Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Mark Stone]

General Observations

We had a great turnout, as Scott has noted. It's really a rejuvinating experience to come back to Lancaster and see how much Warrior is really thriving. We have a good core group on the West Coast, but there aren't that many of us (about eight), and we're spread out.

Sportsmanship and courtesy was once again at a high level, at least amongst the opponents I encountered. The NICT back in the day used to be such a tense, acrimonious endeavor, and I find now that it's quite the opposite. Sure, people are competitive, but everyone is courteous, minimizes the need to call on Scott, and accepts whatever ruling he makes.

After my disappointing showing last year, I was determined to give 10 Independent States Chinese (10IS) their due, and really try to play them up to their potential. I have little complaint with the results, and I feel like I have the list fine tuned to exactly the way it should be played. That's a good feeling.

I expected to encounter a lot of knight armies in the NICT, given the theme for this year, and 10IS is pretty optimized for dealing with knight armies. Indeed, 4 of my 5 opponents were playing knight armies. This really helped me a lot.

What I didn't expect was the 5 Japanese armies. That would have been a real problem for my bow-based army, but luck of the draw kept the Japanese away from me.

And luck of the draw had a lot to do with this year's outcome. Last year Frank Gilson played Alexandrian Imperials and beat pretty much everyone he played, including eventual champion Dave Markowitz; Frank came within a hair of winning the title last year. This year Frank, running Alexandrian Imperials again, drew two Mongol players on Thursday, was unable to draw much blood from either, and did not make the cut for Saturday.

Derek Downs hammered (and I do mean hammered) home a point I've long believed in: the best way to run an elephant army (which I define as an army with 6 or more elephants) is with LI on the base or detachments behind the elephants. The reasoning is this: elephants' only major vulnerability is to shooting, so if you beef up the size of your elephant units you remove that vulnerability.

As usual Derek proved his list writing prowess by finding a tweak others had not thought of. He ran Khmer, and noticed that while Khmer elephants do not get interesting detachments, they can be detachments themselves of the Khmer line units. You can also strip down the line units (keep them LMI, downgrade them to "D" class) to minimize their cost. The outcome was a bunch of units with elephant detachments in the front to do the fighting, and cheap LMI parent bodies attached behind to add figures for CPF purposes. Also, being regular parent bodies, they don't cause the elephants to take 2 for 1 casualties in hand to hand; this is a downside of the LI-on-the-base approach, since all such LI are irreg.

Derek's play was not as spectacular as his list design -- he forgot a hill that Dave Markowitz had parked his Japanese on was steep, and paid the price accordingly -- but every top player had one loss or low scoring draw out of five games, and Derek still had the highest raw score with 22 points at the end of Saturday. So congrats to Derek on a well-thought out plan and welll-deserved championship.

NICT prelim

On to the game report:

Todd Kaesar - Knights of Saint John. Todd and Dave Markowitz played Bill Chamis and me in a couple of very memorable Cold Wars games several years ago, but Todd is one of those top players I've never played individually, so my first matchup was a real pleasure.

Knights of Saint John isn't really a knight army, any more than 10IS is an elephant army. Todd has 4 units of knights to support the infantry he plans to win with, and I have 4 elephants to support the infantry I plan to win with.

Terrain picks prove key. Todd puts a brush on my side to the left of my center, and I worry he'll drive his LHI CB,2HCT guys through unopposed. Instead, he drives through the center, and my deployment leaves me somewhat out of position.

Partly I just go with it, and attempt to crush his right flank (my left). Partly I try to re-deploy and have a stronger center.

The flanking effort goes great: I shoot some light and small units to pieces, and put his command into retirement. The re-deployment doesn't go so great. I end up with an Irr D spear unit holding a crucial part of the line rather than a Reg C unit, and I end up with a unit of fire lancers dealing with CB,2HCT guys solo rather than with elephant support. On the critical bound the Irr D guys roll down 3, and the center caves, and lots of Ds take wavers.

So I get my pound of flesh, but Todd wins 4-2. Great game, really enjoyable.

Sean Scott - Italian Condotta

Both Sean and I need a big win to be playing on Saturday. With Sean, I know one of us will get it.

Sean gets a woods in his rear zone, and a brush forward and to his left of it. He sets up between the woods and table edge, drives his loose order foot towards the brush, and his knights boot to boot down the table edge.

For once I'm not outscouted (I run 10IS with 8 scouting points). This helps, because I've set up my elephants in the middle and need them over on the flankk where the knights are. It's a race to see if I can re-deploy before Sean can come to grips with me.

My very thin LI screen holds out long enough for the elephants to face off against the knights. The brush also proves to be a hinge on which Sean must anchor his army, and on which I can concentrate shooting. My army has 252 bows, so there is just no way the bend in his line can stand up to that kind of fire. Things come unglued pretty much across the line for Sean. A big win for the Chinese, and we go on to Saturday.

Theme

My intent in the theme was to test out the viability of the Swiss. I think the Swiss list itself is too monolithic, but there are several lists on which the Swiss make interesting allies. My conclusion is that Italian Condotta, Late Venetians in Italy, is the best of these. It should really be played in 25mm, but I figure if I can make it work in 15mm that's a better test. And besides, I don't feel like dragging 2 25mm armies cross country.

