Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

Ed and Carolyn *Bernhard* (well, she didn't start the week surnamed Bernhard but
ended the week that way) and Carolyn's 5 year old daughter Lara came out to stay
at the historic Dauphine Hotel and get married in the process. I'll have photos
up later in the week (hopefully). Obviously, this distracted me from slaving
away at Imperial Warrior:) In fact, Ed and I played 7 games over the week
in between trail hikes, hot tubbing, wave runnering, drinking, that wedding
thing, etc. Unlike last November when I stayed at his place in PA before going
to Fall In and beat him up on three games, Ed won the Central Missouri WARRIOR
Title by a combined score of 24-21 pts. It was really a great week all around.
Now I'm sick, hungover and exhausted:):)

We played 4 games with me running L Hungarians against Seleucid, Free Company
and Qin in 25mm and the same L Hungarian list in 15mm against Islamic Persians
in 15mm. As I indicated in another post, of those 4 armies, the only one that
really gave me problems was Free Company. I might add that Ed and I are
probably at the same skill level in terms of WARRIOR so our games are a pretty
good indicator of how these armies potentially interact.

Yes, the Seleucid elephants cause problems but, with all the LC I run, it's very
easy to pin and strike exactly where I want. And that potentially includes pike
blocks if push comes to shove (although I disagree with Todd in terms of the
overall battleplan effectiveness of launching SHK into pike, heh heh, unless
it's the last 15 minutes of the game). As I also indicated in the other post, I
had my shots, mainly because I could pin everything and pick on vulnerable
targets, in his case(s) LI, LC and HC. I even popped a full service Peltast
unit. Those shots resulted in many waver tests on Ed's part, he passed all of
em (his unsupported C's were *gods*). After that, I had nothing that could
fight the Pike and El, so eventually got whacked. I still had plenty of knights
left but the El were now in the lead so there was little I could do. If one of
them had shaken (it had passed a previous waver test), different story on at
least one flank.

The Free Company list again, can be beat on because even more so than Seleucids,
an army like L Hungarians which is nothing but shock (SHK and Irr A HC L, B, Sh)
and LC really pins the troops. However, the Free Company has fewer vulnerable
units since the Longbowmen, even without stakes, do a credible job of deterring
frontal attacks. I beat on one area in order to cause an unsupported C class
longbow unit to take a waver test. If it fails, the whole line goes. It
passed. Ed's tight counterpunching deployment meant I had little else to
exploit. And our SHK on SHK melees were total die rolling events, he won:)
Ed used the Dave Markowitz school of Longbowmen meaning he deployed tons of 4E
units instead of fewer 6E units. The idea is to create tons of cross-fire lines
so that, in effect, any unit coming in on any other LB unit gets in LOS of 8E of
LB. Heh heh, Moogs would love these guys however.

Qin was easier than I anticipated mainly because I tossed 4 roughs onto his side
of the table so his HCh spent the entire game serpentining around simply to get
into position. Unlike earlier games, our respective light contingents were
more equal but since his were shieldless, I had an easier time with them. That
enabled me to then focus on some of his LHI units that he didn't support well
(the first time Ed actually made a mistake) and picked them off. Resulting
waver tests he flunked, end of game.

Islamic Persians in 15mm was also suprisingly easy to deal with. But the game
in 15mm was entirely (no suprise) different in that I could leave the center
almost totally empty and attack on both flanks. Using the usual "yo yo" tactic
of having 1 LC, 1 HC, and 1 SHK operating in conjunction with each other, I
could effectively shoot and follow up if I got lucky on the shots. Yes, the
Islamic Persian EHC/HC can deal with my Irr A HC but it's not dealing with the
SHK too well. Failed waver tests after a couple of appropriate routes, end of
game.

This was really my first time running an army that was almost entirely mounted
and consisted of only 3 troop types (not counting the required LMI I hafta buy
with the Irr A HC). It has loads of shock potential but again, to quote Rob
Turnball, it usually has it's shots (in my case maybe 1-2) and if the resultant
"bad things" (usually waver tests) don't turn out bad (he passes said waver
tests), then you're pretty much left with nothing. Which is fine for me I guess
because like Ewan, I can play fast and like armies that strike quick and
decisively. If it doesn't work, that's more time for the next game, or to go
shopping or to drink.

We then used his same three armies, changed slightly for a new opponent, and I
trotted out the dreaded Tlaxcallans. Far far cry from L Hungarians. I'm
running the Spanish with Cortez as CinC. No LI so I was always outscouted.
This is solely a counterpunching army. Ed and I agreed that deployment should
be one command (be it Spanish or Tlax) entirely in front of the other.
Deploying side by side pretty much means you're committed and as I found out in
game 3 against the Qin, that's not a good thing.

The general idea is to have a Reg D Peasants armed with B anchor one flank (or
the center) in brush and put the Spanish somewhere else, preferably in terrain
but they don't really need it. Since they're As, I don't care and to quote
Scott McDonald, if you roll 1s in this game, you deserve to lose.

I counterpunched in all three games. Seleucids were a breeze insomuch as I
skirmished where I didn't want to fight, and just stood in the open to shoot the
crap out of anybody charging, except El of course since none of the units gets a
second rank fighting against them. I could then try to work over the non-pike
and El units, rout folks, and get those units to waver, which is exactly what
happened.

Free Company was harder and really could have gone either way (3-2 me). Again,
the Spanish/Tlax foot is great against other foot and against just about any cav
except knights but there again, you have to take risks in the open by waver
testing. Obviously you can mitigate that to some extent with support, etc. The
biggest failing in this list is the Tlax morale, but again, that assumes you're
fighting (or forced to fight) in the open.

Qin rolled over these guys because the chariots are prime anti-Tlax killers plus
the unease (more area of effect than the Seleucids with the El but that could
change depending on how the latter is purchased). This is the one time where I
charged Cortez into a pike block (Ed put 2E of HI Bowmen in the back of each
block) and had to extend his line. I then charged into that weaker end with 2E
of HK and my 2E unit of Warrior priests (1E is 2HCT, JLS, Sh, 1E is 1HCW, B,
Sh). He rolled up on BOTH support shot targets which took me down 1 going in.
I won the melee but Cortez lost the melee and I simply had nothing else to
follow up with.

The War dogs are interesting in that they're an expendable that can go into
brush or woods and still get the "scythe" bonuses. They also last longer
because they charge as LI. And they get one extra fig (the armed handler ie,
crew). But, they're slow (can never roll up) and can get the absolute crap shot
out of them (shieldless LI). And at 45 pts, I'm still not so sure of the cost
effectiveness. The "move and shoot" bombards are really nothing more than bolt
shooters in terms of the mechanics of their play. Yes, they are an important
component but did not prove overpowering in 3 games.

Basically we determined that this list can be an infantry grinder but has
trouble with armored mounted because of the lack of second rank fighting. From
a deployment perspective, it appears the best thing to do is put one command in
front and the other entirely behind it, then spread out from there. I didn't do
that in my last game against the Qin and hosed my deployment so as to move units
from one flank to the other and whenever I do that, particularly when pinned on
my side of the table, I'm in trouble.

I noted an earlier post about Aztecs with JLS and Sling. Heh heh, obviously
someone using a list no longer recognized:) Please remember that at the
Big 3 East tourneys, only FHE lists are allowed unless none have superceded the
old ones. I would urge everybody to start weening yourself from "other" lists,
with the obvious allowances for those lists that haven't yet been published.
I'm truely working as hard as I can on that:):)



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