Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Bill Chriss]

A rare AAR from a weekend game in Austin, Texas:

Matt McCoppin came down to Austin from his temporary posting in Wichita Falls to play me a 15mm Warrior game at the local gamestore, Great Hall Games. Thanks to Matt for a great game and for making the arduous 4.5 hour drive just to play. He played Gauls; I the usual Hellenistic Greeks.

The game was at a leisurely pace. We took about an hour or so to get reacquainted and set up the gaming space (and eat lunch), and then began terrain selection which was fairly quick and straightforward. We agreed to use 9" rear zones. Other than that, we used no X rules.

Matt won terrain precedence and rolled an open space (odd for Gauls!) and placed it directly in the middle of my forward zone. I rolled for a woods and missed it with a 2. Matt rolled a woods and placed it just on his side of the table center on my right flank. I then rolled a woods successfully and placed it in the centr of my rear zone. MAtt got 2 more woods and placed them on either flank of his rear zone to hinder any flank marchers. I rolled a steep hill and rocky ground, which I superimposed on each other on my right flank directly across from Matt's woods. Thus, from my perspective, the entire right flank was pretty closed, and the left was open except in Matt's rear. I assumed that I would deploy on the left and use a few units and the terrain to hold/refuse on the right.

I had four commands. The first 2 were each 1 unit cav/lancer subgeneral/bodyguard units. Matt had to go first, so this meant that I only deployed two units before seeing his entire deployment. My third command was another general/lancer unit with 3 tarantine units of 2E each and one LI sling unit. The remainder of my army was in the last command, composed of one more Tarantine unit, a lot of LI, JLS, Sh, an artillery unit and a line of peltasts 1/2 LHI, 1/2 LMI with a reserve of 2hcw Thracians.

I saw that Matt deployed his 3 commands as I would expect: the smallest on my right (closed by terrain) with his camp nearby. And then one command center and one left. The two main commands each had a 2E LCh unit, a large warband unit or two with IrrA front rank, and two to 3 5E LMI warbands IrrC. Each command had a couple of LI units, which Matt ran as 6E, I think.

I then outfoxed myself and decided to refuse the open flank, instead of the original plan and then concentrated 80% of my army (the last command) on the right where the terrain was. The main reason this was a mistake is that a brain freeze caused me to forget that I was looking at woods on Matt's side instead of brush, and that my peltasts' LTS would be useless there. My artillery just filled the gap between my right flank hill and my rear woods, thus preventing any outflanking to my left, and everybody else deployed on the right flank, except a line of forced marching LI and one LC unit all across the center line (opposed by Matt's forced marching LI).

We then had a counterclockwise pinwheel battle with him trying to catch/fight through my delaying LI and one LC on my open left and get to my artillery and rear woods. Meanwhile, I tried to turn his opposite flank (my right) through very dense terrain.

This was very typical of my battles. After 6 bounds and 4 hours, I killed Matt's LI in the center and on my active flank and engaged one of his warbands in the woods, managing to disorder it by charging in with now LTS-less peltasts because my slingers threatened his flank, thus preventing impetuosity. I also got a charge in on one of his 4E HC, JLS, Sh cav units with one of my lancer subgenerals. I rolled up one and would have broken them, but had to go down one for charging through an intervening LI unit of mine in rout. So Matt's cav survived disordered on this the last turn, despite a ridiculously bad down 4 roll--just not enough casualties done on a 12 figure unit by 5 lancers charging in at a seven. Matt tried to help out by rolling terribly, but no dice

Matt, in turn, finally ran down and killed my delaying LI and LC in the middle and on my left flank. By game end I had completed the end run on my right, marched through his rear flank woods, and was in position to charge his unprotected camp as he was a bit late in retiring two large warbands from the other flank where they had been delayed and pinned by my LI. On that other flank, however, he was soon going to get into my artillery and rear woods, thus eventually turning my own refused flank. So the whole battle was a counter-clockwise rotation of the two armies; fairly realistic in a classsical sense actually, but called for time before the cimax on either side.

