Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Greg Preston]

Dear All,

We had a comp down here in Oz on the weekend.
Format was 1500pts, single list from Imperial Warrior. 8 by 6 tables 3
and a half hour games.
The additional theme was lots of terrain. (8-10 pieces per table).
4 games - 2 per day
With a couple of last minute drop outs we ended up with 16 players

Results were as follows.

Colin Scott- Mithradatic-16
Graeme Ralph- Early Imperial Roman-15
Paul Collins-Bosporan- 14
Jeff Tillitski-Huns-13
Mike Morgan-Early Imperial Romans-13
John Harris- Early Imperial Romans-12
Warren Hedley- Commagene-10
Adrian Williams- Bosporan-10
Barry Hayes-Alans-8
Murray Evans-Sassanid Persian-8
Chris Craig-Kushites-8
Greg Preston- Mithradatic-7
Steve Honeyman-Kushites-6
Darren Holmes- Later Imperial Roman-5
Leigh Dunn- Alans-5
Paul Rattray-Early Imperial Romans-4

Congratulations to Colin Scott for scoring the most points and winning
the perpetual trophy. It was good to see some new faces competing for
the title. Special mention to Graeme Ralph for his first podium finish
in a while and to Warren Hedley for a much improved showing.

Thanks go to Bob Jeffrey for doing the Umpiring duties and providing
some excellent and interesting terrain.
Thanks also to Murray Evans for painting the perpetual trophy and to
Darren Holmes for the great job he did on the trophies.
Thanks also to Colin Scott from Frontline hobbies for supplying said
perpetual trophy.

Next comp in OZ is the MOAB comp in Sydney 2,3,4 of october.
Hope to see some new faces


For those who are interested brief battle reports on my games to follow.

I had often run Pontic armies under 7th and had been fielding lots of
questions about how the scythed Chariots really worked in Warrior so I
thought a good way to test this out was to run them myself.
The master plan for the comp was to have a large flank march each game
against LC strong armies (including 3 scythed chariots) and sweep a
flank away -after holding the enemy off with the remaining chariots
(which always take a bound or two to diffuse) and some unit dancing.
Against foot armies- send in the chariots, with the HC Lance bow and
peltasts following to exploit any disorders etc.

Game 1 vs - Bosporan

Even after being involved in the terrain layout for the tables the
night before- it was still a shock to actually sit down to a comp game
on a table with so much terrain.
The terrain effectively prevented a flank march on either side.... hmmm
...... I knew I should have had a plan B

Bosporans had a fairly standard deployment with two similar commands
side by side with a Skythian allied command behind the two.

The chariots chased some LC across the table and there was some
ineffective skirmishing with LI and Peltast units in various terrain
features. Two opposing 4 element HC Lance Bow units clashed without
resolution. I had one unit of opposing LC in trouble on my left with
some double armed skythian horse archers who had shot well. In the end
however they were not as brave as they thought they were- elected to
test rather than rally back- and were routed last bound.

0-3 to the bad guys.

Game 2 vs Early Imperial Roman.

A foot army therefore no flank march. My opponent was outscouted and
set up his legions and Auxilia in a fortress formation.. His left
anchored on some brush held by some Heavy Archers and another legion on
the extreme right. Bolt shooters on a hill in the centre of the
formation. and another legion holding the right flank

The Chariots hit their targets (except one which was shot to exhaustion
by the bolt shooters before contact.) The legion on my left was in
fulcrum and took two scythed chariots in full flight. both chariots
rolled up however the legion also rolled up 2 so was merely pushed back
disordered instead of routed. Next bound the disordered legion was
charged by two peltast blocks. The legion rolled up 3 -both peltast
blocks rolled down 2- both peltast units were routed on the spot !!
Meanwhile in the middle, both of the Aux units had passed their wavers
for contacted in the open. One chariot managed a breakthrough and both
aux blocks were disordered. The Aux block on my left managed to pass
another 4 waver tests for being charged in the open and during the
game, bounced a total of 4 cav units and held a Bastarnae Impetuous
charge. On my right things looked a little better. I had got a unit
of 4E HC L,B into the other disordered Aux block and they had failed
their waver. They were going backward, and shaken. I also had a unit
of Peltasts ready to go into the archers holding the brush.
The shaken Aux then had a change in fortune. A turn around of 5 on the
raw dice score saw my HC routed -while following up a shaken foot unit
!. Meanwhile, the Roman archers went up on the support shot on the
peltast and also managed a plus 3 to my minus two in combat ... Time
was called as I was just about to try.... .....I had even run out of
ideas......
....and the very worst part about it....... they were my dice !!

