Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mike Bard]

As others, I wasn't planning to do this (else I would have taken notes and
names! (I can never remember names.)) but here goes. Since I'm still
relearning my way through Warrior after a 20 year abandonment of WRG 7th,
consider these more general notes and tactical thoughts than hard core
battle reports.

Army:

For good, or for bad, Warrior is based upon the theory that technology is
the most important factor in rating troop types (I happen to disagree and
think that DBM is a better historical simulation, but I find Warrior a far
more interesting rule set that is more enjoyable to play) which means that
successful tournament armies tend to have a large choice of troop types,
rather than a few types in large numbers. The Late Hoplite list I used at
Cold Wars has hoplites in large numbers, and not much else, hence I'm
switching to Syracusan as a primary tournament army. I don't mind losing
(I've wanted to make a hoplite army for 30 years, and finally am, so a
little thing such as the primary army list being... challenging... isn't
going to stop me! BRAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) but winning is preferred.

Note: the first number is the number of figures as I'm using the old WRG
books and they work by figure...

Command 1 (Attack Command)
1 Syracusan General (HC JLS); 2 Syracusan Heavy Cavalry (Reg A HC JLS Sh); 3
Syracusan Heavy Cavalry (Reg A HC JLS)
3 Syracusan Heavy Cavalry (Reg C HC JLS Sh); 3 Syracusan Heavy Cavalry (Reg
C HC JLS)
12 Cretan Archers (Reg C LI B Sh)
4 Javelinmen (Reg C LI JLS Sh)
4 Javelinmen (Reg C LI JLS Sh)
4 Slingers (Reg C LI S Sh)
4 Slingers (Reg C LI S Sh)
24 Mercenary Hoplites (Reg C MI LTS Sh)
24 Mercenary Hoplites (Reg C MI LTS Sh)
24 Mercenary Hoplites (Reg C MI LTS Sh)
6 Syracusan Gauls (Irr A LMI JLS Sh)
6 Syracusan Gauls (Irr A LMI JLS Sh)
6 Syracusan Gauls (Irr A LMI JLS Sh)
6 Syracusan Spaniards (Irr C LMI HTS Sh)
6 Syracusan Spaniards (Irr C LMI HTS Sh)
6 Syracusan Spaniards (Irr C LMI HTS Sh)
4 Syracusan Light Cavalry (Reg C LC JLS Sh)
4 Syracusan Light Cavalry (Reg C LC JLS Sh)
4 Syracusan Light Cavalry (Reg C LC JLS Sh)
4 Syracusan Light Cavalry (Reg C LC JLS Sh)

Command 2 (Hold)

1 Syracusan Sub General (HI LTS Sh); 23 Spartan Mercenary Bodyguard (Reg B
HI LTS Sh)
4 Javelinmen (Reg C LI JLS Sh)
4 Javelinmen (Reg C LI JLS Sh)
2 Heavy Bolt Shooter (Art Reg C)
32 Syracusan Hoplites (Reg D MI LTS Sh)

Terrain Choices: Two hills (aka artillery platforms), Two woods (flanks and
gallic ambush zones)

Some notes on the army:

I would have preferred to take a few more hoplites, but I left a single
block of 24 out for the miniature contest. Of course, that wasn't enough
(sigh). I also believe that 3 Heavy Bolt Shooters would have been better,
but I only got two done, so two it was. Finally, I would prefer to run all
the HC as shielded (I have strong doubts as to any historical accuracy in
unshielding the rear rank) but as I only had two elements of shielded
figures ready, I needed to run the cavalry with only a shielded front rank.

About the small Barbarian (Spaniards and Gauls) commands. The Spaniards are
designed to co-operate with the hoplites. The theory being that they run in
a block behind the left or rightmost element of a 3 element wide hoplite
block. Just before the hoplites charge (or are charged), they contract to
two elements wide and one element deep leaving an assault corridor for the
Spaniards. The hoplites charge. On the next bound, the Spaniards charge
through the gap to (hopefully) break (or badly maul) the enemy body on the
second bound of contact. The Gauls were originally for this purpose, but
due to my awe-inspiring ability to NOT roll up with them, they were
replaced. The Gauls are used to clear woods, usually be being deployed in
ambush to hit enemy bodies pinned in contact with hoplites in vulnerable
flanks.

