Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

The six armies we had at the mini open at Kubla Con showcased a nice range of
armies and playing styles. I can give a quick description of every army, and
some more detail on the specific matchups I faced.

Dave Lauerman, Northern Chinese: Dave's army was not necessarily configured the
way you'd ideally want it for Warrior. He's been playing almost exclusively DBM
for some years now, and this army was based with his DBM configuration in mind.
Specifically, this meant that he had no SHC, one of the strong points of the
list in my opinion. This may indirectly have helped him out, as SHC get very
expensive when you're only playing 1200 points. His army had 2 units of LI, 4
or 5 units of LC, and the rest a mix of HC and EHC, some in 6 figure units and
some in 12 figure units.

Ed Forbes, Swiss: I really admire what Ed has done with the Swiss over the last
several months. He has got this army down to a system. Yes, it still has it's
weaknesses, but I think Ed's way of playing it is one very viable way to go. He
has about 4 units of cav, all with SHK in the front and some that are entirely
SHK (gotta have some knights that can safely charge in the brush). The entire
rest of the army is 4 figure units of LI and 3 stand units of Swiss foot (2
stands of pike and 1 stand of 2HCT). The LI escort the pike, splitting fire and
taking waver tests as needed to stay on the line rather than recall back. The
pike charge anything and everything they can get to, and the knights charge
into anything disrupted and/or pinned by the pike.

Terry Dix, Bactrian Greek: you'd never have known that our two Bactrian Greek
armies were from the same list. Terry had a 3 model unit of elephants, and the
entire rest of his army was a mix of LC and HC. Lots of scouting, lots of
capacity to envelope and exploit flanks, but in the end not as much straight
ahead hitting power as he needed, and not as much as Dave got from his EHC.

John Baumann, Bactrian Greek: a more "classically" configured Bactrian army:
more elephants than Terry had, a couple of units of pikes, a couple of units of
peltasts, and enough cav and LI not to get outscouted, but not really an
enveloping army. John also had one big unit of MI Indian longbowmen.

Dale Shanek, Qin Chinese: This is really a good army in Warrior, but it takes
some practice and experience to use it well. Dale did admirably making the jump
from DBM, and I'm sure he'll get better with it. He had a large block of HI
2HCT, a large block of MI LTS, a unit of 4 heavy chariots, a unit of 24 LHI
crossbowmen, and several units of LI and LC.

Mark Stone, Feudal French: This was an opportunity for me to play a fun army
rather than one of my top tier armies, as I was just here to have fun, assure
that others had fun, and round out the numbers. I'd wanted to play Medieval
French, an army I love historically, but on 1200 points those SHK get too
expensive, so I opted to go for Feudal French with the more economical EHK/HK
mix. Here's the list:
CinC w/2 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
3x 2 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
1x 4 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
2x 4 stands Irr C HI 2HCT,Pa/MI JLS
2x 6 stands Irr A/C LMI JLS,Sh
2x 8 stands Irr C LI B
1x 6 stands Irr C LI CB

The line consists of the LI and the pavisse-carrying Brigans, with the knights
in reserve and the Irr A Cathars occupying difficult terrain or adding to the
reserve. This army doesn't hold a lot of frontage, so terrain picks are needed
to give it shoulders to operate between.

Game 1, facing Terry Dix's Bactrian Greeks. As I recall I had virtually no
terrain to work with. I had a brush in one corner of my rear zone, which was
where I hoped Terry would expect me to set up, so instead I set up on the
opposite corner. My thinking was that I didn't have enough stuff to both cover
the line and guard against a flank march, so I needed to gamble on setting up
where a flank march wouldn't be. This worked as expected, with Terry sending a
flank march coming in right where the corner brush was and my army wasn't.

I set up in a diagonal line from about the middle of my rear zone to the right
table edge. Terry quickly filled my frontage with skirmishing LC, and started
to move his elephants forward. I moved some Brigans and Cathars to oppose the
elephants, and Terry re-directed the elephants. My Brigans and Cathars remained
stuck where they were, but the elephants ran out of time before finding any
useful place to insert themselves.

Terry was, in my opinion, overly cautious about charging my shieldless LI with
his LC. As long as he is (a) not impetous, and (b) routs me at contact, he's
pretty safe as he can still evade if I charge through the routing LI with
knights. Terry never did, though. I ended up with a couple of routed or shaken
light infantry units, and did some last bound charges with my knights to try
and catch something. Thanks to a failed counter by Reg Bs on Terry's part and a
long roll on pursuit from me, I did manage to catch and rout a couple of things.
Final score 2-1 for me, and not a very satisfying outcome for either of us.