0-5 to the bad guys

So at the end of day 1. for the first time ever, I had failed to
trouble the scorer- . Day 2 had to be better.

Game 3 vs early Imperial roman


My lads were not keen at the thought of facing the might of Rome again.
But another foot army meant still no large flank march.

The chariots did their job against some Loose order foot and my
opponent proceeded to roll truly horrible shooting dice (I think he
averaged about -2 across the game). He managed to combine this with
getting some LC caught in the middle of his line and my Bastarnae got
a charge, supported by two units of cav, against a large archer block
which was tired for shooting. All my three units rolled up and ended
up at more (to give me the mayhem award) and the ensuing waver tests
were not pretty.
5-1 to the good guys.

Game 4 vs Late Romans.

A game with lots of maneuver and few real fights. Rivers followed down
both flank sectors, and while there were bridges the prospect of
getting a flank march on to good effect didn't look good. My opponent
dealt with the chariots better then most had. We then swapped a number
of cavalry units in the centre as someone was replaced in combat and/or
routed on three successive bounds. My Peltasts passed a couple of key
counters in the face of an advancing legion and the game ended with my
opponent having the better of it in the centre and me having some
chances on both flanks.

2-2


Again another enjoyable comp.

3 truisms confirmed at the comp:

1. Good luck is better then good management.
2. NEVER test if there is another option
3. Despite their polite sympathy- nobody is interested in your hard
luck dice tales
4. The worst day gaming is still better than the best day at work.


Cheers,

Greg P


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Thanks, interesting battle reports. Any particular words of wisdom
on handling and fighting against scythed chariots?

Mike

Light Troops are best at dealing with Scythed Chariots.

LI that passes its waver test and shoots them up coming in is likely
to only be pushed back, destroying the chariot. Even if they lose
and are routed, they may be recovered by friendly close order foot
or general, and they have forced the Scythed Chariot to commence its
headlong rush towards destruction - never deviating from its path
again and hence easy to avoid.

LC are in some ways better, because they only have to take a waver
test if actually contacted, and given their much greater move, they
are fairly unlikely to be contacted by the slower chariot. Once they
have induced the charge they can usually get safely out of the way.

If you must deal with the chariot by actually letting it hit
something do your best to shoot it up as much as possible first and
also to get as close as possible so that its charge move is not long
enough to get the scythes into action.

What I hate about Scythed Chariots is not their ability to kill
things, but their ability to waste your time defusing them while the
other guy brings up as he pleases the second wave of attacks

Adrian Williams
Barbarians Wargaming Club
Sydney, Australia

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "mailtomikek"
<mailtomikek@y...> wrote:
> Thanks, interesting battle reports. Any particular words of
wisdom
> on handling and fighting against scythed chariots?
>
> Mike

[Greg Preston]

Dear All,

We recently had our annual MOAB Warrior tournament down here in OZ.

25mm, 1300pts, 6 by 4 tables, single list, preset terrain, 3 and a half
hour games.
3 day comp- 2 games per day

There were 19 players who took part with 2 players forming a “team”
(one playing one day and the other player playing the other two days)
giving us a total of 54 games of warrior played over the weekend.