Games (as best I remember -- anybody I misname, or otherwise describe
inaccurately, please accept my humble apologies):

Game 0: Fast Play Syracusan vs Fast Play Sassanid Persians run by Ewan
McNay. I'd prefer to sweep this under the carpet. The Syracusan FP list
consists of 2 hoplite blocks, a big sling block, an HC block, and a LC
block. The hoplites are 32 figures/8 elements each. Not enough to line the
table, and too big to maneuver efficiently. The Sassanid Persian cavalry
broke through the lights, and then it was all over as I had nothing
available to guard flanks, and no useful woods anywhere to hide the lights
in. Since I have concerns over the playing viability of any of the FP
hoplite armies outside of their designated opponents, I'm not worried about
this loss, and am not listing it as a game as it did not use the list above.
It's just here for completeness.

Game 1: 1600pt 'fun' game vs Phil Gardocki, Anglo-Irish (I think anyway --
it was some medieval barbarian mostly-foot army)

I had thought that the mini on Thursday was in 25mm but, alas, it wasn't.
Fortunately I wasn't the only one and kindly, generous, merciful Scott put
me up against Phil in a fun game since neither of us had any touraments to
be in.

This was one of the more interesting games. The map ended up with one woods
in the enemy left centre (my left), one woods in the enemy right zone (my
right), and a woods in the left centre (my left). A hill with one rocky
slope (my artillery platform) ended up near the front of my central centre
mostly behind the central woods. I placed a couple of gauls in ambush in
the centre woods, organized the line of hoplites on my left, and the cavalry
on my right. The artillery was on the hill. Some of the JLS LI units
forced march to the centre unopposed.

Phil set up his entire line in the gap between the two woods in his
deployment zone, with the knights (his army was mostly foot of various kinds
with some LC and some HK units) behind and his LC facing the edge of the
table so that they couldn't march.

I basically had free reign of the board until Phil Gave The Signal and his
orders changed to attack. His concentrated foot and knights gradually broke
me down in the centre, and a couple of units of foot sealed off the gap
between the central forest and the one in his deployment zone on my left.
And, they had stakes. A big LI unit was in ambush in the woods in his rear
zone on my left and I was finally able to rout them using a block of
Spaniards (the Gauls routed another unit that tried to take the centre
woods, but various of his infantry gradually wore out and destroyed the
other two Gallic unit -- I could have taken one of his units down with me
but on the charge from the woods I did my usually way down roll...). I was
moving the Spaniard unit in the woods in his rear zone on my left to flank
his infantry unit defending the flank as I sent my hoplites in, but cavalry
and missiles broke enough units in the centre to break my large command.

Lessons: Stakes are annoying! Two element, three figure each, artillery
doesn't do very well against large infantry blocks. Actually it sucks.

Game 2: 1600pt 'training' game vs Ty Downs, L Hungarian

This one was Friday night after I had finished in the Flea market and had
nothing else to do and so asked kindly, generous, wonderfull Scott if he
knew of an opponent. Unfortunately Ty is still learning the game (and one
of the evil people still using the WRG 7th reference chart - SHAME!).
Fortunately he played a SHK/EHK army. The people I play up here in Toronto
in civilization basically boil down to Al Lougheed and his Han Chinese
(although that is being worked on), so I have had a strong lack of exposure
to knight or elephant armies -- and hence didn't have a tactical doctrine.

Ty's army consisted of two SHK (EHK?) sub-generals as independent commands,
a general as SHK (EHK?), another SHK (EHK?) body, and a number of Hand
Gun/Cross Bow units (HG front rank, CB rear rank). There were also a number
of LC units. There was also one LI bow unit.

Terrain consisted of a woods on my right flank in the centre, and not much
else. Ty deployed with his foot in front, and his knights behind, with most
of his LC on my right. I deployed the hoplites in the middle, the cavalry
on my right, and the artillery (I think) on my left. The celts were in
ambush.

Charges with Spaniards, hoplites, and gauls wiped out the three foot units,
but his LC drove my LC off (some evaded off the table). Eventually Ty was
able to dismount some knights and break through my hoplites aided by flank
charges. I did break one knight unit by hitting it in the flank with a
gallic ambush whilst it was chewing through a hoplite block.

