Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Todd Kaeser]

Well, here goes...

I ran Tepanec - a Toltec varient. It is similar enough to the Aztec armies of old that I used to run.

1st round I played Steve Rawls - Khmer. He had 5 units of 2 elephants w/ 24 man detachments (sometimes the other way around) and an assortment of foot w/ B some Jls,BSh and some LC and EHC. There was a marsh on my right flank and two brush thrown in Steve's center and right (my left). We both had an unreliable general to to wait, but that was resolved early. Very enjoyable opponent as we have played often in the past few years. I believe Steve will be luck enough to face 2 other meso-American armies while avoiding the knights.

The battle came down to me shooting up a B unit and then breaking it causing two shakes of LI and LMI. Combined w/ killing all of most of his LI and a LC I put the command into retirement. Steve nicely broke up my Otomi attack on an elephant unit and I rolled down as well... sigh. I also came out of the marsh to try and make something happen... I did and steve's elephants rolled over a warrior unit. 5-2 me.

At the end of the 1st round... Eric Turner defeated Stiers 5-3. Ewan defeated Derek 5-2 I believe.

2nd round - vs. Eric's Celtiberian. I had clearly not anticipated a barbarian army in the NICT w/ the idea that knight armies would keep it at bay (alas not many knight armies). He has 5 units of 36 and one of 30.

I planned poorly and was not able to shoot up anything. I should have been more aggressive w/ my otomi and at least make it a grind. I wound up getting beat 5-1 when a warrior unit was caught and then a cascading break took place. Eric was also very lucky w/ his LC being able to pass 4 irreg C counters in a row and getting them out of trouble. Maybe I could have shot them up and then shook them. Eric ran his units very well - I couldn't get any overlap shooting and he was able to charge w/o being impetous b/c his Irreg A elements were in the rear of the units for most of the battle.

End of the first day - I'm into the 2nd day- barely. Ewan has 10, Robert 9, Eric 9, Hurchanik 9,Stiers 8, Derek 7

3rd round. Derek and the Han Chinese. Derek had 4 units of 2HCT,Cb 1/2 Sh LHI, some 4h LCh, 2 24 man LMI CB and ally command of 3 LC units (12 man) and HC/MC lancers + a fair amount of reg b and some D LI B and Jls,Sh.

I only had a marsh on my right and and marsh deep in derek's right (my left). Derek flank marched 2 units of irreg LC and ran a right sweep. I wasn't quite ready for it, but managed to send over 2 units of Otomi (irreg A LMI) + I had a warrior unit and my Lts,Jls,Sh unit there. Derek then tried to get out of this situation and I was able to shoot up and shake a unit of LC (which will be important). Derek made a mistake and left his guard (LHI 2HCT) unit out of skirmish - an Otomi hit it and rolled up breaking it on contact. Alas no shakes.

Both of Derek's flank marched came on I broke one and chased the other one off causing the command to go into retreat. Derek also kindly failed a fair amount of important counters one of which would have killed my CinC. Nice victory for the Tepanecs 5-3.

Ewan faced a very tough Eric Turner and they put together a 1-1. Robert got beaten by Hurchanik's Japanese. Don't know who Stier faced in the 3rd round.

4th round - my end of being a contender... Rich Kroupa's Japanese. I would play it the same way again. Almost no terrain. Rich was organized in 24 man units of LEHI and LMI. 3 small reserve units. I held off his left and attacked my left. Intoxicated w/ victory over the defending and 7 time champ my warriors couldn't hit water if they fell out of the boat. I know that most gamers complain about luck but I actually kept track. I was shooting throughout the game and there was some fighting. Out of 25 rolls (some of which were 30 @ 2 to start vs. one 24 man unit) I rolled 18 downs (9 of which were down 2 or 3 - which I rolled 5 times). IF (worst word here) I had rolled just +1 or more evens I believe I would have beaten him. Sadly I did not. I did have one last chance - his CinC came out (why I don't know) and we faced off w/ my Irreg A Otomi. He was even kind enough to roll down. I rolled down 3 sigh... 5-0 loss. I could have been a contender. Winner of our match will face Stiers who crushed Hurchanid's Japanese.

