Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

More gullies? Where did that come from?

Since terrain has been mentioned, lemme opine. Tables ran the gamut. A word to the wise: get used to it. Eric does a fine job and puts thought into the tables. Rich and me are there to help, maybe make a suggestion or do something upon Eric's instructions. Heh heh, no "bowling alley" this year. As seen from previous comments, one man's "this table is too cluttered" is another man's "the center is too open". My third round game with Derek in the Theme had an oasis smack dab in the middle of the table. Nothing open about that.

For each day, we redid the tables. Also, there were always more tables than pairings in any given tourney. For example, on Thu we had 9 tables setup for 7 NICT pairings, same on Fri for the Theme. On Sat, we had a total of 20 players so had ten tables but given the split between the Open and the NICT, that meant you potentially had a greater variety of possible assigned tables. Keep in mind that I put *no* thought into table assignment, I simply do em randomly and then attempt to keep any given player off the same table throughout the rest of the tourney.

We had some "new" stuff, like the aforementioned oasis (we treated it as a marsh although I'm open for some other way to characterize them). We also had tons of fields (brush w/o the ability of LI to ambush) and vineyards. We'll have more vineyards, at least in terms of terrain to potentially toss out on the table, because they looked good.

Eric also wants to do some unfortified built-over areas but if we do, we're not gonna play em rules-wise out of the book: too complicated. First thing is for me to create a couple. While I'm doing that, Rich will be working on sand dunes.

So, preset terrain is here to stay. Keep in mind that any given table you get in a tourney could be fairly open, fairly cluttered, perhaps goofy or anything in-between. We're still not where I'd like us to be but 2012 thus far has seen us take a huge leap forward in the overall look of the game.

The NICT turned out to be a 14-player, 5-round, everybody-keeps-playing tourney. I had 16 players (like last year) and was ready to make a cut (4 players based on last year) and then "start over" on Saturday. The two last-minute cancellations left me wondering wtf to do because 14 players is just a tad too many for 3 rounds and just a tad too few for 5 rounds. 4 rounds would have been ideal but I decided to go with 5 and see how it played out. How I deal with this next year, I'm not sure. If we went with 4 rounds (assuming we had 14 players), we'd still do a round on Thu, then three on Saturday. Banish any thoughts from you mind about the Theme a) moving days, and b) having anything up against it. So, we're still looking at some kind of split schedule. This wouldn't be a problem if we had 20 players.

The Theme was a ton of fun. We gave Derek endless amounts of grief because he ended up bringing an army (Oscans) handicapped with a boatload more points. Heh heh, didn't matter in the end since a Hoplite army won the Hoplite Theme! I ran Samnites and was totally stymied by Greg's Thebans, had no problem with Don's Cypriots, and fought a very close game with Derek until I made the mistake of not continuing forward with a unit so that his routers in the center couldn't rally.

Combine the army look in the Theme and the terrain and it was a pretty impressive visual spectacle. I'm kicking myself that I didn't remember to let Todd K use my Thracian hill fort as a camp. Brought it with me then forget to get it out.

Rules went pretty well. Last year I seemingly fielded tons of hill questions. This year, only 2 and once I explained how you determine LOS on hills based on the diagram on page 104, those became easy.

Everybody tripped up over interpenetration and how you need to have your units lined up precisely, otherwise a unit evading stops dead in its tracks if its path would take it thru, sequentially, more than one unit.

And, as usual, I had a ton of attempts by players wanting to conduct a Case 2 flank charge but had the angle and distance so hard to determine (right on the hairy edge of both), I got beyond surly, told everyone that Chris Damour used to pull this crap for years and my reaction was "if it's that close that an ump needs to measure it, it ain't gonna happen." I doubt any of the worst offenders will change their ways.

I'm trying to remember anything that had me really scratching my head but now that I'm a week past it, I've purged that from my brain.
I'm sure people here with elephantine memories about crap like this will be more than glad to "remind" me of something.

scott

[Historian]

I wasn't complaining about the bowling alley in my AAR. I genuinely like playing on terrain that is not possible in the normal terrain setup rules.

http://philonancients.blogspot.com/2011/10/aar-warrior-life-in-bowling-alley.html

When I saw those vineyards in the middle of the one board I thought “damn, I should have brought my Swiss!” Vineyards normally only live on the flanks, and Pikes, Halberds count both shielded, in cover, and their full ranks when in them.

