Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

This weekend in Toronto, we held our third annual warrior tournament at
the Pandamonium Convention. We had six players in 25mm with $250.00 in
prizes, including 45 pounds sterling from Perry Brothers Miniatures
(many thanks for that!). We used a different tournament scoring system
to the standard, which emphasized breaking commands vice killing units,
and we aded points values for sportsmanship, quality terrain, and
quality painting, as well as historical research. The event was
friendly and somewhat laid back, with three rounds played over 48 hours
and a set of finals because the top two scorers were within a single
point of each other.

Armies played:
Han Chinese (Al Lougheed)
Macedonian Successors (Mike Bard)
Wallachians (Cole Cioran)
LIRs (Dean)
Macedonians (Noel White)
Sultinate of Delhi (Greg Houser)

Several games were so good and so well played that I cursed having to be
the referee instead of being "stuck in." Visually, the best game was
played between the Han Chinese and Macedonians, with two well painted
armies on the best terrain I've seen in a Warrior game. Most games were
close (with 2-2 and 3-2 the most common scores.) The finals, between
Mike's Macedonians and Greg's Sultinate, was also very attractive, as
well as hard fought. Greg's Sultinate of Delhi won handily.

We had one recurring rules issue that I'll post seperately. We used
some alternate terrain rules but none of the players made use of them,
which suited me fine... although weather and time of day and varying
scenario rules were all in effect, none of them played any role in the
battles.

The scoring system did have three effects--it rewarded decisive play (as
I expected) and quality of presentation (as I expected) but did have the
result of allowing a player who had lost a game to recover and go to the
finals with a major victory against another opponent.

Noel White had the best combined Army and Terrain Quality. Mike Bard
placed 2nd and also got sportsmanship for going to the trouble of
finding a rule to make sure his opponent won the game.

I look forward to next year--we'll have even better prize support, and
would be great to get some guys from the US.

Yours,
Chris Cameron


>
>

[Ewan McNay]

Christian and Sarah wrote:

> This weekend in Toronto, we held our third annual warrior tournament at
> the Pandamonium Convention. We had six players in 25mm with $250.00 in
> prizes, including 45 pounds sterling from Perry Brothers Miniatures
> (many thanks for that!). We used a different tournament scoring system
> to the standard, which emphasized breaking commands vice killing units,
> and we aded points values for sportsmanship, quality terrain, and
> quality painting, as well as historical research. The event was
> friendly and somewhat laid back, with three rounds played over 48 hours
> and a set of finals because the top two scorers were within a single
> point of each other.

I confess - this would drive me nuts . 48 hours - well, that's enough
time for 12 games...

I had a great time at the tourney, though I've promised myself that
next time I'll not try to play in the Warrior tourney, run the 40K
tourney, and GM a mega-battle all in one weekend.

Vlad's Balkan Blitz (Wallachians made hay.

Game one was against Noel's Alexandrians, and Vlad personally put
Alexander to rout and pushing his command into retreat. (Score 3-2)

My second game was against Mike's Macedonian Successor. I'd put
every unit in his army under retreat orders, and in the final turn
before time ran out Vlad tried to finish off Mike's one body general
command in a final glorious charge. Vlad won despite rolling...
down three. Uh oh, catastrophe! But Mike looked up the rule while
we were trying to figure out what happens when the general dies but
his unit wins combat (Jon... care to clarify) Fortunately for Vlad,
Mike found a pointed out that the down die had to be a -5, and I'd
rolled 1-4. Thanks to Mike for being a great sport and pointing
that out. (Score 3-2)

My third game was against Greg's Sultanate of Delhi, and by then I
was fairly wasted. I made a couple key mistakes, the critical one
being overcommitting on the right, while leaving the flank I was
refusing too soft, which allowed it to get torn up pretty badly.
Next time Vlad will do more than provide moral encouragement.
(Score 2-3)

Have fun!
Cole

[Mike Bard]

Pandemonium 2006 Warrior Tournament After-Action Report

Another tournament, with a (nearly) completely new army that I had no chance
to play ahead of time. Given that, it could have been a lot worse. Guess
I've learned something... :)

This year my primary Warrior objective has been to learn how to deal with
elephants. Sadly, nobody I regularly play with uses an elephant army, or is
likely to in the near future. So, I'm fielding an elephant army myself. I
was originally going to do Pyrrus, but found that I had 4 old Essex pikeman
astride elephant figures, and was tight on painting time, so I ended up
doing a Macedonian Early Successor army (led by Cassandra). Or, how to have
elephants with as many hoplites as possible. :)

The army I ended up fielding was as follows:

Command 1:
CinC (HC L+2 Reg A HC L)+1E Agema (Reg A HC L)

