Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

Doubles (25mm only)

1) Dennis Shorthouse and Fred Stratton, Neo-Assyrian Empire, 23.7
2) Rich Kroupa and Todd Kaeser, Viking, 21.2
3) Dick Hurchanik and Robert Turnball, Later Carthaginian, 21.1
4) Phil Gardocki and Ed Bernhart, Early Burgundian, 17.4
5) Bill Low and Mike Mallamaci, Tepanec, 16.2
6) Mike Kelly and Scott McDonald, Norman, 15.3
7) Jim Bisigani and Marc Cribbs, Norman, 15
8) Greg Hauser and Eric Turner, Ghaznavid, 14.7

Mini (15mm)

1) Todd Kaeser, 15
2) Dave Dietrich, 11
3) Tom Barkus, 6
4) Greg Hauser, 5

Mini (25mm)

1) Robert Turnball, Ghaznavid, 12
2) Rich Kroupa, Hohenstaufen Sicilian, 8
3) Scot McDonald, Timurid, 7
4) Bill Low, New Kingdom Egypt, 6
5) Dick Hurchanik, Feudal Japanese, 6
6) Mike Kellly, Norman, 3

Sportsman: Greg Hauser (also nominated Phil Gardocki, Ed Bernhart)
Best Camp: Rich Kroupa

Random Thoughts:

Teams were a confusing last minute shuffle of players. We were actually looking at ten teams, one of which might have consisted of me and Jake playing borrowed Macedonians but Rich's son bailed at the last minute and Dave Markowitz got confused on Cold Wars dates. Feel free to dope slap Dave at your earliest possible convienience. However, with players shuffling around, we made everything work.

Terrain was preset and worked fine. We don't have ground cloths yet but will for Hcon. We had plenty of rough, brush, woods, water features and hills. This is still a development in progress but we've taken an important first step. As a reminder, preset terrain will be used for *all* events at Hcon and Fall In in 2011. Remember, *all* events.

Deployment: We ended up using the deployment system used at Fall in 2010 or as I like to call it "Eric's Cockamammie Deployment System". It's different and in roughly half the games, accomplished what it set out to do: have armies pounding on each other by Bound 2. Beyond that, I dunno if it's that much of an improvement. We will do some tweaking to the deployment rules for *all* events at Hcon but it won't be this system as used at Cold Wars. There are some very useful aspects to portions of it but I need to digest things before I make some big pronouncement.

Barbarian foot rules. The two little tweaks we did for Irr foot worked out very well. Furthermore, there were no issues of close order foot not being viable sans the 120p X rule. This was a huge positive.

Rick Kroupa Rocks. Rich brought 2000 pts of mostly close order Vikings. They looked fantastic and as you can see from the standings, were damned viable. Just ask Todd how more viable they might have been if his die rolling hadn't have sucked so badly. Rich also did the hills and major water features for our preset terrain and they look great.

scott

[Ewan McNay]

OK, now I *really really* regret missing this. Viking in second? Two Norman armies? Holy cow.

Damnit. I have not pushed Warrior lead in way way way way too long. Putting H'Con on the calendar in ink as I speak..

[Frank Gilson]

Great to see results and 8 solid teams with crazy different armies. I'm hoping to attend Historicon.

[Historian]

In my humble opinion, I liked both the preset terrain, and Eric’s “Cockamammie Deployment System”. Having been out of the tournament circuit for the last 6 years, it was nice to have all my doubles games go under 3 hours. I will say, that when I first looked at the tables, I was mortified. But most of the terrain was gentle hills, and then after that brush. Which allowed for a better visual impression, without impeding the play.

Rich’s hill building technique was very nice. Presenting a nice rocky appearance, that the figures didn’t rock around on. And since the primary ingredient was foam rubber, they were transportable, and resistant to damage.

[Fred Stratton]

As Scott alluded to, Todd's strategic bad rolling led to an Assyrian 5-1 win. And don't denigrate those Vikings, they had table edge to table edge 12 element units of well armed close order foot, with sufficient reserves. Well , no cavalry to speak of, but some crazy beserkers and more normal bow armed units were in reserve.