John Criss - Germans

Not sure which German list this was; they all seem vaguely the same to me. John's still learning, and I wish I played with as much spirit and skill when I was a beginner.

He has a skirmish line of some LHI/LMI types, who unfortunately lack shields, anchored on one side by a wagon unit and some organ guns. Behind the skirmishers are the knights, waiting for opportunity. He also had some LI and LC. For the list he was playing, this is not a bad way to build it and not a bad plan for how to run it.

Unfortunately, John figured out that my Swiss would be able to run down his skirmish line faster than he would be able to shoot me up (I try to make careful use of the Reg B Swiss LI to split enemy fire and preserve the pikes). So he had to skirmish away. This left his non-skirmishing troops -- the wagon and organ gun -- vulnerable to being swarmed by my infantry. So I crushed the end of his line and began to roll up the rest. 5-1 for the Italians.

Dan Woyke - Moldavian

Yes, this is pretty much my nightmare matchup. I can't hold anywhere near the frontage that the Moldavians can, and my knights against his is pretty much a crap shoot. All of mine are SHK, but some of his are too, and some of the non-SHK are Irr A. And he has way more knights than I do.

Terrain is kind. I get a steep hill on my flank, and a steep hill in the center of my rear, with a brush between the two. We dig in and hold on.

On my right, 8 figures of shieldless LI, 2 stands of LC CB, and a 2 stand unit of LHI CB,2HCT spend the entire game doing the skirmisher dance: countering, evading, and occaisionally shooting off an enemy. These three units perform like heroes, keeping my right flank intact for the entire game.

In the center my Swiss are carefully pushing forward, with my knights trying to cover their flanks. They eventually find enemy knights who cannot counter away, and get some charge opportunities. But...

On my left I've spread myself a bit too thin, and Dan has a flank march of Irr C LMI JLS,Sh that arrives in my rear zone at an opportune time. I just don't have enough to hold off a nicely executed re-deployment on his part, and then on a critical turn I forget to put an LHI CB,2HCT unit into skirmish. My flank collapses, and I lose a command. But...

In the center Dan's HK do not roll the big dice they need to survive. We discover that even a Swiss block being frontally charged by HK and SHK while being flank charged by LC can be very tough. Several of his units rout, and Dan loses a command.

End result: 3-3.
Kelly Wilkinson - Knights of Saint John

I'm still not sure what happened in my game against Kelly. We clogged the flanks with terrain, and fought in a big open space in the middle. I had a carefully planned Bound 2 attack where three units would charge:

- a big Swiss unit would charge an LI unit, causing it to evade out of the way, so that the big Swiss unit could support when
- another Swiss unit went in in column against a 2-wide 2HCT,CB unit. It could do fine on bound 1, but would need someone charging into the overlap to survive bound 2.
- a knight unit charged another unit looking for a failed waver.

Having worked out this carefully coordinated attack, I then forgot to write down the first charge. My attack fell apart, and I ended up struggling to counter what became a Knights of Saint John attack.

The problem is that these are two very sturdy armies, mostly high morale (where it matters). So we had lots of combat, a couple of routs, but few failed wavers. Final score: 1-1.

Conclusions: The Swiss are interesting, but still vulnerable to shooting. The Italians provide some light troops to help with that problem, but not great light troops (regular, but not shielded, except for the Turkish LC). So even with the Italians, the Swiss are still vulnerable. They do close in a hurry, however, and deliver quite a punch when they get there. A fun army, but not an "A" list army.

I also made many mistakes associated with playing the army for the first time at Historicon. Most armies take time and practice in which to learn the proper "feel" for them. I didn't have it with the Italians.

NICT final rounds

Rich Kroupa - Alexandrian Imperial

So here I am with this army built around shooting, and Rich takes only 2 elephants and pretty much the max pikemen. My big gimmick isn't going to work.

So I try the little gimmick.

We have a big steep hill left of my center in the middle of the table. I have several units that dance around the hill, and Rich has several units that dance on the hill. Nothing comes of all that and my left remains quiet throughout the battle.

I make my push just to the right of the hill. I line up a big block of LTS,B on where his elephants are advancing, and then on the two pike blocks adjacent I line up an elephant unit and a firelance unit on each. If I'm going to win this one, it will have to be by brute force.

Rich is smart player, and I can see him doing the math. He tries to counter away from me with his pikes, but fails a counter in the center of his line and can't really counter back with the rest for fear of hanging a flank. So my elephants and firelancers come charging in.

In one combat the elephants fail to roll up, and so recoil. The firelancers do so much damage even on an even roll that I win the combat overall, causing him to recoil disordered (with the elephants ready to charge in again next bound). In the other combat the elephants do in fact roll up, and so push him back disordered.

My problem is to the right of this. I have a unit of Reg C MI LTS,B,Sh that is going to have to "take one for the team", facing off 32 figures of Reg C MI P,sh in a 2-wide column. I need to suck it up and absorb this attack to keep the momentum going where the elephants and firelancers are winning.