Command 2:
SubGen (HC L+2 Reg A HC L)+1E Companion (Reg B HC L) [the tournament had a
hard cap of 1600pts and if I upgraded the SubGen bodyguard to Agema, I was
at 1601 points)
Thessalian Heavy Cavalry (2E Irreg B HC JLS)
Paionian Light Cavalry (2E Irreg C LC JLS)
Paionian Light Cavalry (2E Irreg C LC JLS)
Phalangites (8E Reg C MI P Sh)
Mercenary Greek Hoplites (12E Reg C MI LTS Sh)
Athenian Greek Hoplites (12E Reg C MI LTS Sh)
Mercenary Greek Peltasts (4E Reg C LMI LTS JLS Sh)
Mercenary Greek Peltasts (4E Reg C LMI LTS JLS Sh)
Mercenary Archers (6E Reg C LI B)
Mercenary Javelinmen (4E Reg C LI JLS Sh)
Mercenary Javelinmen (6E Reg C LI JLS Sh)
Mercenary Javelinmen (6E Reg C LI JLS Sh)
Mercenary Javelinmen (6E Reg C LI JLS Sh)
Elephants (2E Irreg C El w/crew JLS armed driver, 1xP astride)
Elephants (2E Irreg C El w/crew JLS armed driver, 1xP astride)

Game 1: vs. Patrician Roman

Terrain consisted of a gently hill with one rocky slope on my far right, a
gentle hill in the centre of my half of the table, a woods in my front left
flank, a brush in my far left (his deployment) and another wood in my far
centre (his deployment area)

He deployed a handful of cavalry opposite my left, and his foot (a big block
of Barbarians with HTW and assorted 2 E blocks of LMI/LHI Roman w/JLS)
opposite my centre right, and some cavalry on my far right.

I deployed some LI JLS on the hill in my centre, the Paionian LC on my far
right (to delay him), and my big wall of foot on my left. A unit of
peltasts was in ambush in the woods on my left front.

The armies approached, and the absurd amounts of Roman shooting began on
bound 2 -- darts, darts, everywhere. Nothing critical, but it added up. A
unit of his LC B (Hun allies) charged the force marched LI JLS who failed
their waver test, evaded, were caught, and were then routed.

Roman shooting continued pushing back the Greek delaying force on my right
(LI, one elephant, almost all the cavalry). The LC archers pursued the
routed LI deep into my lines. I let them in, but was unable to do anything
about them as I waited to box them in so they couldn't evade, and when I
finally had them trapped, other Roman units could cancel all my charges.

On my right a unit of Peltasts approached a 4E block of MI archers
(shielded, with incendiaries) in skirmish. The arches didn't shoot, so they
charged. The archers then rolled Up 3 for their support shooting, I rolled
down 2 for the contact, and was routed at contact from the archers.
Eventually every LI I had (other than the archers) failed their waver check
for the peltasts routing ensuring that the elephants on my right had NO
cover.

On bound six, the unit of heavy cavalry facing my elephants on my right
FINALLY fails a counter (they were successful bounds 3,4, AND 5 -- and the
Patrician Roman infantry NEVER failed a counter) and the elephants charged
through the LI in front of them, contacted the counter-charging cavalry, and
routed them. This being the ally general caused the other unit of mounted
archers (opposite my far left) top shake, which put the command (the HC, and
two units of LC archers) to go into retirement -- in particular the LC that
routed the LI way back at the beginning and was in my rear zone. It never
got off the table having nowhere it could go, but it never shook or routed.

Meanwhile, on my far right, the cavalry skirmishing with his was slowly
pushed back. I had a golden opportunity with the Sub-Gen to charge either
the HC (who would have had the Thessalians charge them in the flank, or
would have been charged by the Sub-Gen in the flank) but I screwed it up by
facing only to charge a unit of Patricians which I COULD have been in a
position to wheel and charge either target. Of course, the Patricians made
their counter.

By the end of the game, almost all my lights were routed, along with the
cavalry, but the command wasn't dead yet. My close order infantry was in a
line across the middle of the table (front to back) ready to face off with
the Roman foot, but we ran out of time. Likely the Romans would have won in
the long run, but due to the scoring system used I squeaked out a 3:2
victory.

Conclusions: Putting the LC out on my far right screwed me. Being
irregulars they couldn't adapt fast enough, and losing them, and the HC I
sent to try and save them (the Thessalians and the Sub-Gen that eventually
got charged and routed) cost me almost half the command. At that point I
realized that I should have put the two Paionian cavalry into a single unit,
but it was too late. I'd put them into two units so that they could
double-team opponents, but being Irregulars they couldn't do it.

Game 2: vs. Wallachian

Terrain consisted of a hill in the forward zone of my left flank, a little
bit of woods beside it against the edge of the table, a large hill in the
enemy forward zone on my left against the edge of the table (steep at the
table edge), a small woods in the enemy rear zone on my left, another large
gentle hill in the enemy forward zone on my right, and a major water feature
on my right. The Later Hungarians deployed a ditch along the edge of their
half of the table across the right half of the table.