But at 2000 points, it was damn impressive and a bit intimidating, given the preset terrain in our battle against them.

Unbelievably, as a last resort, my Hch Cinc attached to a Hch unit and charged one of the big Viking units and held on for one turn, allowing two Assyrian foot units to charge in (proceeding to roll up three and even while Todd rolled down three). This led to the unraveling of the line and an eventual 5-1 Assyrian win. Prior to this event, there was much dismay and some disagreement amongst the Assyrian general staff about continuing the battle.

Rich took it all in stride as the bad news mounted in Todd's command, leading to an eventual retirement from the field. Only comment I heard from Rich was a mildly wistful desire for one cavalry unit on the Viking list.

I will say the Assyrian list, with the special rules, is very versatile. Almost every unit has a dart or bow (or both) and most are Reg B, can be a mix of LHI/LMI, plus some good regular cav (EHC L and B armed). JLS units fight two ranks in most situations, plus other advantages not mentioned here.

Much fun, and we had a some luck against the Vikings.

[scott holder]

The hills were constructed by Rich.

Please note what I said about the Cockamamie Deployment System:

[Historian]

Scott, I was not denigrating your commentary, just advocating my support for the deployment system, even though, my mishandling of it in round 2 lead to our total defeat of that round. Live and Learn.

I also edited my comment giving Rich credit for the hills.

[Ed Kollmer]

Hi
Great to hear about all the fun at C-wars.
I have two questions
1. The tweaking of the Barbarian rules. Has the Barbarian Rules been updated in the X files category.?
2. Where can I get the Cockamamie deployment set up

Ed Kollmer

[Todd Kaeser]

It was really nice attending the Con - I haven't been to a Cold Wars since I abandoned Ewan in the teams to worship the porcelain god for the remainder of the tournament

I played w/ Rich Kroupa in the Teams tournament. Rich's son had mono so I was able to find a way into the tournament (lucky for me, but not for Rich's son). Rich made the list "simple" so his son could run it along side of him. In 2000 pts. you get a fair number of close vikings.

Rough list

Cinc (9 element unit) front LHI 2hcw, sh backs Jls,Sh - detachment 2E berserker
Sub - same

5 units of 12E of 1/2 HI 2hcw,Sh 1/2 MI jls,Sh
2 units 1 C, 1 B of 6E 1/2 LHI 2hcw,Sh 1/2 LMI Jls,Sh - all Bow too
detachment of 2E Berserkers
7E LI B,Sh

SHIELDWALL is really tough by the way.

1st battle vs. Low/Mallamachi - Tepanec

After a gentleman's agreement to both get out of wait orders and a change of deployment on our side to deal w/ some brush - both sides moved out (we still played 9-10 turns)

Bill and I squared off on the right and I got lucky w/ my loose vs. some of bill's loose and then I got lucky when I broke a unit of Otomi (actually exhausted them) and then Bill was kind enough to roll a 1 for a shake next door. Bill would also be kind enought to roll a 2 then later and rout for me - thanks Bill!

On the left after an Otomi cruise missile hits a 12E shieldwall unit and dies (causing a waiver for a C unit of Subject warriors ) the melee begins. Rich's unit would be hit and circulated or repeatedly having the warrior units replacing in combat. Near the end (his unit would end up w/ 14 fatigue) Rich finally rolls +2 and routs 2 units and then the flank goes. Rich rolled poorly for about 3-4 turns of combat to finally get the up needed.

5-0 Vikings

2nd battle vs. Stratten/Shorthouse and Neo-Assyrian

Turtle formation (defensive line w/ shieldwall) vs. the hoardes of Assyrians. On turn 3 a shieldwall is able to not only hold off a charge by 3 units of EHC lancers it has a sub stick to the surface and kill it. Denis contemplates surrendering, but Fred encourages him to keep fighting. Eventually, a 2E chariot unit w/ the CinC attached (for 3E) hits a shieldwall unit and sticks ( we both killed 48 ) In comes the infantry to save the cinC - I'm thinking all I need to do is roll even and the cinC is dead meat and the army should go away, but I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and I rolled a down 3. Eventually, I would shake from being pushed back multiple times and break and the cascading rolls would cause the command to go away 1-5

Final battle vs. Ed Bernard/Phil Gardocki and E. Burgundian (with Swiss allies).