Fortune favors the brave. I roll up three in prep shooting, disorder the pikes, charge them, and rout them. When the dust settles, three pike units are routed or shaken.

Rich's moment of glory was having the pike block at the far left of his line charge off evading LMI, eventually catch standing LMI and burst through them, only to end up within 80p of my rear zone and 160p of my camp at the end of the game.

Still, a win for the Chinese.

Chris DAmour - Medieval Spanish

Chris has made some interesting but expected choices with the Spanish. He takes no English ally, but lots of Almughuvars. He has a decent line of mediocre LI and LC (and a couple of LMI units) to clear the way for him, and then a line of "moogs" backed by a line of EHK.

He has a woods in his rear zone, and sets up on one side of it. I have a steep hill on my flank on the same side.

I set up my LMI to hold the hill and delay him there. I concentrate on the "hinge" formed by where he is holding the woods and where he is trying to advance down the middle of the table.

Chris has his one unit of archers set up on his flank, meaning no missile fire threatens my elephants in the middle. I make a quick judgment call about how to proceed, and launch my counter attack.

My bet is this: my firelancers don't dare face his "moogs", nor do my LTS,B guys, at least not against his big "moog" units. My elephants lose to the "moogs", but don't rout at contact. So I line up this way:

Against each 18 figure "moog" unit I position an elephant unit to go in first, and a firelance unit to go in second. Against each 6 figure "moog" unit I position a 24 figure MI LTS,B,Sh unit to shoot it up enough to defuse it. My 32 figure units of MI LTS,B,Sh hang back and look for opportunities to throw in additional shooting as needed.

This plan basically works. I get a break when I'm able to use angles to position an elephant within 120p of a "moog" that, due to wheeling, cannot be within 120p of the elephants. He takes the charge at the halt, and fails the waver. His six figure units do indeed prove vulnerable to shooting, and hit my line tired, disordered, and not impetuous. This I can survive. In a final bid to break my line, Chris commits the knights against the LTS,B units. This isn't a particularly favorable matchup for the knights, and has the expected result.

Another big win for the Chinese.

Jon Cleaves - Later Welsh

First: Jon gets the "brass balls" award for even bringing Later Welsh. And he did very well with it. Going into the final round we were in a clump of guys all of who had about 16 points. So it was anybody's game at that point.

From my point of view there were several things Jon did right. First, he played an army he had real personal affinity for. Second, he played one whose mechanics he understood well from playing it and similar armies. Third, he had a hint about the Japanese trend and figured -- correctly -- that the Welsh match up very well against the Japanese. I believe Jon played two Japanese opponents, and beat them both.

Of course for every rock put before scissors, there is paper waiting somewhere. Jon's army does not match up well against my mass of LTS and B, nor my firelancers, nor my elephants.

By this time I'd had a chance to scout out Jon's tactics a little bit. Most people think through how to beat or hold off a single knight unit. Jon's approach was to mass his knights boot to boot (he had 8 knight units) and come down in force on the most vulnerable point he could find. Simple, but effective.

Being outscouted, my problem is I have to set up first. So Jon gets to mass wherever my elephants are not. I had a steep hill to my left, and essentially no other terrain. I figured Jon would mass just inside the steep hill, and set up my elephants in the middle, but oriented towards that area.

Jon, of course, set up at the complete opposite end of my line. This end of my line is held by a 48 figure block of Irr D MI B, half shielded, and adjacent to that a 32 figure unit of Irr D MI LTS,B, half shielded.

The entire game was decided before hand to hand combat ever occurred. It was simply a race to see if Jon could come to grips with his mass of knights and force some waver tests before my elephants arrived on the scene. One weakness of my army is that my shock troops (2 units of elephants, 2 units of firelancers) are C class, and really need to engage before rather than after waver tests start happening. Another weakness is that my line units are, with one exception, entirely D class or partially D class. So I really, really don't want to start taking wavers.

It was close, but I managed to pull off the last step of re-deployment just as Jon got his first charges lined up. That meant that a couple of charging knight units were disordered by elephants, and a couple more were forced to charge the elephants to keep them from getting to other units.

My big bow unit was recoiled -- I have photo I'll post of Jon's mass of knights following up against this unit -- but the rest of the combats were a series of routs, shakes, and recoils for Jon's knights. The final blow was his English ally dying in a catastrophe against my spearmen.

Another big win for the Chinese.

Conclusions:

Matchups are key. I do well against knight armies, and against conventional elephant armies like Alexandrians or Indian armies. And I got those matchups. Had I fought the Japanese, or Derek's Khmer, I would have been less successful.

But you can't plan for everything. No army has an answer to all threats, and all you can do is know your strengths and play to those. At this pointi I feel like 10IS has a distinct playing style different from any of the other armies out there, and that I've really put my stamp on that playing style.

Finally, generalship is even more key than matchups. Jon took a "B" list army and took it all the way to the final round of the NICT with a chance to win it all. Play an army you love, and play it well, and there's no limit to what you can accomplish.


-Mark Stone