Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

> Is this actually of any interest to people who can't see the
actual battle going on? I could do something similar for the theme,
but not if no-one is going to read it!

Quite interesting, yes, and greatly aided by the terrain maps.
Thanks,

Mike

[Ewan McNay]

OK, before this entirely vanishes from my memory - not that that would be
a bad thing...

Todd K was planning to take photos of each of my battles, in anticipation
of my usual verbosity - er, I mean elegant prose - as an aid for the
reader. But the battery on his camera failed . Next time. Thanks for
the thought, Todd!

I took Sassanids again. And, despite the result, I expect that I might
take them next year also - it's my only army, they're still bringing joy
at their appearance, and I think that in fact they're still a top-rank
army. On the other hand, morphing into e.g. Timurid also has some appeal.
Slightly more LI, slightly fewer - but more elephant-proofed - LC than
last year, but basically the same: 2 units of 3 IrrB elephants, 3 units of
SHC/EHC subgenerals, and assorted support troops.

What I forgot to take into my calculations - OK, didn't actually do any
calculations - was the pike theme meaning that there would be a lot of
pike armies to face. And Sassanids have nothing to beat competent pike.
Worse was the new Hypaspist list ruleset, which meant that there were
fewer peltasts (which the SHC *can* beat). That's the whine for the year.

Game 1: Dan Woyke, Alex Imperial (take 1). Dan threw woods to try to cut
down the terrain, while I opened it up with road/opens and (importantly)
outscouted him. I got reasonably good terrain luck, so we basically
fought across an open plain. As became standard for me fighting Alex Imp,
I deployed with a lot of LC in the centre and strike troops toward the
wings, planning to skirmish away the pikes and kill the rest. Basically,
this worked, and by the time Dan's pikes saw a possibility of action, they
were taking too many wavers. He had a pretty heavy force, relatively few
light troops, so my LI could hang around with essential impunity. I admit
that I don't recall this battle in detail, but it was 5-1 to me losing a
shaken LI unit.

Game 2: the group with 5 from the first round included two more Alex Imps
(Frank Gilson & Dave Markowitz), Derek Down w/ 10 Independent States, and
I think Mike Mallamachi with Nikephorians. And Tim Grimmett, running
Gauls and feeling like a real man. When I saw the draw had matched me
with Tim I honestly felt pretty lucky - too bad I would face the two other
Alex Imps in the next two games! Tim was - again - outscouted, and got
almost none of his brush, leaving him in a quandary, especially about the
SHC (although they could not be everywhere). I beat up a couple of LI
units, the result of which seemed to be acceptable to both sides: Tim got
off two impetuous warband charges into my elephant units, at the cost of
having to charge through his own LI (hence becoming disordered). When
neither rolled up, and a unit of LCh in the middle of his army got caught
and routed by some of my LC with a couple of warbands (he took them as
mixed A/C class) shaking, the battle was essentially over, 5-1 again I think.

So, at the end of Thursday, Frank (who had beaten Dave M 5-3 on
essentially dice rolling) and I were the only two on 10. Good. Bad news
is/was that I would carry over *none* of the score for winning those
5-point wins, just the raw score. This is probably unavoidable, as some
of the field were not around on the Sat hence not accumulating points, but
it was a downside to getting the big scores early that became obvious at
the end.

Games 3 and 4 can honestly be combined into one match report. Both
against Alex Imperial - first Frank, then Dave. Both on severely
constricted terrain but with an open-ground centre. Frank had a lot more
LC - almost as much as me - and sent a unit of 1.5 rank JLS, B, Sh against
my big LI B unit, but I was able to get the LI charging impetuously and
then elephants in to support, so nothing happened there (aided by a down
roll from Frank on contact). Otherwise I again killed off some light
units, and my SHC started pushing back his LHI hypaspists who were kind
enough to fail their waver, but the game had gone very slowly and nothing
else happened: 2-1 to me, bringing everyone else in the pack right into
the tournament again. Some chances didn't come through: a 2E unit of
Frank's LC passed five counters on my far right (beside the mwf Frank had
placed) to get out of range of my 4E HC L, B unit and suppporting LI, and
my elephants were pushing back the experimental phalanx but they too
passed their one waver and then I rolled down to lock rather than continue
the pushback as time ran out. That brought me - oh, joy! - Dave M for my
third Alex Imp, on top table still. [I would have done much better to
lose to Frank. Oh well!] Essentially, battle repeated as far as terrain
(steep hills replacing marshes) and initial setup, although Dave had many
2E LI JLS, Sh units and very little LC. He won the initial LI skirmish
decisively on dice-rolling, winning (and then catching) two of the LI
battles while I won the third only to roll short in pursuit! My 2E LC
units did dispose of the last two 2E LI units, though, and I recovered one
of my losses (as did he) eventually. Otherwise, he withdrew his right
flank (leaving behind a unit of peltasts, which died rapidly, and a 2E LC
unit which repeated the trick of passing 5 counters to repeatedly evade my
chasing LC; they ended the game on table edge, but still out of range...
just. And my HC L, B were again unlucky: they got to combine with a big
LC unit to shoot at close range at the one big enemy LC unit not in
skirmish, on my right, but rolled -3 and didn't even disorder it, nor
catch it in the charge from 40p. Whine . Another slowish game in terms
of getting to contact, as I could not take on the massed pike line and
Dave couldn't force terms. So, we get to what we think is the
penultimate, but turns out to be last, bound - miscalculation on my part -
and a SHC sub charges hypaspists; on his immediate left I just shot Dave's
elephants disordered and halted to receive my elephants, and I have more
SHC and EL to follow up to his right. And... I roll -4, and die in a
catastrophe, which shakes the surrounding troops and gives Dave 402-198,
which is a 5-1 win! What's more, (i) Dave had predicted this *exact*
event two hours earlier, and (ii) before I charged I noted that I was
winning (2- or 3-1) and reluctant in some ways to go in, even though a -4
was the only way I could lose, really. All very scary, and pretty damn
disappointing. On the other hand, it was unlikely that I would win the
tournament after getting two top-rank pike opponents, and at least this
way Dave had a chance - which of course he duly took. And if I had rolled
+4, well, I'd be a hero. Sigh. Another year, another failure to win the
NICT!

