Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Todd Kaeser]

Well, after one of my worst NICT's in quite some time I'll throw out the Berber
list I used for everyone to see. There was a lost of discussion about this list
prior to the NICT and I disregarded a lot of it - should have listened. There
are pictures of the battles if you need the visual at
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/WarriorRules/lst - see NICT Berber

C-in-C 2E Ir B HC L,Sh + PA (160)
3x 4E Berber Cav Ir C LC Jls,Sh (73) - required
4E Ghuzz Ir C LC Jls,B,Sh/B (69)
2x 6E Berber Javelinmen Ir C LI Jls,Sh (61) - required
6E Berber Archers Ir C LI B,Sh (61)
6E Berber Slinger Ir C LI S,Sh (61)
4x 6E Berber Spear Ir C MI LTS,Jls,Sh (121)

Christian Ally 2E Ir B EHK L,Sh + P (130)
2x 2E Knights Ir B EHK L,Sh (115)
2x 4E Almughavars Ir B LMI HTW,Jls 1/2Sh (79)

This army is not typically my style of play - I like counter-punching, shooting,
regular armies - see the problem?

1st round - Derek and his 19 Khmer Elephants. Great matchup for me considering
the foot I have. 2 events sealed this game for Derek and his eventual run to
the championships. I had a great matchup with a Moog unit and a Spear unit
hitting one of Derek's line (LHI jls,Sh) unit and a 2 Elephant unit flatfooted
(Derek was caught in a rally after destroying a LI unit of mine. Well the line
unit routed (all waver tests passed) and the elephants were recoiled. They
should have been dead, but next turn they rolled +4 to stay alive and inflicted
hellacious fatigue on my moog unit. Needless to say while I eventually got the
elephant unit after 4 turns of combat I couldn't push that side. On the other
side Derek's heroic HC Jls,Sh unit turned the corner of my flank and hit my
other Moog unit of the flank. Well, it survived, but next turn, with 2 elephant
units in trouble (hitting the MI LTS,Jls,Sh units), the combats went the wrong
way. Moogs broke, spear on their left shook and
routed, spear on THEIR left shook and eventually routed. 5-3 loss. Derek's
rolls were super- 2 times rolling +4 w/ elephants and twice +2. I saw another
battle of Derek's where those super HC Jls,Sh routed a Mixtec unit as well -
obviously they were the hidden super troop hidden in Derek's list of 19
elephants.

2nd round - John Murphy's Free Company. 5-1 victory for me. I guessed
correctly on the terrain and John's setup. I was able to push my spear blocks
across the board and got John's LB units pinned against his K units. I was able
to keep the K units from ganging up on a single spear block. Tough spot for
John, but I was able to advance.

3rd round - Mark Hissam's Late Roman. Had a great shot at hitting a 24 man
Auxilla unit and a Legion on my left with a Impetuous Spear and K unit. Mark
rolls +2 with the Auxilla which I should have routed on contact with a C Aux
unit , C HC unit and a C/D mixed Legion unit to take the morale test had they
routed. Then I caught another 24 man Aux unit evading w/ another K unit -
needed an +1 to rout it, rolled down. Without those early breaks Late Roman
Legions grind my foot down quickly. Mark played very well holding down his
flanks against my hoards of LC, but I couldn't take advantage of his only 2
mistakes. 5-2 loss.

4th round - my favorite battle of the NICT, was against Alex Vaeth's Mixtec army
- tons, literally tons of Ir B LMI LTS,B.Sh in 24 man units, 2 units of Ir A
2HCT,Jls,Sh / 1HCW,Jls,Sh and 1 of Ir C. Biggest combat was a 24 man Ir A unit
facing an impetuous Berber spear unit. Alex rolled + 1 (up 3 w/ A's) - having
his unit at 14 at a more. I needed an up 3 to win the combat and luck shone on
me (finally) and I rolled it. I inflicted I believe 180 to his 160ish. He was
exhausted and destroyed, I was exhausted, alive - sort of. Big points killed in
the battle- his CinC fell on the last bound and his entire army went on retreat
- I believe I killed over 1080 and Alex killed over 900. Alex was able to
destroy my LC and LI with his bows - I couldn't stop it at all on 1 flank. At
the end I believe Alex has a single 24 man sub-general unit not in retreat and I
had 2 knight units 1 w/ 14 fatigues and a moog unit not in retreat. 4-3 barely.

5th round - Tim Brown's Neo Assyrian. Credit for Tim for bringing this Biblical
army. Needless to say Tim smashed me. The Berber army can't handle that much
bowfire. Tim also caught 3 units of my LC by turn 3 and was able to envelope
me. With all my lights in my Berber command getting caught or failing waiver
tests the command went into retirement quickly. One last ditch effort with the
knights and I met the flaming arrows of death. It's tough enough to face 24
camels shooting at you, but at artillery factors knights don't even have a
chance, nevermind 24 at a 4 against a 24 man spear block. 5-1 Tim. With the
rule change (fire arrows) I don't see many people buying fortifications against
a shooting army - those fire arrows are deadly for that 1 shot and at only a
point apiece they are very cost effective. Tim's whole army had them for only
120 pts or so. He never really needed them against me, but if I had played
better it wouldn't have mattered; Tim would have shot up my
spear and knight units mercilessly.

The Berber army, the way that I ran it, didn't have any great flexibility. I
got the extra Ghuzz unit thinking I needed to win the battle of the lights, but
there weren't that many lights and the unit went unused. I forgot that fewer
lights are used in 25mm - not needed as much due to the smaller board
(proportionally w/ 15mm). If I were to play this army again I would drop the
Ghuzz unit (69 pts), reduce the Moogs from 12's to 6's. (54 pts) reduce the 12
man archer LI and slinger LI to 8's (required elements only - saving 24 pts) and
getting 2 units of 4E Reg C LMI B,Sh (74 pts each) I think these were the flank
protectors of my spears I was missing. I felt obligated to run either a K unit
or moog out to the flanks of my spear wall to keep them from being turned, which
weakened my frontal assault force of gap attackers. Knights and moogs don't
protect flanks all that well being irregular and the moogs didn't have the
"reach" needed that the LMI B units could provide. The reg
bow units would have the movement and quickness needed to keep my flanks
protected. The 2E Moog units could still punch trough the gaps.

Thanks for letting me vent my frustration, hope this helped others with Berber
armies in the future.

Todd Kaeser




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