Game 2, facing Dale's Qin Chinese. I'm outscouted, but I get a hill on one
flank, and a brush in the middle of the table. I'm much more comfortable with
this setup, force marching some Cathars onto the hill and my LI CB into the
brush, planning to set up my battle line between these. After Dale sets up, I
realize that I actually hold more frontage than he does. This is really a
function of three units of his: the LHI CB, the MI LTS, and the HI 2HCT. These
are potent units (at least against me), but dense. Dale has also put his LC in
the middle, obviously hoping to pin me back as far as possible. It occurs to me
that _I_ might actually be able to envelope _him_.

This notion takes on new meaning on bound 1 as Dale makes a slight mistake in
march moves. He sends an LI unit to face off against my LI in the brush, and in
so doing allows more than a 240p gap between his LI unit and the edge of the
table. The only other unit he has on that flank is his chariots. I quickly
marshall 3 knight units and a unit of Brigans to sweep around his LI and onto
his flank.

Now it is my turn to make a slight mistake. I'm eager to exploit this opening
before he has a chance to close the gap, and thus I allow my knights (3 march
move segments) to get out ahead of my Brigans (2 march move segments). It will
be several bounds before this comes back to haunt me, but haunt me it will.

In the middle my LI stalls his close order foot, and on the right my Cathars on
the hill stare at his 9 figure Irr A LMI unit, neither wanting to get too close
to the other.

Dale throws his chariots onto the flank to forestall my envelopment, and things
unfold thus: I get to charge a 6 figure knight unit into the end of his chariot
unit, and I'll get to follow up next bound with a 12 figure knight unit into his
chariot unit. To achieve this -- because the Brigans are too far behind -- I
have to throw a 6 figure knight unit into a 24 figure LHI CB unit. Hey, he
could fail his waver for being charged in the open, and in any case he doesn't
have shields. I'm not figuring on winning. My goal there is to survive and not
rout.

My first knight unit recoils his chariots. So far, so good. My charge against
the CB doesn't go so well, however. He passes his waver and rolls up 3 on
shooting, doing 48 casualties to my charging knights in support shooting. They
lose exhausted on the spot, but only one unit wavers for this, and passes. Next
bound the 12 figure knight unit goes into the chariots, and together with the
knight unit following up from the previous bound I rack up 57 casualties and
twice as many. Alas, I need 60 casualties to rout him, because he's a 4 chariot
unit counting as 20 figures.

Things go down hill from there. My Brigans are still too far away to reach the
CB, and so Dale swings the CB to support shoot into the flank of my knights.
This prevents me from doing a CPF to his chariots, and so now I'm not following
up. The Brigans eventually get there and start chasing the now-evading CB, but
the chariot fight is over. Nobody's doing a CPF to anybody.

Seeing the writing on the wall a bound or two ahead of this, I realize I need
action elsewhere if I'm going to win. I send my Cathars down off the hill after
his Irr As, figuring I'm an 18 figure unit and he's a 9 figure unit, so I have
the edge. I send a knight unit in that direction to mop up later if needed.
Almost as an afterthought, I send my CinC and my other Cathar unit towards his
big HI 2HCT unit.

When my Cathars meet his Irr A unit I roll down 2, and he rolls up 2 (which is
up 4). He does twice as many and 7 CPF to me, and I rout/exhaust on the spot.
He's at 13 fatigue, but he's still there.

OK. I've taken a small but sigificant advantage on either flank, and attempted
to make the most of it. I've failed both times. Not a good day so far for the
French. Then, a miracle occurs.

Hurling my CinC and my Cathers into his 2HCT guys, I roll up 2 with the Cathars
and up 4 with my CinC. Not only do I win against his 2HCT, I in fact do 3 CPF
and twice as many. He routs, heading past several units of dubious morale class
(like Reg D). I get a shaken unit or two out of this, and my knights mop up his
Irr A foot rallying with 13 fatigue.

Dale played a very fine game. I saw only the one little mistake with marching
his LI. I would not have spent quite so many points on the big 2HCT unit (could
be back rank MI instead of HI throughout), but otherwise his way of buying the
list was reasonable. The final score was 4-2, but it was much closer than that.

After two rounds it looks like Ed Forbes is going to be the big winner. He has 9
points, and Dave Lauerman and I both have 6. Ed plays his last game against
Terry's Bactrians, and I play against Dave.