The last game, against Charles Yaw's Sassanids, was in some ways an
anticlimax, then, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Charles had less SHC,
but some EHC instead and a lot more close foot than me, plus different
ways of running his LI and El. I was much more aggressive in force
marching, though, and Charles' deployment was handicapped by a steep hill
I placed in his rear zone which split his army, the combination of which
allowed me to pick the matchups: my MI LTS, JLS, Sh/B into his El, my SHC
into his EHC and HC, my El into his SHC, my El and LC with LI support
against his LC. All of which went as one would expect, really. And just
as well that I got a convincing 5-1 win: despite having the same raw score
of 13 entering the game, that was only just enough to lift me above
Charles in the end score because of my pitiful 'carryover' points from
scoring 1 and 2 so far on Sat!

Honestly, I didn't take away any real lessons, which I expect is a huge
failing on my part but still true. I got good, well-planned wins against
three opponents, and except for a catastrophe would have been the clear
but not decisive winner against two top-ranked players with my nemesis
army. Maybe next time. Thanks to all for the great enjoyment - although
maybe Dave can save his good dice for when we're playing Doubles? - and
to Scott as ever. Also, to Michael for his painting, again - I now have a
command elephant, if not quite yet the CinC! - and to Craig Scott for the
loan of a CinC and Persian advice.

[Todd Kaeser]

All,

Pictures (before the battery ran out) will be up on the yahoo groups site. I
got the 1st two battle of Ewan and a few others in the prelimanary rounds.

Todd K

Ewan McNay <ewan.mcnay@...> wrote:
OK, before this entirely vanishes from my memory - not that that would be
a bad thing...

Todd K was planning to take photos of each of my battles, in anticipation
of my usual verbosity - er, I mean elegant prose - as an aid for the
reader. But the battery on his camera failed . Next time. Thanks for
the thought, Todd!

I took Sassanids again. And, despite the result, I expect that I might
take them next year also - it's my only army, they're still bringing joy
at their appearance, and I think that in fact they're still a top-rank
army. On the other hand, morphing into e.g. Timurid also has some appeal.
Slightly more LI, slightly fewer - but more elephant-proofed - LC than
last year, but basically the same: 2 units of 3 IrrB elephants, 3 units of
SHC/EHC subgenerals, and assorted support troops.

What I forgot to take into my calculations - OK, didn't actually do any
calculations - was the pike theme meaning that there would be a lot of
pike armies to face. And Sassanids have nothing to beat competent pike.
Worse was the new Hypaspist list ruleset, which meant that there were
fewer peltasts (which the SHC *can* beat). That's the whine for the year.

Game 1: Dan Woyke, Alex Imperial (take 1). Dan threw woods to try to cut
down the terrain, while I opened it up with road/opens and (importantly)
outscouted him. I got reasonably good terrain luck, so we basically
fought across an open plain. As became standard for me fighting Alex Imp,
I deployed with a lot of LC in the centre and strike troops toward the
wings, planning to skirmish away the pikes and kill the rest. Basically,
this worked, and by the time Dan's pikes saw a possibility of action, they
were taking too many wavers. He had a pretty heavy force, relatively few
light troops, so my LI could hang around with essential impunity. I admit
that I don't recall this battle in detail, but it was 5-1 to me losing a
shaken LI unit.

Game 2: the group with 5 from the first round included two more Alex Imps
(Frank Gilson & Dave Markowitz), Derek Down w/ 10 Independent States, and
I think Mike Mallamachi with Nikephorians. And Tim Grimmett, running
Gauls and feeling like a real man. When I saw the draw had matched me
with Tim I honestly felt pretty lucky - too bad I would face the two other
Alex Imps in the next two games! Tim was - again - outscouted, and got
almost none of his brush, leaving him in a quandary, especially about the
SHC (although they could not be everywhere). I beat up a couple of LI
units, the result of which seemed to be acceptable to both sides: Tim got
off two impetuous warband charges into my elephant units, at the cost of
having to charge through his own LI (hence becoming disordered). When
neither rolled up, and a unit of LCh in the middle of his army got caught
and routed by some of my LC with a couple of warbands (he took them as
mixed A/C class) shaking, the battle was essentially over, 5-1 again I think.

