Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Historian]

Fall In went very well, despite the weather. We had 6" of very heavy snow and near white out conditions. A good day to be indoors. I had decent parking, which is important when transporting 25’s.

I played Anglo-Irish in both the 1200 and 1600 point tourneys. I won 3, tied 2 lost 1, and the loss was to Mike Kelley, who won the tournament. Losing to #1 isn't so bad.

Anglo Irish:1198 points
CIC 6 Irreg'B' HK L Sh
3 Irish Cav 6 Irreg'B' HC L Sh
3 Detachments 4 LI S Sh
1 Galloglaich 40 HI, 2HCW, JLS, D
2 Bonnachts 27 LMI, 2HCW, JLS, Sh
1 Lonbow 48 MI LB Sh Stakes
1 Lights 8 LC JLS, Sh
1 Kerns 12 LI JLS, Sh

First 1200 point round was against Rich Kroupa, who was running Later Hungarians. He tried to get a 3 knight strike on a Galloglaich unit, which managed to angle and expand into a notch in the woods, which forced the knights to charge up the middle instead of taking the edge, and then with only 2 knights that could reach. My darts rolled +2 and +2, causing 3 per and disorder. His CIC was one of the knights, which rolled a -4, causing a catastrophe, which killed the CIC, lost the standard, and with all the subsequent morale checks , the game.

The Second round was against Mike Kelley’s Timurid Persians. Both sides were having difficulty. I misunderstood how the camel carts ran, and he thought his cavalry were able to perform with all the Mongol rules, and apparently they did not.
He deployed evenly, but his right flank was facing a 48 man LB unit with stakes already out, so he redeployed those units to the left. The left side was looking at the Galloglaichs, which he tried to get the camel carts on, but in the end they were used to counter attack my CIC. His spear unit then was taken by the Galloglaich, which forced 6 or so morale checks, but all passed. Meanwhile, my CIC, was getting heavily pelted, eventually shook with 14 fatigue, but though luck and some skill, managed to get away. The other details are a little fuzzy to me now, but in the end, I killed 3 of his units, and he managed to take the Galloglaich, a couple of my support units for 400+ points earning a 4-2 win.

Third fight was against Fred, running Alexander Imperial. My left flank had a woods in my deployment zone, to about 2 feet into the board. The right flank had a brush in the center. I put a kern in the woods, two 27 man Bonnachts into the brush, and in between was the longbow edged against the woods, a Cav/slinger, then the Galloglaich. Fred’s army had the Experimental Phalanx, but no elephants.

The initial moves had him vectoring in a Companion, LC, and experimental on my left flank. My Longbow, which was deployed 8 x6 moved out into the open, and expanded to threaten the Companion. This went on for a couple of turns with my fully expanded unit, behind stakes was trading shots with the shield Exp Phalanx, to no effect. All the while the Companions were working the not quite exposed flank. Finally he hit the right spot, and I reminded him of the missing 3 scouting points. (he did ask, I did tell him, there was nowhere else that unit could have been.) The Kerns ran out, routed the Companions, shook the LC, and the experimental phalanx.

The right flank didn’t go well either for Fred, but I don’t recall the details either. I must have been successful because shortly after the ambush, the game was called with me getting a 5-1.

1600 points
CIC 6 Irreg'B' HK L Sh
Ally 6 Irreg'B' HK L Sh
4 Irish Cav 6 Irreg'B' HC L Sh
4 Detachments 4 LI S Sh
2 Galloglaich 32 HI, 2HCW, JLS, D
2 Bonnachts 27 LMI, 2HCW, JLS, Sh
1 Lonbow 48 MI LB Sh Stakes
1 Lights 8 LC JLS, Sh
2 Kerns 8 LI JLS, Sh

For the 1600 point tourney, had my Irish modified as listed before. In adaption to the new deployment schemes, was organized in two 9 unit commands. So I could decide which command to lay first. My main goal was to see if I could catch some Cav unit at long range with the LB unit already deployed behind stakes. An interesting thought, but it didn't work.

First round was against Early Imperial Roman. The fight had a lot of action, but my opponents force mix only had 3 legions, and so was overwhelmed by both ferocity and numbers. While his support troops were out classed as well. Either by JLS vs. Lance, or 16 vs. 48 man. In one case, when a Galloglaich was going to take a legion in the flank, he sent in a 6 man JLS HC into them instead. So I got two breaks instead of one. This also was the only game where I sent a flank march of an HC unit with a detachment, which eventually sacked the camp.

Second round was brutal. Rich Kroupa’s Khmers. I may do a full AAR on this one. The details are fairly vivid in my brain. I have been looking forward to taking on an Elephant army with my Irish for a very long time.

Terrain. From left to right. Woods in my muster zone. About a foot from the left, a hill with steep/rough parts strewn about. Then a clear area about 520 paces, followed by another hill with steep bits. On the far right, was two more hills, both gentle and were not a factor. I couldn’t have engineered a better terrain setup.

Deployment. My left side had LI, Bonnachts, Bonnachts, this should totally dominate the hill with the Kerns providing flank coverage. In the center were the two Galloglaich units. Two Cav/Slinger units provided mobile reserve. On the right hill was a Kern unit, 2 more HC/Slinger units. These hills may have been had nasty parts in them, but if you were careful, a small Cav unit could cross without hitting them. On the far right was the Longbow unit, LC, and another HC/Slinger. Rich deployed several lights, and LMI against the left hill, The center had 3 units of 2 elephants backed by 40 LMI, and a unit of 4 Burmese elephants, supported by a unit of Burmese Bowman. On my right was arrayed another elephant backed by 40 LMI, 16 man LMI unit and several lights.

