Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

I've been trying, with some success, to introduce the guys in the
Waco area to Warrior. Thursday we played a game.

Thursday Richard, Erik, and I got together down at Game Closet for a
game of Warrior. Initially we had planned on Richard borrowing
Joe's Persians for a rematch with my Late Romans but at the last
moment I realised that I had lent my Imperial Warrior army list book
to Jim so we would have been unable to work up a Persian list. Thus
our game fell into the all too common ancient wargaming style
of "fantasy death match" when we had to pit my brand new Samurai
army against the Late Romans. (I dug up an existing army list so we
didn't need the book)

As neither of my opponents had any Warrior experience and I was
eager to test drive the new army, I gave Richard and Erik the more
forgiving Romans. Fudging the army organization rules a bit to give
them each an interesting mix of troops, we allowed the Ostrogothic
ally general to command Roman troops as well. Erik was given al the
legionarii units, the auxillia archers, the skirmishers, a unit of
Roman Ilyrian light cav and couple of heavy cavalry units.
Deploying to his left Richard had the two auxillia units, the
cataphracts, all the Ostrogoth cavalry, the goth archers, and a unit
of roman horse archers.

In picking terrain the two inexperienced players made the same
mistake I did by playing large sections of woods on both flanks.
While intending to anchor their battle line on these features, in
fact it limited their ability to move thus robbing them of their
primary advantage.

Opposing them I deployed my Samurai infantry units (all very
heavilly armoured and double armed with two handed cut and thrust
weapons plus longbows) in the center with lighter longbow armed
ashigaru units on the flank. Finally I had some small cavalry units
(which due to their all enclosing armour counted as heavy knights)
on each flank with a unit of skirmishers with longbow in front of
these.

After a quick run down on the basic rules we started. The game
developped quickly with my line aproaching theirs. On each flank I
pressed the skirmishers forward in front of the enemy light cavly. I
was quite aware that longbows are not all that effective against
dispersed troops light these skirmishers. However their job was to
draw the enemy lights into a trap. This they did quite well as the
light cavalry charged and routed my light infantry. However their
mandantory one turn of pursuit allowed me to throw a cavalry unit
into the mix and the otherwise very hard to catch lights were
eliminated as a threat. I considered this to be very important as
irregular armies like Samurai lack the mobility to deal with light
cavalry.

On the same turn I taught Erik why small cavalry units should not be
caught out in front of large infantry archer units by shooting up a
heavy cavalry unit that he has pushed forward. Thin unfortunate
unit shook when forced to test for 3 cpf caused by shooting. The
following turn he attempted to retire this unit and blew the waver
test. The resulting rout caused a couple of shaken units including
one of the formidible legionarii formations.

On the following two turns things went from bad to worse for the
romans as my battle line got within katana range. After pausing to
shoot up several cavalry units that were intermixed with the Roman
battle line I launched a general charge to contact along the line.
On my left one of these fights went badly as a unit of auxillia had
the misfortune to attack a heavy throwing weapon, javelin, dart, and
shield armed legionarii unit and the combined shooting and melee
drove them back disordered. Likewise on that flank a unit of my
hard charging cavalry was shot to pieces by the darts of another
legionarii unit and had to break off from combat. This was somewhat
made up for by the cavalry unit led by my CinC breaking a Roman
heavy cav unit that had tried to slip around my left flank.

On the right things went even worse for Richard. Although two of
his Goth units which had escaped serious damage from my longbow
volly managed to break on of my Samurai units the rest of the
infantry charges managed to impact auxilia and badly shot up cavalry
units. The resulting routs and shaken units due to waver tests
caused his command to go into retreat orders. After counting up
Erik's command we found that he too was now in retreat and the game
was called.

When debriefing the fight we realised that the roman defeat was
caused by a combination of the aformentioned terrain troubles and
Richard and Erik's inexperience. A more experienced opponent would
have picked their fights better and recognized the bad match ups
that were develloping. But one lives and learns!

Despite the fairly one sided game everyone seemed to have a good
time. It was also good to finaly meet Erik and I hope he chooses to
come out and play with us again in the future.

Anything to add guys?

