Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

While I didn't make Historicon this year, I have about 15 years tournament
experience between TOG and Warrior, including numerous NICT appearances, and
numerous team NCT appearances. So here are some thoughts from a veteran:

1. Time limit: Look, Warrior is a complicated game, there's just no getting
around that. For a lot of us, that's actually a huge part of the appeal.I think
four hours is enough, but there's no real leeway to cut it shorter. I have had
at least one matchup in every tournament for as long as I can remember where I
have felt like I'm pressing a slow player to play faster just so we can get to a
decisive result. I, for one, don't want to aggravate that problem.

You want some real debate on this issue? Then don't frame it in terms of how
much time we need. Frame it in terms of how many bounds we need. I have had
decisive games in as few as 5 bounds, but a more realistic number is 7 or 8.
Figure a half hour for setup, and a half an hour per bound. That puts
you right at about 4 hours.

Now, there's a related issue which no one so far has addressed: WHY are we
squeezing THREE GAMES into Saturday??? Four hours looks much more attractive if
you have one game Friday night, two on Saturday, and a final round Sunday
morning. What makes this so much more attractive? Plain and simple, having some
time at major events like Cold Wars and Historicon to get to the Dealer's Room.
I, for one, do the vast majority of my figures shopping at the major events. I
absolutely hate having 20 minutes to spare between rounds, if I forgo lunch, to
make hasty decisions about figures I'll spend the next six months painting. I've
been at this for fifteen years, I have thousands of figures, I have a pretty
good idea what additional figures I want, and I still feel rushed. I hate to
think what beginners go through. Aren't we supposed to be encouraging them?

So, putting all this together, I have a few suggestions:
(a) Three hours is too short. Period.
(b) If we're going to have three games on Saturday, make them 3 1/2 hours. Yes,
I'll push the slow players even harder, but at least I'll have more time between
rounds.
(c) Best option: stick to 4 hours, go 1 round on Friday night, 2 on Saturday,
and a final round Sunday morning.

2. Terrain restrictions: I see this as a big non-issue. Especially with minor
water features. In most of the games I've observed, misplaying a minor water
features happens a lot, and leads to more decisive results, not less decisive
results. Oh, and as far as I can tell, the person laying down the minor water
feature misplays it AT LEAST as often as the person facing it.

3. Point totals, one list variant vs. two. Look, we all want to see a greater
variety of armies played. If you want more armies, that means giving people more
choices. Plain and simple. So: don't cut the points below 1600. Unless you're
going to drop all the way to 1200 (which are the very successful and very
popular mini tourneys we do) I don't see any reason to think this will speed up
the game. And do go back to two lists. Give people a wider variety of choices,
and they'll play a wider variety of armies. That's good, right?


-Mark Stone