Ed tries valiantly to bring Terry to grips, chasing him from one end of the
board to the other. Terry has nothing that can deal frontally with Ed's Swiss,
and tries relentlessly to get some combination of envelopment and shooting to
crack Ed's line open. Ed is by now very seasoned at his tactics, however, and
has become quite adept at splitting fire with his little 4 figure LI units. The
final score is 1-0, Terry.

I get my dream terrain picks against Dave. I have a woods in the center of my
rear zone. Just in front of that I have a steep hill. And on my right flank I
have another steep hill. I put a Cathar unit and the LI CB unit to guard the
central steep hill, I put the other Cathar unit to guard the flank steep hill,
and I set up a tight line of LI and pavisse-wielding Brigans between. Dave is
going to have to pack his troops in tight if he wants to come after me.

He sends his two LI units and two LC units to nibble at me on the central hill.
He consistently rolls down on shooting here, and nothing changes in this area
from Bound 2 to the end of the game. He ignores my Cathars on the flank hill.

In the middle, Dave has done his math on the LC/LI matchup. He knows that
without shields, I'm in trouble. I finesse this as best I can, charging off his
LC with my Brigans when I'm able to, and trying to make counters to keep the LI
far enough away. A few bounds of this dance, however, and Dave gets the setup
he wants: 12 figures of LC JLS,B charging non-impetuously against 16 figures of
LI B who dare not evade. To make matters worse, I fail my waver for being
charged.

I then proceed to roll up 2 in support shooting, bringing the LC factor down
just enough so that I don't rout. Dave does 45 in hand-to-hand, and 2 in
support shooting, for a total of 47 casualties on a 16 figure unit. I recoil
disordered, but pass my waver test. My knights are lined up to rout his LC.

At this point Dave comments that perhaps he ought to just concede, as he's taken
his one shot and it didn't pan out. Puzzled, I inquire further. Turns out he has
_not_ done the math on bow-armed EHC vs. EHK. He's thinking of it like a DBMer,
and thinking he has no real chance in that matchup. I point out that I'll
probably be tired and disordered, and thus he'll be fighting the HK, and the
factor difference is only one between HK and EHC (lance charging EHC is a 4;
lance charging HK is a 3). What I don't point out is that i'm not all that
worried, as I have a 12 figure unit of knights and he's going to have to roll
up to do 3 CPF to me with his EHC.

At this point I make a crucial mistake. I want to make sure I do, indeed, rout
the LC with my knights, and so I declare the charge to be impetous. This proves
to be overkill, as the LC end up at 14 CPF at the end of the melee. They rout,
Dave passes all his waver tests, and -- because I was impetuous -- I must rally
forward. That's the mistake. Had I been able to recall back -- for having ceased
pursuit without contact -- I could have sheltered my rallying knights with the
adjacent Brigan unit. Instead I'm hanging in the breeze in front of a horde of
EHC.

Dave charges in, I counter charge, and -- ack -- Dave rolls up. My knights rout.
Bad, but salvagable. It's the "pacman syndrome": he's gobbled my LI, I've
gobbled his LC, he's gobbled my knights, and now all I have to do is pass waver
tests with my knights to gobble his EHC and seize the advantage once again. My
French knights, including the CinC, the flower of European chivalry of their
time, now fail waver tests with four consecutive knight units.

Game over, 5-1 in favor of Dave, and enough for him to overtake Ed and win the
tournament.

A really good time was had by all. Dave even commented at the end "I had
forgotten how much I liked this game system." High praise indeed from a veteran
and skilled DBM player. But even in defeat, I had a blast. The French are not a
complicated army. My goal every game was fairly simple: get every knight unit
an opportunity to charge, and get some of those charges to cause waver tests.
Generally, if the French can do that, good things will happen. Generally, I
succeeded, and the rest is up to the dice. As we all know, the dice gods can't
smile on everyone all the time.


-Mark Stone

Mark,

Thanks for an enjoyabale read.