[Bill Low]

Despite some early doubts, the venue worked out just fine. Really glad the change helped the Southrons; fair is fair, we in New England have had the benefit of closer locations for a long time. Looking forward to going back next year.

It's too bad that attendance was down, but with all the good things posted here, maybe we'll do better next year.

There are always reasons why some guys can't make it. I know of a couple of family conflicts and one serious family illness that kept some of the regulars from attending.

But even with that, of the 22 guys playing in at least one Warrior event, the NE/NY region provided 8 (11 if you count our allies in the Rochester Disapora), the largest contingent from any regional area ... including Rob Turnbull from Central Maine, competing with Scott for the long-distance driving trophy!

Good times.

[Ewan McNay]

Was sorry not to make it; I assume that I'm the 'serious family illness' to whom Bill refers. The extra driving time *is* a big issue but would have been more than mitigated by the likelihood of company from the NE. More serious is the entirely personal factor of my inlaws living 40 min from Lancaster, not so much from F'burg.

Will have to rely on CW for a fix. Anyone need a doubles partner?

[scott holder]

A couple of more random thoughts.

The last couple of years I provided more than an hour break between one round figuring people wanted to eat, relax, shop, whatever. Instead everybody just came back and twiddled their thumbs. So, this year, I went back to the one hour between rounds. Remember, rounds are 3.5 hours and with preset terrain and the deployment rules, a fair chunk of the games easily finished "on time". The result was on Fri and Sat, we were done by 10pm. It seemed so refreshing. I can remark on this as a player (on Fri) and as an ump (on Sat) and it was great. On Sat, we were done at 9:30pm but I had to plug and chug numbers, organize plaques, etc., so everybody milled about smartly until I got my act together just before 10.

As usual, we had some fantastic looking armies. Phil Gardocki showed up with his Late Poles and all these winged/feathered banners. Todd Kaeser's "rental Thracians" (they're Bill's) looked great. I loved the Wallachian/Moldavian armies. Dan Woyke was telling me some elements (not sure if he was referring to ones at Hcon) in his Wallachian army had an "undead" figure or three interspersed. Heh heh, I'm sure the historical purists would cringe but it's a nice, vampire-esque touch.

The games looked so good in a couple of instances, we had folks stand around and watch for a while. In one case, I think this was Todd K and Dave Dietrich, Todd had some kids roll his dice for him. They stunk.

The conventions always envigorate me. I'm already cutting up twigs for more vineyards and have started working on armies for the New World theme. Already the Hcon convention staff have contacted me for feedback. I learned we did have free internet access if we only knew the userid and password. They've said that next year, they'll do a better job of publicizing that. No word yet on improving toilet logistics.

scott

[Historian]

I think the difference in attitude towards the 1 hr vice 2 hr break between one of the rounds was to give people time to shop the store. Which at the Host is about a 20 minute transit time, while at Fredricksburg is about 2.

[srawls]

I didn't play any games on Thursday for that very reason. Ended up spending the afternoon watching Warrior games and doing homework. Definitely enough time between games to see what there is in both the dealer area and the flea market.

Steve

[Ed Kollmer]

Dan W love the idea of placing undead in the army.
Gives the army CHARACTER!!!!
I used alot of fantasy figs in my barbarian armies.
EDK

[Historian]

We have come a long way since Kruse Smith invalidated my Islamic Persian army because I didn't have enough turbans on their heads.

(or running with Byzantine horses)
(and Psiloi as archers)

But I am not bitter about that...

[Todd Kaeser]

New pictures have just been added for Historicon in the Tournament section.

http://www.fourhorsemenenterprises.com/forum/album.php

[scott holder]

Following Todd's lead, I posted a dozen photos in the same section.

scott

[lilroblis]

The gullies came from a Saturday night comment from Eric I believe - but love the terrain and the pre-set terrain.
Also amazing how seeing some of the pictures takes me straight back to the games - including the Berber vs. Ghaznavid just before the Berber roof fell in
Thanks All