5th round vs. Robert Turnbull's Med Spanish. New dice from the dealer's area - thanks Jake. Funnest battle for me. Old friends and Robert's crazy attack. Marsh on my right and a steep hill in Robert's deployment. I'm thinking Robert will attack the open ground so I place all my good morale troops there. Robert tries to force the other flank w/ the marsh and even has a flank march coming there as well. Med. Spanish doesn't have the best lights and he had a LC on the flank march so there was a gap in the left center between a LI and LC unit. In for a penny in for a pound. Ignore flank march and in through the gap went 3 units of warriors. I was able to surround Robert's army as he attempted to punch through near the marsh. Turn 3 Robert's CinC and another Knight unit shake and push back a warrior unit next to the marsh. 18 man otomi and 18 man moog hit (I'm 3 deep) and we both disorder and tire each other.

Turn 4 has me on Robert's edge of the table w/ an eagle knight unit and I'm shooting back the English LB unit vs. 2 other warrior units. Moogs get hit by an Irreg A otomi unit and disappear. Robert breaks my Lts,Jls,Sh unit (failed counter), but everything holds on both sides (even my shaken warrior unit).

Turn 5 - still no flank march. I'm able to surround the CinC unit the other knight unit.

Turn 6 - flank march arrives. The CinC goes down as does another knight unit hitting a warrior unit in the center. Command goes into retreat. English ally (who is unreliable) also heads for home as unreliable allies not on wait go into retreat when a command goes into retirement. I'm assuming they saw the encirclement and did not want the nickel tour of the pyramids we were planning on giving. 5-2 Tepanecs.

Dave Stier was able to defeat Kroupa's Japanese and he won the tournament. Hepefully, I'll qualify and be back next year.

Nice to see Bill Low make the 2nd day and finish a very respectable 11th.

Todd K

[Ewan McNay]

I am planning a longer AAR soon, promise - just spent the past week at WBC boardgaming, though!

Derek managed to lose two games (I beat him 5-2 in the first round) and still come in second! My game against Eric was the downfall, as everything went to plan expect that the damn Spanish could *not* roll down! No big deal until the end, when his big unit at the end of the line, which I have targetted and caught flat-footed is, shaken and on 13 cpf... but rolls another +3 to push back (!!) my following-up cataphracts; not only that but we roll down to avoid doing a cpf and he hence unshakes. Elsewhere I have sacrificed a couple of small units and shaken Eric's LI, but both sides rolled long on LC evades to get out of trouble and the miracle roll saves the shieldless flank of the other big Spanish unit (in combat to the front against more SHC) from being hit by impetuous cataphracts, because there's no longer a gap to get into. 1-1. Argh. [The other games were 5-point wins, so this one was the killer... and then I believe that Eric lost to Derek in the last round which must have been what gave Derek second despite a lower raw score. I'll get that Turner! Many congrats to Dave S on the victory... sigh )].

[Frank Gilson]

I'll put here what I remember clearly ...

NICT:

I run a Tepanec army version that's more oriented towards 2HCT,JLS and fighting hand-to-hand than Todd's (who has more LTS,S).

However, I had no practice with the army prior to the NICT ...

First match is against Dick Hurchanik's Japanese...kudos to Dick. He has taken his units either with Mantlets, or counting as 23 figures and carefully working to avoid shooting overlaps on them...so he minimizes the places I start at 2 CPF to two of his units...and I promptly roll down and don't inflict 2. My hope is to inflict 2 CPF on two turns, combined with one from him impetuously charging would tire him...then I can grind it out.

On his right flank I have a couple of Irr A Otomi units and a Reg C LMI 2HCT,JLS,Sh unit headed to fight his end unit. In go the A's (a turn early it is...I am guilty of sending them in too early in most of my games, sadly)...they do roll up, but Dick does too and his Samurai unit does not rout, merely recoils disordered. This opens up a gap that I can't exploit...but his reserve unit in the area can...destroying one of my Irr A units...I pass all wavers, but that's some points for Dick.

The big problem is what Todd aludes to in his battle against the Spanish. Eventually a couple of Samurai units get to 40p from my line of LTS,S,Sh guys...I'm in skirmish...he charges...a key unit of mine goes short, Dick's Samurai do NOT go short...I'm caught, automatically routed, and his pursuit takes him into ANOTHER unit which is routed...a waver or two is failed...5-1 victory for Dick's Samurai.