Fully outscouted, I deployed anchored against the Major Water Feature with
the hoplites on my right and the pike at the left end of my line, with the
elephantry behind and the peltasts on either flank. The Hungarians deployed
most of their forces in ambush (behind hills) but it turned out that some LI
archers were in their centre, a Mongol ally command on my right, and a lot
of other LC and LI, and three units of HK on my left.

Swearing I wouldn't put my LC out to die and screw me, I put one unit on a
flank march, and the other unit on my right flank. Being my usual idiotic
self I flung it forward to delay his advance for no useful tactical reason.
He marched aggressively moving against my pike with a large unit of LI B.
The pike expanded to 2 elements deep, and he fired at the Thessalians who
chose to waver and not charge (as charging would result in their death, and
they were Bs. The failed, and shook. The archers charged a LI unit
(impetuously I think), routed it, and pursued in a revealed charge into the
flank of the pike. The pike dutifully ignored them, and the peltasts
eventually moved up and wiped them out.

Meanwhile, the little LC unit that I'd thrown out to uselessly delay his
advance on my left was shot to exhaustion, forced to recall and recall
again. To minimize waver tests and try and salvage them, and completely
forgetting that they were irregular (I ALWAYS use Regular LC) I made a hole
in my hoplites for them to recall through, which allowed a unit of LC B/JLS
to get in. They routed two units of LI, charged the shieldless flank of the
hoplites, rolled up, disordered them, and then another unit of LC B came in.
In a feeble attempt I tried to send my cavalry in, but it was too little too
late, and two units of LC B/JLS more or less routed my army because I
stupidly sent a lone LC unit up to die.

The flank march came on Bound 4, discovered that he had a slightly larger
flank march of LI B, and were hunted down and killed in isolation.

Conclusions: STOP SENDING OUT ISOLATED UNITS TOO FAR FORWARD TO DIE!!!!!!!

Game 3: vs. Han Chinese

Terrain consisted of everything I wanted. A major water feature on my left,
two smooth and gentle large hills in the forward zone of my left, and a
woods in the centre rear. The Chinese chose 4 open spaces for their
terrain.

I deployed my hoplites in two blocks, with the pike in the centre, ending at
the trees. One group of elephants was in the middle, the other on my far
right. Two LI JLS units were force marched to grab the hills. A unit of LC
was flank marched, the other was kept far to the rear (safely out of my
danger). The LI B was placed in the woods (not in ambush). Peltasts were
behind the front line on either flank. The Chinese deployed units of their
infantry opposite mine, with a large allied Hun(?) cavalry command on my
left.

I pushed up and got my infantry onto the hills, leaving a gap in the middle
of my line for the elephants. He moved two massive 12 element blocks of LC
B/JLS opposite one hoplite block, and lights and some infantry behind up on
my far right. A unit of E class peasant scum attempt to flank through the
woods. I moved my peltasts to intercept, and shot them with the archers.
They failed their waver test (did not count shielded to shooters having no
shields), the archers charged them and they failed their waver check and
routed.

Meanwhile, I slowly advanced on my far left, and the skirmishers skirmished,
making way for my hoplites to charge his foot. The peltasts moved through a
gap on my far left to provide flank support against the Chinese foot.

In the centre the Chinese sent three units of Irreg A LMI up the hill into
my other big hoplite block after shooting it for one CPF. Fortunately he
didn't get a big up roll, I rolled up 2, and that collapsed his centre. The
hoplites followed up into his LC in a Revealed Charge situation and the LC
promptly routed next bound. In the centre one Irreg A group got the charge
the elephants (nothing I could do about it) but the elephants were
victorious and chased their way across the board, routing cavalry unit after
cavalry unit as they pursued into them.

The one Chinese glimmer of hope was when one of their 2HCT/CB blocks charged
uphill into my pike. They eventually beat it and disordered it. I
carefully moved everything out of its "blast radius" (far enough away so
that no waver checks were caused). His victorious unit was isolated, and
setup to be dealt with by the other hoplite line.

Final result was an utter Chinese annihilation, including the camp which the
elephants chasing the cavalry finally reached, in return for one pike block
about which nobody cared.

Conclusions: This time I won due to isolated enemy units. The Irreg A were
dealt with as best as possible -- steady hoplite uphill. Not a heck of a
lot else I could do about them as I needed my LI elsewhere. An important
safety tip is to never ever put fragile units such as LC within 40 paces of
an enemy unit just in case they pursue into contact...

Game 4: vs Sultanate of Delhi

A note: There were only three rounds, but as Greg and I were within 1 pt of
each other, we played a final game.