Looking at the board, I saw a double envelopment, as 1200 points of his army were dead center, arrayed against my Galloglaich.

The left flank did not go very well. Where I expected to dominate, Rich was able to out maneuver me. The LI Shook, a Bonnacht fell, and the game ended with a the other Bonnacht surrounded but still holding.

In the center, things were even worse. Even though Rich accurately portrayed and described his units, the exact nature of the beasts was not comprehended by me. His elephant units were 40 LMI foot figures, with a two elephant attachment. They were organized in 6 ranks. So they attack like elephants, but have a casualty divisor of 34. If it wasn’t for the Galloglaich being the best elephant killers in the game, this game would have been over in less time than my last game with Rich. The elephants came in and then rolled +3 and +2, but Clan Jordan held on. The right hand elephant charge was bolloxed by his own LI, and so was delayed. When it came in, the elephants were recoiled. Clan Ramsey pushed forcing a single elephant to charge, recoiled, then the next one charged. Both of us were accruing damage, but the subsequent mounted charges were costing him more than my 2 fatigue /cpf.

On the right, I caught an LMI unit with mounted and broke it, and was pushing back his skirmishers. But I had to exercise caution due to the presence of another of these large elephant units. On the far right, my sweep of the Longbow unit, with Cav and light support moved on. With each turn the Khmer LC would counter away, but it was only distance that was the impediment, not enemy action. At the hinge of this sweep, was a Khmer man LI unit, which I dedicated an HC to killing.

In the center, Clan Jordan was destroyed, but Clan Ramsey stood firm. My supporting cavalry units were already vacating the hole. My CIC went left to stabilized my collapsing left flank, and the other cavalry unit literally, “ran for the hills.” His victorious elephant units, turned both left and right, one taking my Bonnacht in the flank, the other taking Clan Ramsey. But with only one element engaged, 1cpf was not achieved, and neither were pushed. Rich was forced to engage the Bonnachts with a 16 man JLS foot unit frontally, stationary, uphill. The Bonnachts, with 2HCW, and JLS sent the Khmer infantry back, and stood firm even with an elephant hanging on their flank. Clan Ramsey, while unharmed, was pinned, and gave time for the elephant units to his front to reorganize, and they would soon reengage to send the Ramsey boys to oblivion.

All the while, there was a weakness in Rich’s army that I didn’t realize. And it when I accidently tripped upon it, everything changed.

The far right wing, had another victory. They caught the retiring Khmer LC, and the subsequent rout shook the camp, and the large LMI Bow unit. Rich’s army had 4 commands, so no command had more than 5 units, the Burmese only 2. With the LC caught, his left most command went to retirement, its remaining unbroken unit, an elephant, sans infantry support, was now centerline to the 48 man LB unit. The only thing keeping the shots off was a routing Khmer LMI with higher target priority. The Burmese command, with the camp acting as an shaken unit in the command, also went into retreat. On my left, with the Bonnacht on the hill surrounded, but otherwise in good shape, I removed the immediate threat of the Regular LC by virtue of sending in my CIC and slinger unit. Rich threw his last shot of trying to kill my one shaken LI unit, failed, so he “Burst through” into the woods, and thus safety. It was here that time was called, and the score was 470(Khmer) to 414(Irish) a 3-3 tie. Both Rich and I felt like we had to pull teeth for our scores. But all in all it was well earned points on both sides.

The last game was against Dennis’s Assyrians. There was lots of dancing, me trying to avoid being flanked, but setting traps, none of which worked. There was no failed counters that mattered. I did get a shot on his HC with the LB, that with 2cpf would have caused the HC to charge the LB with stakes, but I rolled a -3, and so it escaped. The one bright moment for me was a time where Dennis put his CIC in skirmish. But was out of turn sequence, as my Cav hadn’t moved yet, so he took it back. When he moved in the proper part of the turn, he did not place the CIC in Skirmish. Clan Ramsey charged, and the CIC had to waver to counter charge, and rolled a 1. I redisordered the CIC, but it passed, broke off, and eventually recovered. It was the only error either of us made, and the game ended in a 1-1. While this may sound like a do nothing game, it was not so. Units were engaged, just no decisive combat results were achieved.

I regard the Slinger detachments as a failure. They never screened their parents as planned, and largely did nothing. Nor were they a minus. In the future, I think I’ll trade two 4 man detachments for 6 man independents. The larger Galloglaich was a success. The Large LB was a huge success. Jiggering the commands so both were the same size was a success, but I will have to think better on how to take advantage of it. There were several times where I could have totally dominated with that advantage. Trading a Galloglaich for a HC unit was so-so. Against the Khmer’s I know what I could have done with another unit, but I don’t think I would have done it. Having it as a reserve 200 paces behind the front line waiting for one of the others to fail would be sensible, but not in my character. In none of the games was the extra HC unit a factor.

[Ed Kollmer]

Thanks for the AAR. It was great.
Your remarks about the units was very helpful to me. I also try to balance big units vs more units and HC vs infantry or skirmish .
Thanks
Ed the Byzantinophil