So, Dick orienting his units to resist shooting, my down rolls, and me failing to be as careful as possible to avoid 40p, then going short in an evade...and that's it...not that I win the battle otherwise.

I SHOULD have concentrated my forces more tightly on one area...but the LTS guys just don't do much against the Samurai even if such are held in place...all that LEHI.

The second battle is against Dwight Coates Inca. He surprises me by taking an end-to-end table covering later version of the list with some trashy troops.

I do semi-isolate is left hand flank command and catch the sub general with a lot of shooting...disordering and then routing it, eventually forcing that command under retreat.

My problem is my attack in the center...I have my Otomi headed straight for a couple of 16 man MI P,Sh units which I know that if I get even a +1 against, I rout...right next to D and C class troops in the Inca center. However, my Otomi hit the wrong elements on the pike units...while Dwight charges forward with an Irr C unit impetuously...meaning that the gaps are now too small for my support units to add onto the pike...AND neither of my Otomi roll up...so no routed pike, just disordered. This means I can't get onto the pike to support the Otomi...and they don't roll up in the 2nd bound of combat either, thus routing...I fail a waver with Reg A/B troops...sigh...Dwight has some decent combat rolls and my mistakes combine to result in my shaken unit routing, more failed wavers...and suddenly my central command is under retreat. 5-2 for Dwight...I'm out of the NICT.

So...practice the army you wish to play with regularly beforehand . Sadly not many opportunities to do that here in the NW.

I do play the army again in the Open...and learn some facts:

a) Deployment is crucial...the right units in the right places, but you likely have to set up before the opponent does given the scouting point situation.
b) You have no mounted...so 'winning' the Approach initiative means you have to move everything before your opponent...or counter...resulting in your having to give UP the game's tempo and take cautious moves.
c) At some point, the enemy will force some of your units into skirmish, and then send mounted charges on them forcing wavers...and even Reg A/B troops fail those on occasion.
d) Somewhere else, you'll have to stand for a mounted charge with C class troops...who will fail a crucial waver ...even if you sent the Army standard up to make them eager, and supported both flanks. (happened 3 times to me)
e) Send the Otomi in at the exact right moment...which can be hard to determine...too early and they die and cause wavers. Too late and it doesn't matter.

So...a fine army, and I think one of the best choices of Meso-American type army...with circulating combatants, LTS + S, and 2HCT + JLS.

Would I play it again? Only with very extensive practice to back it up...

Frank Gilson

[Ewan McNay]

OK, slightly more detail.

My army is utterly known to everyone playing in the NICT - and I may finally have burnt out on the Sass, even though I said I would play them until I won! Three of this year's games - see below - were very similar, and a slight amount of ennui ensued.

First game was the most interesting, I think. Derek and I got to start things off with a bang, so I got the first view of his gimmick this year: a force-marched command of LC and H/MC (I recall 3 4E LC units and 2 2E loose order, and that seems to match Todd's pic at http://www.fourhorsemenenterprises.com/forum/album_showpage.php?full=true&pic_id=223 ). This was clearly designed to take out an opposing LI line, and - combined with the large number of CB infantry - meant that the Han were pretty much optimised for anti-Sassanid operations. As it happened I only lost one small unit of LI - the LI B unit shot off their opposing LC, and my cav support gave the Han LC second thoughts about charging in in some places - but the MC, especially, found themselves shot back in disorder and the Han center was held only by a single 2E LCh unit after the LC were shot away.

The main thrust of Derek's attack was just to my left of the central hill that was the only significant terrain, where the three Guard LHI 2HCT, CB, Sh units were advancing in column. I started out with my MI block force-marched onto the hill, and doing the math it seemed as though they should be able to take on the guard, especially if they won the first round. This made me somewhat nervous, as I don't usually fight with those guys! Still, in they went, catching the Han slightly flat-footed perhaps, and both sides rolled even so they pushed back the Han LHI. This became the central combat of the game: to avoid the overlap, the HC general of the force-marched command came into the overlapping spear element but was routed right out again, shaking the adjacent LC and when I rolled up on a shot against the MC, they were exhausted and the command went onto retreat. Then I was able to get elephants into the flank of the guard column and Derek conceded. Elsewhere I had some significant luck: my 2-elephant unit faced off against a Guard unit and didn't rout, and one of my SHC subs was guarding the left flank of my MI and so had to go into a CB unit which was kind enough to roll -3 on prep. I also got a cataphract unit into the LMI JLS, B, Sh unit, though, and Derek failed a couple of A-class wavers: 5-2 to me.