Terrain consisted of a woods on my left, and another one just left of my
centre, a smooth gentle hill in my right forward, my right in the enemy
deployment area (rocky all over), and a smooth gentle hill in the centre of
the enemy table half. A brush was just in front of the hill on my right,
partially covering the hill.

I was outscouted, but not tripled, and deployed my hoplites in a line from
the woods in the centre of my deployment zone over towards my right. The
pike were deployed just in front of the hill. One unit of elephants was
deployed behind the hoplites on my right, besides the woods, the other in my
centre. One unit of peltasts was deployed behind the hill, the other in
ambush in the woods. The Sultanate deployment consisted of elephants more
or less equally spaced across the table with artillery, LMI infantry in the
rocky hill, and lights and cavalry spaced roughly equally.

This game didn't actually take long, and, FINALLY, I was not killed by my
own light cavalry. I advanced slightly on my left, hoping to using the
flank of the hoplites as bait for elephantry to set off the ambush in the
woods. The Sultanate refused to take the bait. I advanced the pike up
along my far right besides the hill and brush, and put LI and peltasts up
into the brush on my right (the LI JLS forcemarched). Cavalry advanced up
onto the hill in support.

The Sultanate carefully setup an elephant assault on the hoplites on my
left. His LI B (shielded in the front rank) dueled with my archers, and he
slowly advanced cavalry and the LMI against the brush. I had the peltasts
in the brush too far forward, and missed the movement and allowed him to
charge them in the shieldless flank routing them at contact. Even though
nobody was in a position to care, I decided to charge the sub-general into
the cavalry flank in attempt to get a kill. I failed -- due to the
casualties the cavalry caused to the peltasts -- and as a result a unit of
elephants charged the sub-general in the brush (after a unit of rockets
fired at them and had a catastrophic explosion). The sub-general was
routed, and everybody possible proceeded to fail their waver tests, causing
all my cavalry to rout, and one hoplite unit to shake. This broke the
command.

Meanwhile, for what it's worth, on my left one unit of elephants charged the
hoplite block, did more casualties but not 1 CPF resulting in a standoff,
and the second unit moved in. Stupidly I had brought some LI up beside the
hoplites in the wood so that they were contacted in a revealed charge
preventing the peltasts from charging the sultanate elephants in the flank.

Conclusions: Ignoring the fact that I played like an idiot, what killed me
was sending the sub-general up to try and take advantage of the routed
peltasts. I could have sent the Thessalians instead, but since the lancers
were one factor better I sent them. That cost me the game for a trivial
potential gain. Ignoring the idiocy with the LI JLS receiving the revealed
charge, I COULD have broken his elephants on my left, and potentially gotten
an advantage.

At least the ending was amusing when he tried to fire his bombards in
support of his attack on the hoplite block, rolled another catastrophe and
blew up, killing his general who was standing right beside the artillery.
But, it was too little too late.

Michael Bard
That Greek Hoplite Guy

[Frank Gilson]

Great battle report, Mike. I enjoyed reading it. Thank you for taking
the time to post it.

Yes, I've learned various LC/LI facts, and others, using armies over
the years including Alexandrian Imperial most recently.

If LC is irregular, it must be in 4E or larger units. Otherwise you
are 'wasting' the expensive irregular command factor and small
irregular LC units don't maneuver well so why use them?

Don't force march irregular LC (or it will hit tired after an
impetuous charge, or tire for bow fire too quickly.)

If you force march regular LC, it should be B or A morale (or your C
or D force marched regular LC will fail a critical counter.) Such
force marched high morale LC units should be 2E (or they can't do
their crazy maneuvering as well.)

Try various sorts of approach movement with little regular LC units
that can be used in the stead of counters, leaving them to counter
only if no such approach can be done.

If a failed counter would be a disaster, evaluate a prompted
retirement, even if this causes the LC to waver, as it at least
provides a turn around and 40p of movement to a shaken body.

Support your LC with LI and your LI with LC. Working in cooperation,
they can accomplish much more. Mark Stone has used this to great
advantage.

A mix of regular and irregular LI and LC is most useful, as a short
few irregular units of both can make impetuous charges when that is
most valuable (remember that LI needs to be supported from behind
here.)

Keep alleys open for your LC to retreat through. Watch out for the
specifics of recalls and evades, given where your enemy is, how they
may be charging, and the facing and position of your troops. LC
getting surprisingly caught and routed in front of your battle line
is a huge disaster.

Frank Gilson

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Bard" <mwbard@...>
wrote:
>
> Pandemonium 2006 Warrior Tournament After-Action Report
>


--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Bard" <mwbard@...>
wrote:
>
> Pandemonium 2006 Warrior Tournament After-Action Report
>
> Another tournament, with a (nearly) completely new army that I had
no chance
> to play ahead of time. Given that, it could have been a lot
worse. Guess
> I've learned something...
>