Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Dave Lauerman]

Hello, fellow Warriors !
Scott was foolish enough to ask me to post comments on how the
Kubla Con FW tournament went on 5/25, so here goes. We had hoped for
a big turnout, and got 6 players . The format was 25mm Fast Warrior,
preset terrain (because this was intended to be an eye-catcher to
draw new blood & we wanted to make certain the tables looked good), 3
rounds , 2 hours each (because lots of us haven't played the system
much in recent years ).
I brought my brand-new, just-painted Old Glory Parthians. I was a
bit leery of using these guys in FW, but I figured it would be a good
test of the viability of mounted armies in FW. The other 5 armies
were; Paul Geffen with Swiss, Ed Forbes with Early Imperial Romans,
Dale Shanek with Later Carthaginians, Lenny Hermann with Champa (of
the 6 scary pachyderms, more anon) and Rich Gagliasso with yet
another Swiss army. As expected, I could count on outscouting all
comers, which meant I could pick my table edge.
My first opponent was Paul Geffen, with his gorgeously-painted
Swiss pikemen. The terrain was fairly open, with a hill on the right,
some woods in my rear, and some brush on Paul's far right. Paul
deploed his pikes in 3 ranks, with the halberiers in the third rank.
these 3 groups of trained killers dominated his center.He placed his
handgunners on his left on the hill, and covered his right with LI CB
in the brush. Altogether, a daunting prospect indeed. I decided to
send the horse archers forward, concentrate archery on the rightmost
pike unit, and hope for an opening.
I got an opening. Paul got so ezcited over shooting the everlasting
aspirations out of my right-wing horse archers that he allowed a 200
pace gap to open between his handgunners and his pikes. I sent a unit
of cataphracts into the gap, charged impetuously into his unprotected
flank, and basically began rolling up the line. result; 8-1 Parthian
victory.
Next up was Lenny's Champa elephant herd. This was on the best
Parthian terrain in the whole event-each of us had brush on our
respective right flank, and that was all there was. Lenny deployed
with hie 6 elephants in the center, LI refusing his right, and LHI
and more LI poised to leap into the safety of the brush just ahead of
his left flank. I felt his LMI should have been interspersed among
his elephants, and I resolved to take advantage of this flaw in his
setup. I sent forward 2 units of LC into the brush, and pre-empted
his bound 2 approaches to keep his foot out of the brush. The
cataphracts then arrived, rode down the LI and LHI, leaving the weary
horse archers free to loot the baggage camp. Meanwhile, my remaining
3 LC units spent the day evading elephant charges and getting shot up
by LI. One of them finally shook, but by then it was over. 7-1
Parthian victory.
Last game was against Dale Shanek's Carthaginians. This was easily
the best-looking army in the event ; all Foundry figs, with Dale's
usual slick paint-job on them. This was a close, tense affair in
which Dale's javelin-armed LC nailed ond of my horse-archer units ,
the catapracts rode down the Spanish LMI, and all looked even until
my SHC general (Ardashir I) rode down Hannibal by the devious
expedient of rolling up 3 on the last bound of the game. This was too
much for the Cathaginian army, which blew all it's wavers; 8-1
Parthians. Reverse the dice and we have a bloody draw.
Contrary to my fears, a FW table leaves plenty of room to freeze
your opponent in place with LC and pick your spots with your
cataphracts. The LC will eventually run out of room, so timing
becomes crucial, but maneuvering space was not a problem. In a non-
preset terrain setting, it gets even better, since one can always
roll for string, and bad luck on the part of the other guy can give
you as little as 1 terrain piece on the whole table !
I simply adore FW.Another event is planned for 6/15 and we hope to
get twice as many players, judging from the favorable comments we got
from folks who saw us at the con. Thanks, Hos ! (what is the plural
of Ho? )-dave lauerman

[scott holder]

You realize this qualifies you for the NICT, assuming you're a NASAMW
member or join. Just a thought, didn't know if you were desiring to fly
back to Hcon or not.

Thanks a) for the blow by blow, it really helps, and b) the kind words
about the FW concept.