Second game was against Tim Grimmett's Samurai, and I would later (game 5) have a very similar game against Dick Hurchanik, except that Tim got better terrain, anchoring between marshes. The marsh on Tim's baseline, toward my left, was anchored by a 12-man unit, though, and I ganged up on that with my LI S, Sh and B, eventually getting it to shake and rout. The next unit along was the point of my attack: elephants in column to pin, then successive cav units until a waver test gets failed or the Samurai evaporate! This worked on both of two units while my LI and LC delayed elsewhere - eventually the Samurai line got a little disrupted and my LC got to hit the shieldless LMI rear of another unit to seal the win, 5-0. [Dick didn't have any terrain, and had a 6-man unit on the end of the line as well as a second 6-man unit that flank marched and got shot up by my large amounts of surplus LC, but otherwise the game was essentially identical and also 5-0.]

At the end of Thursday, Eric Turner, Dick H and I had 10 to lead the field. I was hoping very much for either Dick or Rob Turnball on 9. Instead Saturday started w/ Eric Turner's Celtiberians, a **terrible** matchup for me: vast numbers of always-eager LMI who charge as far as my SHC and cataphracts and beat ether with the HTW, JLS armament! Eric also had 2 12-man LC units, so I didn't even outscout him! One of those hid in a wood - Eric got *great* terrain - but otherwise the Celts basically lined up. I did shoot the other LC unit disordered and charge it back through a narrow gap, but they rolled long to get away and then passed the waver for second disorder and rolled short to stay on table, while my horse archers who had been chasing them were almost caught on their own evade by Erc's CinC HC.

My plan was very similar to that I had against the Samurai, except that I led off with my sole 12-man HC unit. They went in on the extreme left of the battlefield, succeeding in hitting the LMI at the halt. The LMI promptly roll +3. Thankfully the HC also rolled +3! 9 at more is 108, and the 36-man LMI count as 30 so take 6 fatigues and go backwards - but no rout. No failed wavers when hit by impetuous SHC next turn, and another +3 - so the HC are pushed off, disordered. The SHC follow-up, and elephants are ready to come in, but the LMI are on 13 fatigues now and fail their waver for second disorder, so being pushed back shaken - with waves of LMI approaching across the table as my skirmish line is pushed away, I decide not to send in the El this bound but instead position to hit the shieldless flank of a 12-man IrrB LMI block which charged off LC and is about to try to counter. They make the counter, get out of the way... and the following-up SHC roll -4 while the LMI roll yet another +3, counting as +5, and throw off the SHC without taking any cpf, so are no longer shaken! That also blocks the path to the 12-man LMI unit, and we are stopped by time with almost nothing having happened: I have knocked off Eric's LI and he has shot one of mine to exhaustion, but it's a 1-1 and the end of my hopes. Very frustrating!

My other game, game 4, was against Dwyight Coates' Inca that Frank has mentioned: the post-conquest version. His central command deployed 6 units ( a 7th, 2E Spanish HC JLS, Sh was it turns out o a flank march): 2 MI P, Sh, 2 LMI 2HCW, S, Sh which I knew had to be C class, the CinC and a reg LMI unit. This seemed like an obvious point of attack, as the three commands were all somewhat isolated. Bound 2 Dwyight declares an impetuous charge on my SHC with a 2HCW, S unit, not realising that charging SHC frontally is a cause of unease. Together with elephants, the LMI are instead hit at the halt, fail their waver, rout, and both D-class pike units shake. That puts the command onto retreat, so the CinC walks off on bound 3 and the two pike units rout in turn, as does the Inca camp. The game is essentially over after about 30 min, and in contrast to the Celts, this opponent was about as ideal as I could have asked.

Net result: 4 5-point wins and a 1-1 draw, 3rd place. Oh well. But more importantly, only the game against Derek was really tactically interesting - the Samurai battle I have fought a dozen times now, the Celts were basically the same plan, and the Inca were not a challenge in this incarnation. So it might be time for something new. We'll see.

