Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Rich Pichnarczyk]

We recently played a Dark age game using both Barbarian and Shield wall rules and a rules question arose.

Under shieldwall rules a front rank of 2HCW with shields counts shielded in post 1st round HTH combat. What is the rule's intention if the front rank 2HCW gets disordered in the first round of HTH combat? Are the front rankers still considered shielded in HTH combat in later rounds?

Using shieldwall v barbarian charges generally resulted in disorder for the shieldwall even for 32+ fig shieldwall units. The shieldwall will generally lose the initial round of HTH combat since it cannot charge impetuously and must stand to receive.

There seemed to be little incentive to be in shieldwall unless the unit is already uneasy or facing mounted.

Thanks for your reply,
Rich Pichnarczyk

[scott holder]

As the rule currently stands, disorder doesn't impact on shieldwall other than the usual disorder in combat minuses.

At least from the initial run of the numbers, there seemed plenty of reasons to go into shieldwall but that was simply a paper and pen exercise. Additional suggestions are welcome.

scott

[Rich Pichnarczyk]

Scott,
We played Anglo-Dane v Viking at 1600pts. We also did all inf and NO cav (Norman Mercs only help Anglo-Dane as the Viks get no real cav).

Because I feel the greatest advantage of shieldwall is allowing shielded 2HCW to fight beyond the 1st round shielded, I set up the bulk of the Vik (Ir C) warriors to take advantage of both Barb and Shield wall rules if need be; ie. (4E x MI (2hcw) 1st rank, 4E MI 2nd rank (JLS) , 1E LMI (JLS or 2HCW - it doesn't really matter since they are in the 3rd rank and can't expand in shieldwall @130 pts/unit - 102 cpf to disorder. For game purposes I kept the bulk of the MI viks in Shieldwall to see how the 2HCW worked.

The bulk of Anglo-Danes were MI (1xIr C + 11xIrD) JLS, Sh @125pts/unit - 120 cpf to disorder 3 ranks deep. They generally attacked using the Barbarian rules.

The Anglo Danes easily won on even die rolls. For example 1st round combat Anglo Danes were 24@ 3+1(JLS)+1(impet)+1(charge)-1(shieldwall)=96 plus 5@ 3+1(imp)+1(charge)-1(shieldwall)=15 for 111cpf disordering, tiring and pushing back the Viks. who do 16@5(2HCW)=64 plus 8@3+1(JLS)=24 for 88cpf which tires the Anglo Danes.

Assuming the Viks do not lose the shield bonus as disordered shieldwall (the rule was not clear on this) round 2 is Viks 16 @ 5-2(disordered)-1(tired)= 32 plus 8 @ 3+1(JLS)-2(disordered)-1(tired)=12 for 44cpf.

The Anglo Danes do 24@3+1(JLS)+1(follow up)-1(shieldwall)-1(tired)=60 for another victory and followup.

Deeper Viking units can prevent disorder but additional frontage for their opponents win the 2+ round combats. Numbers are at least 1 factor worse when using other than 2HCW so 2HCW is optimal for max damage.

Loose order has even less chance in shieldwall against close order barbarian charges. Loose order barbarian charges have the additional benefit of expansion during followup.

2HCW or other armed infantry is almost always better doing the impetuous charge. Certainly it's better than not to be in shieldwall when required to stand to receive a charge. It's also better to be in shieldwall if your opponent cannot charge impetuously because you can countercharge.

In general an impetous charge (Barbarian is better of course) is better than standing to receive even though in the later rounds the 2HCW men will take greater damage due to the shieldless bonus. The opponent will likely be disordered and tired. Many times by the end of the 2nd round and almost certainly by the 3rd round one or both combatants will be exhausted.

In reviewing my games and this numbers exercise with the Barbarian rules as official, I think you'll see many more people choosing Barbarian charges v standing in shieldwall in foot v foot encounters.

Thanks for this "chrome" for the dark age armies. It's always fun to have another reason to bring them out and play. The games are generally fun, fast and very bloody.