The 2 hour games makes loads of sense when trying to reacquaint onesself
with the basic system. What I like (suprise suprise) is that even
though the system is somewhat complex, the total lack of units on the
table take soooooo much of the "movement complexity" out of the mental
planning arena. It's no suprise that consistently good players are able
to plot out things 2-3 turns in advance which is much harder at
1200-1600 points than it is at FW. That isn't to say that there isn't a
"planning nuance" in FW, there is, but it's simply a bit easier to
master. Or perhaps less frustrating to learn, I dunno.

It also good to see something like Parthians, not exactly a historically
(tournament speaking) power army, compete in this format. For that
matter, it's good to see the Swiss in all their glory.

This is the second time in three months that a Carthaginian army has
done well, Rob Turnball won at Cold Wars (mini) beating Sean Scott's
Swiss in 25mm. It was *very* good to see those armies being run.

Keep the reports coming Dave. Thanks a bundle.

Scott
List Ho

[Dave Lauerman]

--- In WarriorRules@y..., "Holder, Scott <FHWA>" <Scott.Holder@f...>
wrote:
> You realize this qualifies you for the NICT, assuming you're a
NASAMW
> member or join.
NICT for winning? Wow ! Too bad my sister decided to get married in
the wrong month- I can't afford a second trip East this year. Maybe I
can get her to put the wedding of'till July...or maybe not. At any
rate, this gives me incentive to re-join NASAMW, which I have been
meaning to do for ahile anyway.

> Keep the reports coming Dave. Thanks a bundle.
>
> Scott
> List Ho
No prob. As I mentioned, we are holding another 25mm FW event on 6/15
at the Game Habitat in Monterey. I'm trying to talk Rich Gagliasso,
the organizer, into 4x 2hr rounds, but it looks like he will resist
and run 3 instead. Win or lose, I'll post battle reports on my games.
I suspect that by then folks'll have figured out all my evil Parthian
trickery, but then again my next project is 25mm Polybian Romans for
FW- maybe they'll be ready !- dave lauerman

[Mark Stone]

--- On April 21 Terry Dix said: ---

> Greetings Mark,
> If you need some practice bring it to KublaCon I have armies in both scales(
> though I need to paint some cav in 25s) I don't think I will be going to
> Historicon, unless we get a qualifier and its me :D

Terry,

We're running the tourney (if we have enough people) in 15mm, and I only have my
Historicon army in 25mm. So bring along your 25s as well, and we can get a
pickup game in. I'm sure, in either scale, we'll get you enough gaming to make
the trip worth your while.


-Mark

Greetings Mark,
I will have the better half with me and a couple of days in the bay area will
make the trip worthwhile. I just wanted to know so I know how to allocate my
painting time, and figure making.

> Terry,
>
> We're running the tourney (if we have enough people) in 15mm, and I only have
my
> Historicon army in 25mm. So bring along your 25s as well, and we can get a
> pickup game in. I'm sure, in either scale, we'll get you enough gaming to make
> the trip worth your while.
>
>
> -Mark

[Ed Forbes]

I will bring my 25's also, so you will get a little variety.

Ed
-- "Terry Dix" <notalent@...> wrote:


Greetings Mark,
I will have the better half with me and a couple of days in the bay area will
make the trip worthwhile. I just wanted to know so I know how to allocate my
painting time, and figure making.

> Terry,
>
> We're running the tourney (if we have enough people) in 15mm, and I only have
my
> Historicon army in 25mm. So bring along your 25s as well, and we can get a
> pickup game in. I'm sure, in either scale, we'll get you enough gaming to make
> the trip worth your while.
>
>
> -Mark






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I had a very good time at the warrior tournament. thank you Mark for a
very well run tournament very relaxed style I am looking forward to
playing more games and would like to host a tournament in the
fall.25mm is my preferred scale but would like to run a scale that
will bring the most players.
Dale

[Mark Stone]

--- On May 31 Dale Shanek said: ---

> I had a very good time at the warrior tournament. thank you Mark for a
> very well run tournament very relaxed style I am looking forward to
> playing more games and would like to host a tournament in the
> fall.25mm is my preferred scale but would like to run a scale that
> will bring the most players.
> Dale

Dale,

Glad you enjoyed it. I think we've been pretty successful the last couple of
years at maintaining a relaxed atmosphere at tournaments.

It would be great if you organized something in the Fall, and I think 25mm is
the preferred scale of just about everyone in Northern California.


-Mark Stone