[Mark Stone]

Here's my After Action Report, as best I can remember it. I ran 10 Independent States, exactly the same configuration as I ran it two years ago. The gist of it is this:
* 4 units of 2-stand LI B as a screen; the minimum needed to keep an opponent from march moving past the screen.
* Main line of 256 guys with Bow, most who also have LTS.
* Strike force of 2 units of 2 El, crew of 3 w/Bow, and 2 units of HI/MI LTS and Firelance.
* Reserve of 2 units of 2-stand Rg A EHC/HC L,B,Sh and 2 units 2-stand Irr A LMI JLS,Sh.

Despite my poor performance this year, I would not change a thing about the composition of the list. If you are going to run this army, this is the way to run it.

NICT Game 1. Tim Grimmet's Japanese. Very pleasant game, as Tim is one of the stalwarts I had yet to face in competition.

On the one hand, this is kind of a nightmare army for me, as my thing is shooting and the Japanese are impervious to shooting. Tim has also bought the army carefully and gotten enough terrain that he can hold all the frontage he needs to. On the other hand, last time I ran this army I thankfully dodged all 5 Japanese opponents and realized I had no plan if I had faced one. So I've spent some time in the interim thinking up a plan for the Japanese.

Even though Tim is not outscouted, I have so many more units than he does that I can pretty much pick the fight I want. I choose to tackle the two end units of his on my right, that are up against a major water feature. I skirmish on my left, and stand my ground on a hill in the middle. The latter two are faciliated by Tim being under Hold orders (to avoid having to charge with Irr As), and thus not being able to cross the center line. Against a normal opponent where he is outscouted this is a good plan on his part. Against me it somewhat works against him.

My plan had been to lead with the EHC against a Japanese opponent who takes Bow, and to lead with the elephants against a Japanese opponent who takes LB. Tim has LB. So I line up one elephant unit against each of the two targeted Japanese units, with firelancers ready to go in next bound in support. My EHC and Irr A LMI hang back to shore up flanks and provide additional support as needed.

These are close matchups, and I'm counting on not rolling badly with C class troops and having Tim not roll well with Irr A troops. I get an average result. On the interior of the two fights I do well, and over the course of a couple of bounds rout a Japanese unit in the midst of many other Japanese units. Tim fails one waver test (which is about average). On the end Japanese unit, I roll badly, Tim rolls up, and over the course of a couple of bounds I have a routed elephant and routed firelance unit. I take waver tests with a bunch of Cs and Ds, some of whom are now uneasy, and fail many (which is to be expected).

End result: a 5-2 win for the Japanese.

NICT Game 2. Steve Rawls' Khmer. Steve is running the version of Khmer that Derek used a couple years ago, with the elephants as detachments of big blocks of LMI. This makes them almost impossible to shoot up, and since shooting is my army's thing, I'm frustrated.

I'll admit to failing my personal morale check on this one. Derek won the NICT with this army, and with good reason. And when it's all laid out with the LMI and elephants side by side, it looks vast. As vast as my army.

What I realized as we played is that you actually have to manage space very carefully with the Khmer. Once the parent body LMI contract behind the elephants to join them, the army holds a lot less space, and can have some real vulnerabilities. But I was playing clumsily (lack of practice and the afore-mentioned intimidation), and did not capitalize well.

In the left center I was able to get both my elephant units faced off against one of Steve's elephant units, and when Steve pulled the parent LMI behind to bolster the body he left a flank a little too open. It took me a couple of bounds, but I was eventually able to clear an opening for a charge against shiedless LMI in the back of that body. That was the one place I scored points.

On my right I took some elephant charges and suffered poorly in combat. A unit routed, and this led to a cascade of (eventually) nine waver tests, of which I failed seven, including three consecutive 1s. Even for my low morale army, that's a poor waver test performance.

End Result: 5-1 for Steve.

Open Game 1. Greg Hauser's Sultanate of Delhi. Out of the NICT, and on to the Open.

Greg and I are old friends from Rochester days, and have played together many times. Greg has gotten steadily better as a player over the years, and I'll freely admit to not accounting for that in the last couple of games he and I have played. He has beaten me soundly, and my own over-confidence is in large part to blame.

Greg has an army that mine is designed to kill. My LTS,B guys are death to his elephants and cavalry alike, and while he has a lot of artillery I have 48 figures of LMI B,Sh that would love to go toe to toe with his artillery. And I just hold sooooo much more frontage than he does.