The contenders and their armies were:

Adrian Williams- Carthaginian
Barry Hayes- King David Scotts
Bob Jeffery- Arab Conquest (4 games)
Chris Craig- Mongols
Darren Holmes- Seleucid
Greg Preston- Medieval Spanish- 1st place
Guy Sheppard- Arab Conquest
Ian Poade- Nik. Byzantine-MVP
Jeff Tillitski- Feudal French (2 games)
John Harris- Arch. Persians
Leigh Dunn- Granadine (?)
Martin Williams- Han Chinese-3rd Place
Mike Morgan- Armenian
Murray Evans- Feudal Spanish-2nd place
Paul Collins- Indian
Paul Koshel – Aracurian
Paul Rattray- Nik Byzantine
Richard ? – Nik. Byzantine
Steve Honeyman- Sumerian

Again the level of play was both competitive and sporting with a number
of well painted armies on display.

Thanks to Barry Hayes and John Harris for the organisation and to Mike
Morgan for doing the Umpiring duties.
Thanks also the sponsors: Napoleons Book shop, Essex Miniatures, Elite
Miniatures, Tin Soldier, and Milmod Hobbies.


----------------------------------------------------------------
Next Comp is a FAST WARRIOR comp in Newcastle on the 13th/14th of
November.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Report on My comp and army follows
I took Medieval Spanish (Early Aragonese), basically Moogs and Knights
with some supporting Light troops and a unit of Archers. The basic
plan was to pair up a unit of Moogs with a unit of Knights and a LI
screen. The LMI archers were to operate with the Jav armed LC to
prevent them being shot away too easily to buy enough time on the
flanks to allow things to happen in the centre.

Game 1. I faced some Nik Byzantines. My opponent had some bad luck
with his shooting early on and this left the LI screens in place until
the Moogs and knights were in position to do the business. Moogs into
the spearmen and knights into the HC. His CinC failed a crucial counter
and the resulting dice rolls were not friendly. 5-1 to the good guys.

Game 2 vs Indians. Perhaps my toughest match-up from the armies
present. The wall of close bowman and 4 units of Jumbos really left the
knights without a good target. The good bits of the game for me were a
unit of Moogs got a downhill charge into a unit of stationary jumbos
and I managed to get some knights into the compulsory Indian MC. While
the MC were history the Moogs didn’t do the job on the Jumbos and ended
up, well unhealthy. This was compounded by my 300 odd point flank march
finding something better to do off table and not making an appearance
in the 9 bounds played. 2-5 to the bad guys.

Thus 7 points at the end of the first day put me a few behind the front
runners.

Game 3. More Nik byzantines. The plan was the same as for game one
-to get the Moogs into the spearmen and have the cav driven off or
caught by the knights. Additionally the Byzantines had a unit of 4El
of close order HTW armed troops in the middle of their line- which the
SHK seemed particularly happy about. At the end of bound 4 everything
looked good and the troops were all in position. They all went in on
bounds 5 and 6 and well- nothing happened. Yes I got the push backs-
but the Byzantines shot, fought, and tested their way out of trouble
all across the board- I couldn’t kill anything. To add insult to
injury I had a unit a LI caught in a break-off. 0-1 to the bad guys.

Hmm... half way through the comp and on 7 points -time to forget about
winning and checkout the trade stalls

Game 4. vs Carthaginians. This was one of those games where both
players were left wondering – what the hell happened here. After some
preliminary skirmishing, the Carthaginian commander put some LC into
the LI screen. The screen shot well and passed their test, stood and
ended up holding their own. Next bound I put a unit of knights through
the LI and routed the LC. Just about everything that could possibly
fail the resulting wavers did, the LC outdistanced the Knights, a
nearby unit of Peltasts failed a key counter and were hit in the flank,
more failed wavers and it was all over before it really began. 5-1 to
the good guys.

The final day of a three day comp often sees me less enthusiastic than
usual for the spoils of battle. However, the draw had me pitted against
one of my favourite opponents. Favourite, not because I do well against
him- in fact it is usually just the reverse- favourite because we know
one of us will get a result. We both tend to take fighting armies and
both want to get stuck-in.

