of Warrior ain?t us ? it?s the gaming generation
behind us. I am always ready for ideas on how we can support recruiting. I
swear I am going to get this revised rulebook done so we can move on to Warrior
Battles and have a better recruiting vehicle. I think we?ve plateaued a little
in this area and we all need to just keep at it.
Don?t forget to keep sharing those ideas on how to make terrain that looks nice
and is transportable.
Folks who don?t already have one in their area might want to take a look at the
Fifth Horseman program file in the files section. I?d like to get to where we
can give the Fifth Horsemen a Warrior banner, but the things are pricey and we
have a rulebook to print.

We have yet to have a big Warrior scenario game since I ran one at Cold Wars a
couple years ago. The other rules sets are on this and I think we should do
more. On the other hand, I am one of the reasons it does not get done as I am
no more willing to give up tournament play to run it than most or all of those
who go. FHE will do everything we can to support someone who offers to run a
scenario event at a big con ? give it some thought. There?s that original
Platea idea and I have also heard of an effort to do Magnesia in as many rules
sets as possible.

For those of you who are active HMGS members, don?t pass up an opportunity to
point out to the BOD and other officials that the Lampeter Room is where we need
to stay. I know there are one or more officers that hate tourneys and want to
stick the 200 of us (from all sets) in some closet. Screw them ? we play our
way and we have ?earned? that choice spot through our draw to the con.


Historicon 2006

The KC area boys have vowed to get 10 people to the con. We challenge any group
from a single city to get more Warrior players there than we do. Losers of any
accepted challenge buy the beer for the winners. Of course, to collect you have
to participate in the nightly card game?.

See ya next year!
Jon






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

Hey Jon,

The Anglo-Danish are my passion and favourites. Try using them for 5
years....it brings new meaning to the word pain.


Cheers............Geoff

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, JonCleaves@a... wrote:
As the only guy playing it in my area and one of the very few at the
national level, I became known as the/a ?Han player?. I struggled
with the severe minimums and structure of the old NASAMW list through
the transition to 7th with my new teachers Scott Holder and Jake
Kovel. While I also flirted with some medieval lists, I did try and
make the Han work as best I could, eventually painting and collecting
what would be about 4-5000 points of them in 15mm. In 1993, I moved
to California and left behind a great 7th group to end up with little
gaming time and only DBMers to play with.
> I returned to the Han and the 7th game engine in 2000 when I got
the opportunity to be a part of the Warrior project. By this time
the majority of players in what was about to be the Warrior NICT
preferred 25mm, so I set about painting a 25mm Han army. I did not
agree with the existing Han lists and knew that eventually what would
become the Four Horsemen would publish a list that better matched my
understanding of the period. My thinking was to work on the army
during list development and to practice with it and ?make it my own?
at the time of the release of Oriental Warrior. It also gave me
figures with which to playtest many of the armies from that list book.