Aubrey.
--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, Mark Stone <mark@d...> wrote:
> The six armies we had at the mini open at Kubla Con showcased a
nice range of
> armies and playing styles. I can give a quick description of every
army, and
> some more detail on the specific matchups I faced.
>
> Dave Lauerman, Northern Chinese: Dave's army was not necessarily
configured the
> way you'd ideally want it for Warrior. He's been playing almost
exclusively DBM
> for some years now, and this army was based with his DBM
configuration in mind.
> Specifically, this meant that he had no SHC, one of the strong
points of the
> list in my opinion. This may indirectly have helped him out, as SHC
get very
> expensive when you're only playing 1200 points. His army had 2
units of LI, 4
> or 5 units of LC, and the rest a mix of HC and EHC, some in 6
figure units and
> some in 12 figure units.
>
> Ed Forbes, Swiss: I really admire what Ed has done with the Swiss
over the last
> several months. He has got this army down to a system. Yes, it
still has it's
> weaknesses, but I think Ed's way of playing it is one very viable
way to go. He
> has about 4 units of cav, all with SHK in the front and some that
are entirely
> SHK (gotta have some knights that can safely charge in the brush).
The entire
> rest of the army is 4 figure units of LI and 3 stand units of Swiss
foot (2
> stands of pike and 1 stand of 2HCT). The LI escort the pike,
splitting fire and
> taking waver tests as needed to stay on the line rather than recall
back. The
> pike charge anything and everything they can get to, and the
knights charge
> into anything disrupted and/or pinned by the pike.
>
> Terry Dix, Bactrian Greek: you'd never have known that our two
Bactrian Greek
> armies were from the same list. Terry had a 3 model unit of
elephants, and the
> entire rest of his army was a mix of LC and HC. Lots of scouting,
lots of
> capacity to envelope and exploit flanks, but in the end not as much
straight
> ahead hitting power as he needed, and not as much as Dave got from
his EHC.
>
> John Baumann, Bactrian Greek: a more "classically" configured
Bactrian army:
> more elephants than Terry had, a couple of units of pikes, a couple
of units of
> peltasts, and enough cav and LI not to get outscouted, but not
really an
> enveloping army. John also had one big unit of MI Indian longbowmen.
>
> Dale Shanek, Qin Chinese: This is really a good army in Warrior,
but it takes
> some practice and experience to use it well. Dale did admirably
making the jump
> from DBM, and I'm sure he'll get better with it. He had a large
block of HI
> 2HCT, a large block of MI LTS, a unit of 4 heavy chariots, a unit
of 24 LHI
> crossbowmen, and several units of LI and LC.
>
> Mark Stone, Feudal French: This was an opportunity for me to play a
fun army
> rather than one of my top tier armies, as I was just here to have
fun, assure
> that others had fun, and round out the numbers. I'd wanted to play
Medieval
> French, an army I love historically, but on 1200 points those SHK
get too
> expensive, so I opted to go for Feudal French with the more
economical EHK/HK
> mix. Here's the list:
> CinC w/2 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
> 3x 2 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
> 1x 4 stands Irr B EHK/HK L,Sh
> 2x 4 stands Irr C HI 2HCT,Pa/MI JLS
> 2x 6 stands Irr A/C LMI JLS,Sh
> 2x 8 stands Irr C LI B
> 1x 6 stands Irr C LI CB
>
> The line consists of the LI and the pavisse-carrying Brigans, with
the knights
> in reserve and the Irr A Cathars occupying difficult terrain or
adding to the
> reserve. This army doesn't hold a lot of frontage, so terrain picks
are needed
> to give it shoulders to operate between.
>
> Game 1, facing Terry Dix's Bactrian Greeks. As I recall I had
virtually no
> terrain to work with. I had a brush in one corner of my rear zone,
which was
> where I hoped Terry would expect me to set up, so instead I set up
on the
> opposite corner. My thinking was that I didn't have enough stuff to
both cover
> the line and guard against a flank march, so I needed to gamble on
setting up
> where a flank march wouldn't be. This worked as expected, with
Terry sending a
> flank march coming in right where the corner brush was and my army
wasn't.
>
> I set up in a diagonal line from about the middle of my rear zone
to the right
> table edge. Terry quickly filled my frontage with skirmishing LC,
and started
> to move his elephants forward. I moved some Brigans and Cathars to
oppose the
> elephants, and Terry re-directed the elephants. My Brigans and
Cathars remained
> stuck where they were, but the elephants ran out of time before
finding any
> useful place to insert themselves.
>
> Terry was, in my opinion, overly cautious about charging my
shieldless LI with
> his LC. As long as he is (a) not impetous, and (b) routs me at