Game 5- Armenians
The Armenians had a 7-3-4 command structure with plenty of SHC, some
Irr A cav and some good quality irregular foot. I adopted my usual
tactic when potentially out manoeuvred- have a big flank march. In
fact I had 2 flank marches- a small one of a unit of LI and a command
consisting of a SHK general some Moogs and the unit of Reg LMI Archers.
As is usually the case we both closed quickly in the middle and some
mutual charges lead to heavy casualties. In one case blocks of LMI
(Moogs vs Iberians) charged each other and both exhausted on the spot.
While the LI flank march had arrived early there was, as yet no sign of
the flank marching command and the numbers were starting to tell
against me. Just as things were looking bleak the FM came on, and while
initially looking in danger itself managed to stop the rot. Some of my
knights got into some SHC and some failed wavers saw a couple of
retreating commands. Thus some good luck had turned a 5-3 down into a
5-3 win for the good guys.

Game 6- Han Chinese.

Due to a range of circumstances I wasn’t at my best in this game. I
thought that my opponent would have a flank march on each side and
thought that I could play a little more defensively, pick off the flank
marches as they came on then turn my attention to the main game. I had
a small BUA in my deployment area on the right flank and hid the unit
of Archers in there to help isolate any flank march from supporting
troops. Yes I picked off the flank marchers well but the rest of my
line was....... lets be honest here..... to call it a line is probably
a little generous. I was under pressure everywhere. A unit of enemy
LC had broken through my line and were sizing up targets. I had Moog
units unsupported within 250paces of chariots and things were looking
grim (read disastrous). Something then happened- the dice gods
stepped in. I am a bit vague on the exact sequences here. I passed
what seemed like a dozen wavers- chariots charging stationary Moogs-
Archers routing past friends etc. I then managed to catch some LC with
one unit of knights. and Chariots with another. My opponent managed to
fail virtually every test he took. He failed with A’s where I had
passed with unsupported C’s. I was completely outplayed across the
board and came away with a 5-2 win. Go figure.

Army used:

Army List for- Greg Preston- MOAB 2004
1300points
Medieval Spanish Feudal Warrior list 34
(Early Aragon)

ID No. Troop Type Armed Class No. pts Com. Total .
1 General+1E SHK L,Sh(PA) IrrB 1 151 0 196
    EHK L,Sh IrrB 1 45      
2 Sub-General+1E SHK L,Sh(P) IrrB 1 91 0 136
    EHK L,Sh IrrB 1 45      
3 Sub-General+1E SHK L,Sh(P) IrrB 1 91 0 136
    EHK L,Sh IrrB 1 45      
4 2E Knights SHK L,Sh IrrB 1 54 25 124
    EHK L,Sh IrrB 1 45      
5 2E Jinetes HC L,JLS,Sh IrrC 2 27 25 79
6 4E Jinetes LC JLS,Sh IrrC 4 12 25 73
7 6E Almughavars LMI HTW,JLS,Sh IrrB 3 15 25 106
    LMI HTW,JLS IrrB 3 12      
8 6E Almughavars LMI HTW,JLS,Sh IrrB 3 15 25 106
    LMI HTW,JLS IrrB 3 12      
9 6E Almughavars LMI HTW,JLS,Sh IrrB 3 15 25 106
    LMI HTW,JLS IrrB 3 12      
10 6E Crossbowmen LI XB IrrC 6 4 25 49
11 6E Slingers LI Sling,Sh IrrC 3 6 25 55
    LI Sling IrrC 3 4      
12 9E Bowmen LI Bow IrrC 9 4 25 61
13 4E Granad. Archers LMI Bow,Sh RegC 4 16 10 74  
4EBaggage

Army Total 1301 Outscout
Scouting 24.5 8.17
Units 13 73.5

Comments on Army list:

I had used this army before but with a slightly different pick. For
the small tables in this comp, I upgraded 2E of the LC to HC L,Jls,Sh
and dropped a general from reg to Irr, and this worked well. The
larger –9El- unit of bow armed skirmishers was also something I would
do again, as I tended to win the shootout with the extra elements. I
usually ran one of the Generals as a single unit command which was a
mixed blessing- good at deployment-needed to be careful with orders.

All in all- a fun comp but one way or another I think I have used up my
luck for a comp or two.

Greg P.



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