Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

As long as we're brainstorming ideas....

I've probably spent more time than anyone else in the hobby "engineering" what
you can do with roads to turn them to your advantage as a terrain pick. There
were addenda to WRG7 specifically to deal with things I figured out how to do.
And I generally play armies that want to be in the open. So I'm really shooting
myself in the foot here, but, on the other hand, no one knows "road abuse"
better than I....

When road is most commonly seen in Warrior it runs across the width of the
table, from flank to flank, rather than from rear zone to rear zone. In my
opinion, this really does run counter to history. Armies marched along roads,
and hence the most likely way -- I would go so far as to say only way -- that a
road crossed a battlefield was with the two armies straddling it, rather than
the two armies fighting across it.

A simple fix would be to say that a road must start at one rear zone table edge,
and end at the other.

Finally, someone (Todd maybe?) once suggested that roads are the corollary of
minor water features, and hence should be required to be diced for _last_,
after all other terrain features. That makes a ton of sense to me.

If nothing changes, that's fine, I'll continue abusing roads to maximize open
space. But as long as we're kicking around ideas, those are two changes in road
placement I'd like to see.


-Mark Stone

[John Murphy]

In the pre-industrial era (until the steam locomotive) water-borne
transport was much, much more efficient than land transport.
Furthermore this fact was known by military logisticians and
utilized wherever possible.

Where a road runs perpendicular to a water feature of any
signifigance (navigable even by barge) I would expect it to be more
likely that the armies are moving along the water feature and the
road would be crossing the battlefield.

Off hand no examples to back this up, just an opinion worth what
most opinions are worth.

I like the idea of dicing for roads last, however, although I would
permit them to go thru features already placed for 1E width.

My main beef with an otherwise pretty decent terrain system (in that
it has some flavour and avoids the pitfalls of overly stereotyped
battlefields you see in some other rules) is the lack of gentle
hills produced by the feature choosing system. Maybe both sides
should be required to dice for an additional gentle hill feature, or
even two.

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, Mark Stone <mark@d...> wrote:
> As long as we're brainstorming ideas....
>
> I've probably spent more time than anyone else in the
hobby "engineering" what
> you can do with roads to turn them to your advantage as a terrain
pick. There
> were addenda to WRG7 specifically to deal with things I figured
out how to do.
> And I generally play armies that want to be in the open. So I'm
really shooting
> myself in the foot here, but, on the other hand, no one
knows "road abuse"
> better than I....
>
> When road is most commonly seen in Warrior it runs across the
width of the
> table, from flank to flank, rather than from rear zone to rear
zone. In my
> opinion, this really does run counter to history. Armies marched
along roads,
> and hence the most likely way -- I would go so far as to say only
way -- that a
> road crossed a battlefield was with the two armies straddling it,
rather than
> the two armies fighting across it.
>
> A simple fix would be to say that a road must start at one rear
zone table edge,
> and end at the other.
>
> Finally, someone (Todd maybe?) once suggested that roads are the
corollary of
> minor water features, and hence should be required to be diced for
_last_,
> after all other terrain features. That makes a ton of sense to me.
>
> If nothing changes, that's fine, I'll continue abusing roads to
maximize open
> space. But as long as we're kicking around ideas, those are two
changes in road
> placement I'd like to see.
>
>
> -Mark Stone