contact, he's
> pretty safe as he can still evade if I charge through the routing
LI with
> knights. Terry never did, though. I ended up with a couple of
routed or shaken
> light infantry units, and did some last bound charges with my
knights to try
> and catch something. Thanks to a failed counter by Reg Bs on
Terry's part and a
> long roll on pursuit from me, I did manage to catch and rout a
couple of things.
> Final score 2-1 for me, and not a very satisfying outcome for
either of us.
>
> Game 2, facing Dale's Qin Chinese. I'm outscouted, but I get a hill
on one
> flank, and a brush in the middle of the table. I'm much more
comfortable with
> this setup, force marching some Cathars onto the hill and my LI CB
into the
> brush, planning to set up my battle line between these. After Dale
sets up, I
> realize that I actually hold more frontage than he does. This is
really a
> function of three units of his: the LHI CB, the MI LTS, and the HI
2HCT. These
> are potent units (at least against me), but dense. Dale has also
put his LC in
> the middle, obviously hoping to pin me back as far as possible. It
occurs to me
> that _I_ might actually be able to envelope _him_.
>
> This notion takes on new meaning on bound 1 as Dale makes a slight
mistake in
> march moves. He sends an LI unit to face off against my LI in the
brush, and in
> so doing allows more than a 240p gap between his LI unit and the
edge of the
> table. The only other unit he has on that flank is his chariots. I
quickly
> marshall 3 knight units and a unit of Brigans to sweep around his
LI and onto
> his flank.
>
> Now it is my turn to make a slight mistake. I'm eager to exploit
this opening
> before he has a chance to close the gap, and thus I allow my
knights (3 march
> move segments) to get out ahead of my Brigans (2 march move
segments). It will
> be several bounds before this comes back to haunt me, but haunt me
it will.
>
> In the middle my LI stalls his close order foot, and on the right
my Cathars on
> the hill stare at his 9 figure Irr A LMI unit, neither wanting to
get too close
> to the other.
>
> Dale throws his chariots onto the flank to forestall my
envelopment, and things
> unfold thus: I get to charge a 6 figure knight unit into the end of
his chariot
> unit, and I'll get to follow up next bound with a 12 figure knight
unit into his
> chariot unit. To achieve this -- because the Brigans are too far
behind -- I
> have to throw a 6 figure knight unit into a 24 figure LHI CB unit.
Hey, he
> could fail his waver for being charged in the open, and in any case
he doesn't
> have shields. I'm not figuring on winning. My goal there is to
survive and not
> rout.
>
> My first knight unit recoils his chariots. So far, so good. My
charge against
> the CB doesn't go so well, however. He passes his waver and rolls
up 3 on
> shooting, doing 48 casualties to my charging knights in support
shooting. They
> lose exhausted on the spot, but only one unit wavers for this, and
passes. Next
> bound the 12 figure knight unit goes into the chariots, and
together with the
> knight unit following up from the previous bound I rack up 57
casualties and
> twice as many. Alas, I need 60 casualties to rout him, because he's
a 4 chariot
> unit counting as 20 figures.
>
> Things go down hill from there. My Brigans are still too far away
to reach the
> CB, and so Dale swings the CB to support shoot into the flank of my
knights.
> This prevents me from doing a CPF to his chariots, and so now I'm
not following
> up. The Brigans eventually get there and start chasing the now-
evading CB, but
> the chariot fight is over. Nobody's doing a CPF to anybody.
>
> Seeing the writing on the wall a bound or two ahead of this, I
realize I need
> action elsewhere if I'm going to win. I send my Cathars down off
the hill after
> his Irr As, figuring I'm an 18 figure unit and he's a 9 figure
unit, so I have
> the edge. I send a knight unit in that direction to mop up later if
needed.
> Almost as an afterthought, I send my CinC and my other Cathar unit
towards his
> big HI 2HCT unit.
>
> When my Cathars meet his Irr A unit I roll down 2, and he rolls up
2 (which is
> up 4). He does twice as many and 7 CPF to me, and I rout/exhaust on
the spot.
> He's at 13 fatigue, but he's still there.
>
> OK. I've taken a small but sigificant advantage on either flank,
and attempted
> to make the most of it. I've failed both times. Not a good day so
far for the
> French. Then, a miracle occurs.
>
> Hurling my CinC and my Cathers into his 2HCT guys, I roll up 2 with
the Cathars
> and up 4 with my CinC. Not only do I win against his 2HCT, I in
fact do 3 CPF
> and twice as many. He routs, heading past several units of dubious
morale class
> (like Reg D). I get a shaken unit or two out of this, and my
knights mop up his
> Irr A foot rallying with 13 fatigue.
>
> Dale played a very fine game. I saw only the one little mistake