The result was 184-189 or so (we had to count in a hurry to get out by closing time of 6 pm).

Thus it was a 1-1 draw, which might have escalated to 3-3 or 4-3 either way after another hour or two, and it was a very enjoyable way to try to remember what the heck I am trying to do with my army and to knock off some of the rules cobwebs somewhere other than in the middle of H'con.

My only conclusion is one I have expressed here before: It is very hard to win decisively in less than a 6 hour, 8-10 bound game with a primarily infantry army that doesn't project a lot of shooting at more than JLS range. When I used to play pikes and hoplites a lot (who are even slower), I eventually learned not to fear forced marching them en masse. Anyway, a good time was had by all, including Matt and I both witnessing our first breakthroughs and trying to figure out how that works, e.g., what does "inserted immediately beyond" mean?

Maybe Matt can chime in with his thoughts as well, adding in what I left out due to faulty memory.

[Ed Kollmer]

Yo
Sounds like a good battle
I was just surprised that the Gauls did not do more with the IrrA and the woods.
Iwas also surprised that the Greeks didn't have any Hoplites. But then I don't have the Hellenistic list here.
Did the artillery do anything or did the Gauls just avoid them.?
One thing that I often thought of was Force Marching my infantry en mass. Does it work??
Thanks for the report.
Ed the late rash Kollmer

[Bill Chriss]

The Gauls were badly outnumbered in those woodsand would have exposed flanks in order to come and fight. It does in fact work to forced march MI/HI, especially large pike blocks, for whom the 2 fatigue is of little import when compared with getting into the fight quicker.

Hoplites are an option for Hellenistics, whcih are Greeks from 275-146 BC, but peltasts and pikes are better, so hoplites are very seldom seen in this list unless theme rules require them.

Artillery seldom get to shoot at all. But they do create huge areas of influence that the enemy usually stays out of.

[Choppinlt]

Good synopsis Bill, that's pretty much the way I remember the events. And thanks for hosting the battle while I am away from home. First and foremost I had a great time pushing some lead with you. Secondly, I learned some more things about the game i.e. breakthroughs, chariots not caring if their opponents have shields or not.

The idea with the open area was to keep your central front area free of any delaying terrain. It was easy to try to protect my flanks with woods and I wanted to try to keep it a north-south battle if possible, hence the open area. Ofcourse you didn't humor me by marching all that stuff around my left flank anyway.

My delaying tactics would have worked better if my stinking LI would learn to evade instead of catching Greek LTS in their backs! But, hey that's the risk right? But yes, Bill's further unimpeded progress in to the 2 different woods on my left flank gave him much greater numbers there. Getting aggresive there would have facilitated a quicker demise, so I opted for the "come and get me" approach which Bill gladly obliged once he had the numbers. By battles end I was able to start getting forces where I needed them to help stem the tide on the left but only after he was in position too rape my horses and steal my women. Plus he had the advantage of NOT having to fight his way through the woods deepest in my left flank and was probably going to demoralize my small command within a bound or so.

And with the pin wheel I may have been able to raid Bill's camp as well, but *IF* I were able to get it all, it probably would have been at least 3 bounds if not more, so it was far from being in imminent danger. And regarding the arty, I was planning to avoid it as best as possible. I didn't have much LI left to screen it, so I had to avoid it.

So by battles end we were fighting an east-west battle and I would say that neither side had a significant advantage. However I would have to give the edge when we quit to Bill. We were both sad that our two hammers never met to see how it might play out. So I was never able to unleash my impetuous Gallic warriors. Maybe next time!

-Matt

[Ewan McNay]

Very nice report, guys - thanks!

[Todd Kaeser]

Bill,

I agree w/ the sentiment that pikes have to start on the center line. In 25mm it is much easier to get into fighting range, whereas in 15mm they seem to act more like moveable terrain.

In order to get into contact in 25mm though you have to push, push, push as hard as you can.


Thanks for the AAR,

Todd K