Lessons: SHK are tough. Really, really tough! The only real chance I have
against them is a point blank shot with artillery, or letting them charge a
hoplite block (which they shouldn't be able to break on contact) and then
hitting them in the flank with either Spaniards or Gauls. This tactic was
rewarded in our second game, though my positioning made me work for it.

Game 3: 1600pt 25mm Open game vs... wait for it... Ty Downs, L Hungarian

Finally the tournament and, guess who my first opponent was! Terrain
consisted of no hills (failed both rolls) and a woods on each of my right
and left flanks. Ty did his usual deployment of foot in front and knights
behind.

This game was far more successful, though deploying my ambushes on the wrong
flank almost destroyed me. As it was, my multiple small cavalry units drove
routted his LC and helped the gauls take out the LI and one of the foot
units. The hoplite line held repeated charges from dismounted SHI and SHK
unsupported as all the ambushes were in the wrong place. The large Reg D
block was finally routed, and most of the other hoplites shaken, before I
finally cleared out his foot and sent the fresh gauls into the flanks of his
units (supported by a free hoplite unit). That killed his generaly and
demoralized most of his army. We played another bound with his one
surviving sub-general trying to get some points, but the artillery at point
blank range caused 10CPF... The one odd thing was when his initial SHK
charge broke through a hoplite unit, got hit in the flank by some Spaniards,
broke off, and then were charged in the rear by the same Spaniards and in
the flank by the Spartans... Ugly.

I can win! I can win! It's possible! (Okay, I have won one other game of
Warrior because Al, who had crushed me so often, got lazy and made mistakes,
and did win a few training games against new players, but I don't count the
latter games).

Lessons: None really -- just that I need to make sure the ambushes go in the
right place, or at least make sure the encourage him to attack where the
ambushes are.

Game 4: 1600pt 25mm Open game vs Charles Yaw, Sassanid Persian

Yes, now I'm cocky! Now I'm confident! And still I'm stup*... err
inexperienced!

Terrain consisted of a small rocky hill in the centre right (my right) of
the table, a large rocky hill forward of my left flank (a good 6-8 elements
room on its left and to its rear for movement) and a wood on my right near
the centre of the table.

Charles' army was fairly similar to the one I painted for Ewan (Persians,
Persians everywhere! Can't escape! AHHHHH!). He deployed most of his army
on my left, a block a 6 elements of MI archers forced marched to the centre
hill, and one SHC sub-general in the far right (mine) corner. Finally have
a chance to test my primarly artillery deployment plan, I force march my
artillery to the little hill in the centre, put the delaying command behind
the hill, put the foot of the attack command in the gap between the two
hills (and gaul ambushes in the one woods), archers and slingers on the
other rocky hill, hoplites to block the rear pass, and all my cavalry on my
far left to delay him.

Error 1: Because the centre hill was small, and in the centre, I couldn't
deploy the two LI JLS bodies in that command in front of it, and Charles
could force march his archer horde directly opposite the artillery.

Error 2: Forgetting about the archers (more on that later).

Error 3: Left as an exercise for the student, though it will be described in
the Lessons below.

Our force marches over the centre hill push each other back, my JLS force
marches are unopposed, and my LC meets his in the centre left. The hoplites
position themselves to create a box, and the gauls (now in the artillery
command since I was told that you can re-organize commands between
battles -- huh?! Is this true?) ambushed in the woods.

On my left his elephants and clibinarii obliterate my cavalry with charges,
disorder, and lots and lots of bow fire. On my right the artillery remains
behind the slope of the hill, firing at elephants ineffectually, until
Charles right faces his archers to deal with one of my LI units. Thinking
'Ah hah!' I do formation changes to position the artillery on the hill to
shoot some elephants which simply causes to Charles to formation change his
archers and wipe out the artillery (though they take a LONG time to actually
break as they continuously pass waver checks). I manage to put a solid line
of hoplites around my camp but with the loss of all the cavalry I'm close to
becoming demoralized. Charles runs a SHC and EHC unit around my right of
the central hill and the Spartan mercenaries greet it and are slowly pushed
back, and the usual roll down with the gauls prevents me breaking any units.
Charges and missile fire eventually shake one of the hoplite bodies of the
big command, and the big command withdraws. We play a couple more bounds to
see if I can break his cavalry on my right but I fail (see the gaul roll
down mentioned above) and we end with a 5:0 for Charles.