Greg gets a hill in the middle of the table on his side, which is clearly going to be his artillery park. He sets up from the middle to my right, and throws a light cav unit way over on my left to hold me up. My mission is going to be to drive back the light cav (easy), and then break the hinge in his line formed just to my left of his center hill.

Greg will push hard on my right, but I'm not at all worried as I have a steep hill to protect against flank marches and a gentle hill that I can either defend or sit behind using it as a shield from his artillery (yes, very Napoleonic, I know). I relax even further when Greg announces that all his scouting points are on the table.

I make a couple of mistakes early. First, I let my elephants get too far in front of my foot, leaving them vulnerable to a long range artillery shot. I will eventually extract myself from this mess and will indeed, by the end of the game, break Greg's hinge, but the needless "stand halted" early on slows me down by several bounds. I also deploy on my right assuming no flank march is coming -- another mistake. Greg has taken his required LMI unit (Irr C, LTS,Sh front JLS,Sh back) and flank marched them, and they arrive next to an empty steep hill on Bound 2. Now my right is looking precarious indeed.

I spend the next several bounds playing out of my mistakes. I screen the elephants off from the artillery, get my LMI Bow to where he dare not bring his artillery too far forward, and start repositioning reserves to shore up my crumbling right flank. The rust is coming off, I'm not cocky any more, and we are headed towards something like a 2-2 or 3-3 draw.

Then I move my subgeneral too far forward in an attempt to stop Greg's flank marching unit from charging one of my units in the flank. The subgeneral has nothing protecting his flank but a small LI unit, which gets charged and routed by Greg's LI, carrying it right into the flank of my general. My general is routed, and lots of uneasy Cs and Ds take a pair of wavers (one for routed unit, one for general going down).

End result: 5-2 for the Sultanate.

Open Game 2. Mike Kelly's Mongols. I am out of the competitive running for anything now, and ready to just relax and enjoy my last two games.

Mike is another one of those guys who has gotten steadily better over the years, and is not to be underestimated. And Mongols is a difficult army for me to face. I'm not worried about being flanked; I can cover the entire table length, and I get the needed steep hill to block off a flank march. The problem is that I can't catch anything of his and he can't beat anything of mine.

Mike does a good job of platooning his light cavalry so that even though they are getting shot up by my denser fire power, his skirmish line continues to hold solid.

Basically, we have to decide to have a fight or not. I bring the elephants to the fore in the center of my line, and Mike dismounts some cavalry opposite them. While my elephants will bounce off, his dismounts are vulnerable to my firelancers. And not all of his dismounters have shields, so there are some opportunities to exploit if the elephants behave.

Alas, it is not to be. I get the expected result in one place, with my elephants recoiling but my firelancers recoiling the opposing unit disordered. Adjacent, however, die rolls between shooting and hand to hand conspire to rout my elephant unit, and enough adjacent units shake to stall my attack.

End result: 4-0 Mongols.

Open Game 3. Jim Bisgnani's Alexandrian Imperial. A nice finish to the weekend. Jim is a very congenial player, and a good sport. Alexandrian Imperials is a top tier army, but also one my army has been tuned to kill.

Finally the rust has shaken off, and for once in the weekend I play the way I am supposed to.

Jim has good luck with terrain. He has a woods anchoring one flank, and a brush anchoring the other. The woods means he doesn't have to hold the whole table frontage (which he can't quite), and the brush gives him an operating space for his peltasts and Thracians.

So Jim opposes my left with light cav, pelts, and Thracians, opposes my right with LI in the woods, and makes his attack straight down the middle with elephants and hypaspists flanked by pikes.

I line up 48 MI with Bow against his light cav, and skirmish away from his pelts and Thracians. Against each pike unit I line up an elephant and firelance unit (who will easily beat the pikes straight up), and I line up big LTS,B units against his elephants and hypaspists. These guys will beat the elephants handily, and lose to the hypaspists gradually (since they are in bigger units than the hypaspists).