Martin

[Todd Schneider]

Martin,

If you have the means, I would print out the Sample
Battle in the files section to give to them, or
failing that show them where it is so they can look it
through.
I think it would help them out, ecspecially with some
of the rules interactions (but then again, I did
"write" it with Jon and DOn's help )

Todd
--- Martin <mwolverton@...> wrote:

>
> I've been trying, with some success, to introduce
> the guys in the
> Waco area to Warrior. Thursday we played a game.
>
> Thursday Richard, Erik, and I got together down at
> Game Closet for a
> game of Warrior. Initially we had planned on
> Richard borrowing
> Joe's Persians for a rematch with my Late Romans but
> at the last
> moment I realised that I had lent my Imperial
> Warrior army list book
> to Jim so we would have been unable to work up a
> Persian list. Thus
> our game fell into the all too common ancient
> wargaming style
> of "fantasy death match" when we had to pit my brand
> new Samurai
> army against the Late Romans. (I dug up an existing
> army list so we
> didn't need the book)
>
> As neither of my opponents had any Warrior
> experience and I was
> eager to test drive the new army, I gave Richard and
> Erik the more
> forgiving Romans. Fudging the army organization
> rules a bit to give
> them each an interesting mix of troops, we allowed
> the Ostrogothic
> ally general to command Roman troops as well. Erik
> was given al the
> legionarii units, the auxillia archers, the
> skirmishers, a unit of
> Roman Ilyrian light cav and couple of heavy cavalry
> units.
> Deploying to his left Richard had the two auxillia
> units, the
> cataphracts, all the Ostrogoth cavalry, the goth
> archers, and a unit
> of roman horse archers.
>
> In picking terrain the two inexperienced players
> made the same
> mistake I did by playing large sections of woods on
> both flanks.
> While intending to anchor their battle line on these
> features, in
> fact it limited their ability to move thus robbing
> them of their
> primary advantage.
>
> Opposing them I deployed my Samurai infantry units
> (all very
> heavilly armoured and double armed with two handed
> cut and thrust
> weapons plus longbows) in the center with lighter
> longbow armed
> ashigaru units on the flank. Finally I had some
> small cavalry units
> (which due to their all enclosing armour counted as
> heavy knights)
> on each flank with a unit of skirmishers with
> longbow in front of
> these.
>
> After a quick run down on the basic rules we
> started. The game
> developped quickly with my line aproaching theirs.
> On each flank I
> pressed the skirmishers forward in front of the
> enemy light cavly. I
> was quite aware that longbows are not all that
> effective against
> dispersed troops light these skirmishers. However
> their job was to
> draw the enemy lights into a trap. This they did
> quite well as the
> light cavalry charged and routed my light infantry.
> However their
> mandantory one turn of pursuit allowed me to throw a
> cavalry unit
> into the mix and the otherwise very hard to catch
> lights were
> eliminated as a threat. I considered this to be
> very important as
> irregular armies like Samurai lack the mobility to
> deal with light
> cavalry.
>
> On the same turn I taught Erik why small cavalry
> units should not be
> caught out in front of large infantry archer units
> by shooting up a
> heavy cavalry unit that he has pushed forward. Thin
> unfortunate
> unit shook when forced to test for 3 cpf caused by
> shooting. The
> following turn he attempted to retire this unit and
> blew the waver
> test. The resulting rout caused a couple of shaken
> units including
> one of the formidible legionarii formations.
>
> On the following two turns things went from bad to
> worse for the
> romans as my battle line got within katana range.
> After pausing to
> shoot up several cavalry units that were intermixed
> with the Roman
> battle line I launched a general charge to contact
> along the line.
> On my left one of these fights went badly as a unit
> of auxillia had
> the misfortune to attack a heavy throwing weapon,
> javelin, dart, and
> shield armed legionarii unit and the combined
> shooting and melee
> drove them back disordered. Likewise on that flank
> a unit of my
> hard charging cavalry was shot to pieces by the
> darts of another
> legionarii unit and had to break off from combat.
> This was somewhat
> made up for by the cavalry unit led by my CinC
> breaking a Roman
> heavy cav unit that had tried to slip around my left
> flank.
>
> On the right things went even worse for Richard.
> Although two of
> his Goth units which had escaped serious damage from
> my longbow
> volly managed to break on of my Samurai units the
> rest of the
> infantry charges managed to impact auxilia and badly
> shot up cavalry
> units. The resulting routs and shaken units due to
> waver tests
> caused his command to go into retreat orders. After
> counting up
> Erik's command we found that he too was now in
> retreat and the game
> was called.
>
> When debriefing the fight we realised that the roman
> defeat was
> caused by a combination of the aformentioned terrain
> troubles and
> Richard and Erik's inexperience. A more experienced
> opponent would
> have picked their fights better and recognized the
> bad match ups
> that were develloping. But one lives and learns!
>
> Despite the fairly one sided game everyone seemed to
> have a good
> time. It was also good to finaly meet Erik and I
> hope he chooses to
> come out and play with us again in the future.
>
> Anything to add guys?
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>