with marching
> his LI. I would not have spent quite so many points on the big 2HCT
unit (could
> be back rank MI instead of HI throughout), but otherwise his way of
buying the
> list was reasonable. The final score was 4-2, but it was much
closer than that.
>
> After two rounds it looks like Ed Forbes is going to be the big
winner. He has 9
> points, and Dave Lauerman and I both have 6. Ed plays his last game
against
> Terry's Bactrians, and I play against Dave.
>
> Ed tries valiantly to bring Terry to grips, chasing him from one
end of the
> board to the other. Terry has nothing that can deal frontally with
Ed's Swiss,
> and tries relentlessly to get some combination of envelopment and
shooting to
> crack Ed's line open. Ed is by now very seasoned at his tactics,
however, and
> has become quite adept at splitting fire with his little 4 figure
LI units. The
> final score is 1-0, Terry.
>
> I get my dream terrain picks against Dave. I have a woods in the
center of my
> rear zone. Just in front of that I have a steep hill. And on my
right flank I
> have another steep hill. I put a Cathar unit and the LI CB unit to
guard the
> central steep hill, I put the other Cathar unit to guard the flank
steep hill,
> and I set up a tight line of LI and pavisse-wielding Brigans
between. Dave is
> going to have to pack his troops in tight if he wants to come after
me.
>
> He sends his two LI units and two LC units to nibble at me on the
central hill.
> He consistently rolls down on shooting here, and nothing changes in
this area
> from Bound 2 to the end of the game. He ignores my Cathars on the
flank hill.
>
> In the middle, Dave has done his math on the LC/LI matchup. He
knows that
> without shields, I'm in trouble. I finesse this as best I can,
charging off his
> LC with my Brigans when I'm able to, and trying to make counters to
keep the LI
> far enough away. A few bounds of this dance, however, and Dave gets
the setup
> he wants: 12 figures of LC JLS,B charging non-impetuously against
16 figures of
> LI B who dare not evade. To make matters worse, I fail my waver for
being
> charged.
>
> I then proceed to roll up 2 in support shooting, bringing the LC
factor down
> just enough so that I don't rout. Dave does 45 in hand-to-hand, and
2 in
> support shooting, for a total of 47 casualties on a 16 figure unit.
I recoil
> disordered, but pass my waver test. My knights are lined up to rout
his LC.
>
> At this point Dave comments that perhaps he ought to just concede,
as he's taken
> his one shot and it didn't pan out. Puzzled, I inquire further.
Turns out he has
> _not_ done the math on bow-armed EHC vs. EHK. He's thinking of it
like a DBMer,
> and thinking he has no real chance in that matchup. I point out
that I'll
> probably be tired and disordered, and thus he'll be fighting the
HK, and the
> factor difference is only one between HK and EHC (lance charging
EHC is a 4;
> lance charging HK is a 3). What I don't point out is that i'm not
all that
> worried, as I have a 12 figure unit of knights and he's going to
have to roll
> up to do 3 CPF to me with his EHC.
>
> At this point I make a crucial mistake. I want to make sure I do,
indeed, rout
> the LC with my knights, and so I declare the charge to be impetous.
This proves
> to be overkill, as the LC end up at 14 CPF at the end of the melee.
They rout,
> Dave passes all his waver tests, and -- because I was impetuous --
I must rally
> forward. That's the mistake. Had I been able to recall back -- for
having ceased
> pursuit without contact -- I could have sheltered my rallying
knights with the
> adjacent Brigan unit. Instead I'm hanging in the breeze in front of
a horde of
> EHC.
>
> Dave charges in, I counter charge, and -- ack -- Dave rolls up. My
knights rout.
> Bad, but salvagable. It's the "pacman syndrome": he's gobbled my
LI, I've
> gobbled his LC, he's gobbled my knights, and now all I have to do
is pass waver
> tests with my knights to gobble his EHC and seize the advantage
once again. My
> French knights, including the CinC, the flower of European chivalry
of their
> time, now fail waver tests with four consecutive knight units.
>
> Game over, 5-1 in favor of Dave, and enough for him to overtake Ed
and win the
> tournament.
>
> A really good time was had by all. Dave even commented at the
end "I had
> forgotten how much I liked this game system." High praise indeed
from a veteran
> and skilled DBM player. But even in defeat, I had a blast. The
French are not a
> complicated army. My goal every game was fairly simple: get every
knight unit
> an opportunity to charge, and get some of those charges to cause
waver tests.
> Generally, if the French can do that, good things will happen.
Generally, I
> succeeded, and the rest is up to the dice. As we all know, the dice
gods can't
> smile on everyone all the time.
>
>
> -Mark Stone