Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

Read carefully everybody, while the basics are still in place (Open and Mini), there's lots of different stuff this time around in how each will be played.

Eric Turner will GM both events. However, if you have any questions, post em here and I'll get answers.

Usual stuff: One list. Order cards will be used. Climate and generals must be rolled.

Different stuff: Preset terrain for both tourneys. Each table may allow an exchange of terrain type or removal.

Special Rules:

-All rules from 2nd Ed Biblical and Dark Age Warrior applicable as outlined in those books.

-Barbarian Foot Rules in effect.

-X-Rules 5.11, 6.2, 6.45, 17.1 in use. (Note: Closer order foot's tactical moves are per Warrior, not 120p)

-Armies with Army Standard and an option for a Sacred Standard may upgrade to the latter for free.

-Deployment will be done as follows:
Player with highest scouting number chooses his starting side; if equal points, players roll, high die picks starting side.
Scouting ratio of 3:1 = lesser force deploys 360p from baseline, greater deploys up to center line; 2:1 = less force deploys 240p from centerline, greater deploys up to center line; 1:1 = remaining forces deploy up to 120p from the centerline.

-General character of 5 can be Bold or reroll on Special General’s table (CIC can choose to roll regardless):
1) Bleeder. General has a physical defect that makes him more prone to a catastrophe. In Hand to Hand, if the Bleeder's unit takes 2 CPF or more, and makes a unmodified melee roll of -2, -3, or -4, forces a catastrophe. In preparatory shooting, if the Bleeder's unit is takes 2 CPF and the missile fire die roll is +2 or higher, forces a catastrophe.
2) Inattentive. General is sick or wounded. General gets only 10 prompt points a turn.
3) Efficient General gets 20 prompt points
4) Brave, General’s unit always adds an additional +1 in melee (So a down 3 roll for a Regular B General is even).
5) Inspirational. Unit with general is never uneasy. If the General is the CIC then all units within 120 paces are never uneasy.
6) Great. General is Efficient, Brave, and Inspirational.

Schedule:

Friday:

Noon-9:30pm
Warrior Mini Open
1200 pt army, 2.5 hour rounds, 6x5 tables (25mm), 4x4 tables (15mm)
25mm (15mm if six players have confirmed)
Round 1: Noon, Round 2: 3:30pm, Round 3: 7pm

Saturday:

9am-10pm
Warrior Open
1600 pt army, 3.5 hour rounds, 8x5 tables (25mm), 6x4 tables (15mm)
25mm (15mm if six players have confirmed)
Round 1: 9am, Round 2: 1:30pm, Round 3: 6:30pm

[browntj007]

For what it's worth...perhaps not much at that...I think this is exactly the way forward. Beautifully done terrain tables are as much a selling point as well painted miniatures or a well done set of rules. This should be the start of something better. I also like the inclusion of the x rules without the 120 close order foot, which I thought disrupted the game from many aspects and combined, either invalidated or made a mockery of special rules already given certain armies' troop types. Personally, I had a hard time conceptually understanding how close order foot ran better than half as fast as a horse in open formation. ( Having done close order drill for several years it's hard just to march in good order) Finally, with these scout deployment rules, there's a significant reason for recon troops - I'll leave it to the experts if this is totally accurate historically, but I suspect it's probably real close in terms of effect. Should be fun.

[scott holder]

First, results:

Dennis Shorthouse Neo Assyrian 15 pts
Fred Stratton Indian 11 pts
Michael Kelly Timurid 11 pts
Eric Turner Yuan 11 pts
Don Carter E Imp. Romans 8 pts
Mike Byrne Marian Romans 8 pts
Rich Kroupa Viking 7 pts
Jim Bisignani Celtiberians 5 pts


Now what I recieved from Eric and Rich regarding the various things we tried.

120p Rule
Nobody was terribly upset that it wasn't in play. I've decided that we're not going to use it in 2011, at least not in the blanket way it's been "tested" over the last two years. More as I work out the details.

Deployment
It definitely garnered the most comments and it needs some tweaking. For example, we need to specify that artillery taking advantage of forward deployment still counts as if it forced marched in terms of being able to shoot. That means a stone thrower or bombard that deploys more than 240p in can't shoot on Bound 1--other artillery can. That's straight out of the rules.

And what people need to remember is just because you can potentially deploy waay forward, you don't *have* to. To quote Rich "If you choose to do so be advised that any vulnerable unit in your army will have the most effective unit in your opponents list deployed right in front of you".

In all likelyhood, we'll use some variation of this at both Cold Wars events, it won't kill us and will provide more robust playtesting.

One other idea that's gaining traction is tweaking deployment so that you deploy by command as you do now but must deploy largest (in terms of number of elements) to smallest in that order. This eliminates the cheesy 1-2 unit "commands" that get plopped down first so you can then toss down your 15 unit command after your opponent has deployed. Again, nothing written in stone yet but it's worth trying.

Terrain (Pre-Set)
As Rich put it "Eric went crazy" with terrain but in a good way. Everything looked far better, it reduced setup time and headaches as the games progressed. Eric placed terrain you'd never normally see and while folks were initially taken aback to see 8 or 9 pieces on the table, hills were gentle and symetrically placed. Again to quote Rich "they did not need to be a factor in the game unless both players were willing to make them a factor." Eric had everbody at a different table for each game so armies that "thrived" in one battle because of the terrain weren't in the next.

So, we will be using Preset Terrain at Cold Wars and at least for the Mini and Theme at Hcon. NICT? Don't try to talk me into or out of it either wway, I want to see how Cold Wars goes first. But it's clear that our first useage of it was a huge success.

scott

[Ed Kollmer]

WOW
THis seems really interesting. The pre-set terrain really appeals to me. As someone who used to make scenarios. I like the idea. Plus it speeds up the game. I don't think it would be good for the NICT, since there is where terrain is a major aspect of your strategy.In the immortal words of Ted Furey(some of you might remember him)"Terrain is everything".
I will have to think about the DEPLOYMENT issue. Initially I like it but I somehow I feel it could be abused. I am not sure how yet. But it definitely has very good points.
I also like the idea of placing commands. I always felt that the place down of the 2 element command was kind of cheesy. I know I did it also, this gets rid of that.
my half a cent worth, and that is up due to inflation. My worth is usually less
Ed the now Half cent Kollmer