The critical moment comes early. Jim has left a little too much space between one of his pike units and the adjacent hypaspist unit. He has correctly calculated that I don't have the move to get my elephant into position for a flank charge. What he neglects is that I can get my elelphant into shooting range on his shieldless flank. Combined with the 32 figures of shooting to his front, this gives me 2 CPF. He does not count shielded to all shooters, and thus must waver test. This is an uneasy waver since he has both enemy on the flank (the elephants) and elephants within 240p. He rolls a 2, the Hypaspists shake, I charge them with my LTS,B guys, they rout, and the adjacent elephant unit shakes. This means that the elephant unit adjacent to them can either charge my LTS,B guys frontally or wait to get charged in the flank the following bound by Irr A LMI JLS,Sh guys. He opts to charge, and routs at contact, causing the accompanying Hypaspist unit to shake.

So in the course of two bounds Jim entire center as evaporated. He over-extends his Thracians to try and cover some of the open frontage, and hangs their flank. I charge them with my subgeneral, knowing that I will subsequently get charged in the flank by Companions, but unable to resist the opportunity to rout the Thracians.

At the other end of the line, my CinC has his ultimate moment of glory. He is looking at a 32 figure pike block in a 2x4 column, and can charge them in the shieldless flank. He does 5@10 (lance=4, charging+1, impetuous+2, shiedless+3) for 60. He support shoots and rolls up 2, so 3@5 -2 (in contact) +2 (die roll) for another 12. Note that the pikes count as a 24 figure unit in this formation. So yes, 60+12 is 72 for 3 CPF, and the pikes rout at contact. Not even SHK can pull off that particular trick.

Jim goes in for a last hurrah with the Companions. He does rout my subgeneral, and shake a bunch of stuff. Enough to put that command into retirement for me. He tries to charge my MI B,Sh unit which has expanded to only one rank deep to extend its shooting arc. Alas for Jim, even at one rank deep they are more than a match for shieldess HC; the Companions rout.

When the dust settled, Jim had lost over 1100 points, and I had lost over 400. A bloody and thoroughly enjoyable affair.

End result: 5-3 for the Chinese.

I have my eye on a new army whenver I am next able to make the NICT, and I'll likely be playing a non-Oriental army at the next Cold Wars. But the bottom line is: practice, practice, practice. Hard to do here in the Pacific NW, but it's the only way to be competitive.

[Mark Stone]

The last three Historicons (and Cold Wars) has seen a lot of experimentation with armies we don't normally see in abundance in tournament play. The Meso-American lists have always had some representation, but not in the numbers we've recently seen. And Japanese has never been a real tournament choice until Historicon two years ago.

Now these two types of armies are common opponents, and something every tournament player must plan for in open competition. What I find interesting is that this has had no discernable impact on tournament winners.

Some years ago (5? 6?) Chris D'Amour won the NICT running Patrician Roman. Since then, no one has won the NICT or Cold Wars without running one of these three types:
* A knight army (where that means at least 5 units containing K);
* An Alexandrian or Alexandrian successor army;
* An elephant army (where that means at least 4 units containing El).

I'm not sure why that is. Clearly the Meso-Americans and Japanese are good enough to be spoiler armies, and take somebody else out of contention (I think Ewan can attest to that, and not just from this year). But they don't seem to be good enough to break through to win.

Clearly one big factor is the lack of a mounted attack. Given the way initiative and approach moves work, it's a real handicap having to move all of your strike troops before any of your opponent's mounted. There's also a tactical move distance issue. Japanese and Meso-Americans have a tough time chasing down a skirmishing/evading opponent, whereas at least the knight armies and Alexandrian armies have lots of dangerous mounted with a 160p tactical move that poses a dilemma for loose order infantry.

I wonder, though, is this just a fad that will pass? Will people running the Japanese and Meso-American armies tire of finishing in the middle of the pack, and thus we'll see the numbers dwindle for those armies? Or will these become a permanent fixture of our tournament landscape despite their inability to deliver top tier performance?

Some caveats to my remarks above: I don't mean to imply that any lists are unbalanced or in need of fixing. The lists are and should be written to work with historical matchups, and those of us who play in open tournament formats simply get the results of that.

I also recognize what the overwhelming factor in victory is the player, not the army. Nonetheless I will note that we've had plenty of past NICT or Cold Wars champions try their hand at Meso-American or Japanese armies, and none have had success. That suggests to me that it is possible that these armies are inherently less competitive than the three categories I mention.

Food for thought, anyway. I'll be curious to see what 2009 brings out at Cold Wars and Historicon.


-Mark Stone