So, at the end of Thursday, Frank (who had beaten Dave M 5-3 on
essentially dice rolling) and I were the only two on 10. Good. Bad news
is/was that I would carry over *none* of the score for winning those
5-point wins, just the raw score. This is probably unavoidable, as some
of the field were not around on the Sat hence not accumulating points, but
it was a downside to getting the big scores early that became obvious at
the end.

Games 3 and 4 can honestly be combined into one match report. Both
against Alex Imperial - first Frank, then Dave. Both on severely
constricted terrain but with an open-ground centre. Frank had a lot more
LC - almost as much as me - and sent a unit of 1.5 rank JLS, B, Sh against
my big LI B unit, but I was able to get the LI charging impetuously and
then elephants in to support, so nothing happened there (aided by a down
roll from Frank on contact). Otherwise I again killed off some light
units, and my SHC started pushing back his LHI hypaspists who were kind
enough to fail their waver, but the game had gone very slowly and nothing
else happened: 2-1 to me, bringing everyone else in the pack right into
the tournament again. Some chances didn't come through: a 2E unit of
Frank's LC passed five counters on my far right (beside the mwf Frank had
placed) to get out of range of my 4E HC L, B unit and suppporting LI, and
my elephants were pushing back the experimental phalanx but they too
passed their one waver and then I rolled down to lock rather than continue
the pushback as time ran out. That brought me - oh, joy! - Dave M for my
third Alex Imp, on top table still. [I would have done much better to
lose to Frank. Oh well!] Essentially, battle repeated as far as terrain
(steep hills replacing marshes) and initial setup, although Dave had many
2E LI JLS, Sh units and very little LC. He won the initial LI skirmish
decisively on dice-rolling, winning (and then catching) two of the LI
battles while I won the third only to roll short in pursuit! My 2E LC
units did dispose of the last two 2E LI units, though, and I recovered one
of my losses (as did he) eventually. Otherwise, he withdrew his right
flank (leaving behind a unit of peltasts, which died rapidly, and a 2E LC
unit which repeated the trick of passing 5 counters to repeatedly evade my
chasing LC; they ended the game on table edge, but still out of range...
just. And my HC L, B were again unlucky: they got to combine with a big
LC unit to shoot at close range at the one big enemy LC unit not in
skirmish, on my right, but rolled -3 and didn't even disorder it, nor
catch it in the charge from 40p. Whine . Another slowish game in terms
of getting to contact, as I could not take on the massed pike line and
Dave couldn't force terms. So, we get to what we think is the
penultimate, but turns out to be last, bound - miscalculation on my part -
and a SHC sub charges hypaspists; on his immediate left I just shot Dave's
elephants disordered and halted to receive my elephants, and I have more
SHC and EL to follow up to his right. And... I roll -4, and die in a
catastrophe, which shakes the surrounding troops and gives Dave 402-198,
which is a 5-1 win! What's more, (i) Dave had predicted this *exact*
event two hours earlier, and (ii) before I charged I noted that I was
winning (2- or 3-1) and reluctant in some ways to go in, even though a -4
was the only way I could lose, really. All very scary, and pretty damn
disappointing. On the other hand, it was unlikely that I would win the
tournament after getting two top-rank pike opponents, and at least this
way Dave had a chance - which of course he duly took. And if I had rolled
+4, well, I'd be a hero. Sigh. Another year, another failure to win the
NICT!

The last game, against Charles Yaw's Sassanids, was in some ways an
anticlimax, then, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Charles had less SHC,
but some EHC instead and a lot more close foot than me, plus different
ways of running his LI and El. I was much more aggressive in force
marching, though, and Charles' deployment was handicapped by a steep hill
I placed in his rear zone which split his army, the combination of which
allowed me to pick the matchups: my MI LTS, JLS, Sh/B into his El, my SHC
into his EHC and HC, my El into his SHC, my El and LC with LI support
against his LC. All of which went as one would expect, really. And just
as well that I got a convincing 5-1 win: despite having the same raw score
of 13 entering the game, that was only just enough to lift me above
Charles in the end score because of my pitiful 'carryover' points from
scoring 1 and 2 so far on Sat!

Honestly, I didn't take away any real lessons, which I expect is a huge
failing on my part but still true. I got good, well-planned wins against
three opponents, and except for a catastrophe would have been the clear
but not decisive winner against two top-ranked players with my nemesis
army. Maybe next time. Thanks to all for the great enjoyment - although
maybe Dave can save his good dice for when we're playing Doubles? - and
to Scott as ever. Also, to Michael for his painting, again - I now have a
command elephant, if not quite yet the CinC! - and to Craig Scott for the
loan of a CinC and Persian advice.




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