Shield wall across the front. Things don't look good as the center unit gets hit by 2 knight units and recoils disordered. Going to the right another unit gets hit by 2 knight units, but holds firm. On the end that unit gets hit by 2 units of knights and is disordered as well.

Center unit (facing 2 units of Kn) sends in the HC crossbow to pull off some combat and I roll well enough to shove off the HC, but the knights are now stuck. I'll roll in the Sub on the flank to rout both units of knights.

Next unit on the right (Rich is a stud here) - gets hit w/ a Swiss pike in column and Ed. waivers to bring in some D archers w/ 2HCW in support - the big block gets pushed back. Next turn Rich rolls +2, routing the Swiss, 1 knight (a general), and then shaking the foot. I could here the woosh of the Burgundian center go away after units take multiple tests from general, and swiss - their routs then cause shakes and routs as well.

On the right the unit of vikings gets pushed off of the board and Rich counterattacks w/ the 6E LHI and berserk unit. Goes badly and the berserk unit is destroyed and LHI unit shakes. Luckily for us the Burgundian CinC goes off board in pursuit, and a knight unit exhausts. That 5 unit command is down 1 swiss (center break), knight exhaust, and CinC off the board - when he doesn't roll to return the command goes into retirement. Game over. 5-2.

Shorthouse/Stratten take on Turnbull/Hurchanik w/ their Carthos and I think tie 2-2 or so. Shorthouse/Statten win the tournament with 12 points, Turnbull/Hurchanik 11, Kroupa/Kaeser 11. Lots of fun.

Late night w/ wine and beer (w/ time change til 3AM) made the next day's drive back tiring, but worth it.

Wish you all could have been there - missed seeing the old gang.

Todd

[lilroblis]

Dick Hurchanik and I got to play together with Carthaginian, and boy did we have a blast, neither of us had played teh army in 5 years, or even put it on the table.
First round was Normans - and the game was pretty much won with two up two rolls - His Cin C and two units of Heavy cavalry charged down a hill at a unit of celtiberians who were charging uphill impetuosly
I rolled up 2 on the charge, they rolled up with Irr A CINC but down with two otehr units so we routed one, and bounced the other which then was charged by IRR A spanish - by turn two that flank was gone, and
Dick and I then used the rest of our army to destroy the Normans - just as a comment we won 4-3 because we had less than 1000 points left on the table - very bloody, and a better army than I had thought, for the Normans.
Second round was Early Burgundian - tough match with knights breaking through steady LTS units at will, and then dying when hit by the following up elephants - 5-2 to us - but a tough battle, we ended up losing a big spear block, and having a 18 man spanish unit exhausted having destroyed 3-4 Burgundian units: again we were in combat for 8 turns - got to like the deployment rules, and the willingness to fight
Finally we fought the Neo-Assyrians - and boy are they tough - got a draw, but really only because they mis-deployed a unit in the woods, otherwise we get thumped (they did pass half a dozen waver tests when we routed the two units - but that's why you take B class troups)
Face to face in the open - they were a lot stronger than we were, or than I anticipated - great list rules, and a good underused army
and should have won more fights than they did - I rolled up 2 at least twice with regulars. I loved seeing biblicals work
We ended up with 11 points and enjoyed every minute of it, and only one game went to time (the other two were over in less than two and a half hours)
Mini was just good fun - take elephants (IRR B) and charge (take waver tests so you are never shot to a halt) and make loose foot waver - and luckily they failed a lot.
rich had 64 Bow vs me, Bill Low 200 (or was that 2000) - But in both cases failed waver tests with uneasy foot led to their demise.
Great weekend - thanks all

[Ed Kollmer]

Yo
Thanks Fred, Todd, and Robert for the AARs
Good reads
EDKollmer