Lessons (lots and lots of lessons):

1. Never, ever, under any circumstances (unless I'm bribed) use cavalry
agressively against an elephant army. They would have worked much better if
I'd held them back and later sent them through the carefully arranged one
element gap between the forest on my right and the edge of the table once
the elephants were engaged to either go camp huntiing, or to aid the units
engaging my hoplites far away from the elephants.

2. Never, ever, place the artillery here right in the middle of the table!
If it is placed 120 paces back, I can force march onto it freely (or just
march), AND have enough room to put LI in front of it (40 paces away) to
prevent enemy missiles from making it useless.

Game 5: 1600pt 25mm Open game vs Dick Hurchanik(?), L Ottoman Turk

Dick's army consisted of an awful lot (an AWFUL lot) of foot - I think more
than I had, and 2-3 units of knights. He also loves Brush.

Terrain consisted of a rocky hill I placed in a perfect artillery support
position on my left (back from the centre) which was then buried in brush.
Another hill was also buried in brush. A forest appeared in the centre
right (my right). A big brush appeared in the centre of my front zone.
Brush is like woods, except it doesn't block LOS, right? Right?! That's
what I thought anyway.

Seeing lots of difficult terrain I place my attack command on my left
between the useless hill and the central rough, and the other command behind
the rough and the forest in case he moves an attack through gaps on my far
right. Most of my lights and barbarians are deployment behind the big rough
in the middle -- after all, it's basically a woods -- right? He deploys his
mass infantry from my far left of his deployment zone in towards the centre
of the table. The leftmost unit is a huge LI archer unit, with the
Jannisairies (is that right - units with HG front rank, bow second rank, and
something in the 3rd rank).

The game starts and I march my light infantry to the front edge of the big
brush in the middle, hold my hoplites further back so that the celts in the
rocky hill can support them with flank attacks, move my artillery to fire
through the gap between the rough and the woods, and send one LC unit
towards the gap between the woods and table edge on my far right and through
the gap between the rough and the table edge on my far left. Dick marches
his infantry forward, and all his cavalry up to 240 paces away from the edge
of the rough. Bound two it all falls apart as his cavalry charges all of my
lights, routs them, pursues them, rolls up, and kills everything in the
brush. One LC body even makes it into contact with the artillery
(fortunately rolls crappy so that I can send some LC into their flank two
bounds later -- can't charge a converted charge until the bound after the
bound after the bound in which the converted charge occurs, which saves the
artillery. Meanwhile, on bound 2 still, his LC flank march enters on my
right and marches through the brush.

Much leafing through the rulebook -- use, the brush was handled correctly --
it screws infantry (though they don't need a waver check) and become a
super-highway for cavalry although the cavalry is disordered.

I force down dispair, face the fact that I'm almost certainly dead, and work
to make him pay for every pace.

Through the rest of the game I rout a couple of LC units, kill some of the
units in the brush by charging them with a hoplite block which then recalls
out, try to mass a charge against his LI B on my far left (thinking that if
he rolls down I could break them and have an opening -- he doesn't and
eventually chases me off the board). One lonely surviving LI JLS unit holds
his main line while I try to clear the brush and establish some kind of
defense. I get it cleared but too late as he finally breaks the big
command.

I think that if I knew that brush was not woods I could have made him pay a
lot more as I would have been able to agressively go after his Jannisairies
with my hoplites (and Spaniard support) and hopefully break one or two. Oh
well.

Lessons: BRUSH IS NOT WOODS! Let me repeat this: BRUSH IS NOT WOODS!
Hopefully I will never forget this.

Conclusions: I think I achieved two of my three aims at Historicon: learn a
lot (I now have some tactical doctrine for SHK and Elephant armies), and
made all of my opponents work for their victories. I failed in aim 3 -- the
painting contests -- because I chose to game rather than enter. I also
achieved a surprise aim 4: BRUSH IS NOT WOODS! Anyway, I had fun, met lots
of people, showed off my disorder/shaken/rally/recall markers, picked up
useful stuff, and became better known.

Next year is when I start hoping to actually win! BRAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Michael Bard
That Greek Hoplite Guy

*Note that my immediate goal is to make my opponents work to break me, and I
think that I am managing that...