WRG 7th edition Ancient rules have been in circulation for a year now and some observations can be made as how best to utilize the system to your best advantage. Hopefully, these hints will save some new players from making errors which the experienced gamers will rapidly capitalize on. So be it. Into the fray! TERRAIN GENERATION You must pick your terrain pieces (all of them) before rolling for placement of the first one. This means that if you do not get your major water feature on your die roll and you only picked one, that's too bad. So if you want that flank secured, be sure to pick that feature TWICE. That way if you screw up your first roll, you have a second chance. Bow-armed foot (Persians, Indians, 100 Years War English) will do well to pick a minor water feature or river to set up behind, if allowed by the tournament organizers. You have only a 1/6 chance of getting it exactly where you want it, but you still have a 50% chance of placing it to either side to screw up and disorder the enemy fording it to get at you or in your rear. If well placed, you can sit back and say "Come and get me". Not an exciting game perhaps, but historically accurate - use what you've got! A marsh is also a good way to protect a flank, and you have a 2/3 chance of getting that feature. Woods are great to force march into and ambush out of provided you haven't been outscouted. There is a 1/6 chance of getting a woods anywhere you wish and a 2/3 of at least placing it on the flank. A unit of bowmen can be difficult to roust from a woods and if you can pull it off, a timely charge from ambush onto an exposed enemy flank can cause all sorts of chaos, unease and unsteadiness. A charge off a hill also has advantages for cavalry, especially impetuous ones. Artillery can fire from a height over intervening troops, unlike other missile armed figures. Close order foot holding uphill are a tough nut to crack. Loose order infantry uphill on a steep slope do not have to take the mandatory waver test for being charged if cavalry do decide to assault them (especially helpful to V class regular archers!). What about the other side of the coin, though? If you have a Hun, Mongol, Norman or other cavalry army, your primary objective should be to have as open an area as possible to fight over. There are ways to thwart most of the above strategems, but you have to plan ahead and have some inkling of what your opponent is going to go for as far as his terrain choices go. The paramount piece of terrain in your arsenal is the 50" (for 15mm) piece of string for clear terrain. You have a 50/50 chance of getting first placement and if you get it, you can place your loop so as to deny your opponent not only a major water feature on one flank, but also a minor water feature on a large part of the table. Run the loop of string from one area of the table to the edge. Since the water feature must run from the table edge to table edge, if it cannot be placed, it has to be discarded. Another insidious terrain feature is the fortification. It's expensive, but you cannot lose with this choice. if you do not get it (by die roll), you get the troops back who you 'spent' to buy it in the first place. You have a 1/3 chance of placing it, fortified with troops, in the enemy rear zone! Of all the terrain available, this one will foul up an opponent's battle plan for sure. A convention has begun to grow up about outlawing this feature, but many ancient battles have an outpost featured in them... often behind enemy lines. Watch out for picking rises over a hill. A rise has a 1/3 chance of ending up in enemy controlled areas while a hill has onlya 1/6 chance of it. A knoll is the safest choice, but you cannot get much on a 3" wide area! Okay for artillery, though. If your lists allow them, ditches, stakes, caltrops, etc., may be what you need to thwart an opponent. Artillery and archers behind a ditch are fairly safe from frontal assault. The attacking enemy troops not only are disordered if mounted or close order, but they are delayed as well. You will most likely get two good shots at devastating effect as the enemy comes in to melee. Stakes, though not disordering the attackers until they push you back, still count as an obstacle, however, and as such the attacking unit gets a -2 on his tactical factor for fighting to cross a defended obstacle. Also, being LMI, LI, LHI, your troops will not have to take a waver test for being charged by mounted troops. Pits, though not counting as an obstacle for waver tests purposes, do give the defender a +1 in melee and as such are classed as Hazards along with caltrops. PRELIMINARY SET-UP AND MOVEMENT Initial set-up is critical to winning a battle with these rules. I have seen concessions on the second turn of a game simply because of poor planning in deployment. An outscouted enemy is at a serious, though not critical, disadvantage. If your lists allow, be certain to purchase some Light Cavalry. This is where armies such as Anglo-Saxons are severely hurt. if outscouted, you may not set up any neat ambushes in your forward deployment areas. Your whole army must be deployed in line of sight of the enemy as well (except any ambushers you might have hidden in your rear deployment zones), while he only has to set up those visible from your own front rank. Furthermore, you are restricted as to force marches. In essence, you are forced to write your tactical orders with little or no idea of where your opponent is or what he plans on doing while he gets to see your figures in total. The disadvantage is obvious. To be outscouted, the superior side needs a 3 to 1 plurality of scouting points. Thus, if you are faced with Huns, you can pretty much plan on being outscouted... period. But, if fighting Persians or Abyssinians, you should probably have a unit of LC and one of LI along with Your normal contingent of HC/MC and be quite confident of not being outscouted. It's very foolish indeed to court disaster by not buying at least one unit of LC. Always set up some kind of mobile reserve as well as a general or your CiC in the rear. Units are easily shaken in these rules and rallying them requires a general in command spending a turn with them. As fighting causes them to become tired and near exhaustion, you will need to pull them out of combat and replace them with fresher troops. An exhausted unit is near to being dead if anywhere near a fresher enemy able to charge. Do not get bogged down in long range missile fire. Not only is it fairly ineffective at other than close range, but it wastes fatigue factors which are needed later on for preparatory and support fire. This also holds true for artillery. Wait for the right occasion before opening fire... an effective close range shot with a + roll on the random die often not only disorders an enemy, but may force a waver test as well. Attempt to concentrate your forces and attack quickly before your opponent has time to react to your moves. A very useful troop type again is the LC. Even an Irregular 'D' class unit may start the game forcemarched to the center line of the table, thereby pinning the enemy units on one or both flanks if you have two such units. These units cannot be expected to do much more than tie up the enemy - they're useless for fighting - but by tying him up, you leave yourself free to concentrate against his pinned weak point(s). Also artillery set up in ambush in a woods can be devastating if your opponent simply marches into close range. Granted, the artillery are disordered by simply being in the woods, but even with that, they should bring disaster down on any unit foolish enough to walk up to them unscreened by lights or skirmishers. One point, though. Don't leave artillery unsupported... they need help if attacked. BATTLE TACTICS if allowed them by your lists, use wedges whenever possible. Though fairly unmaneuverable, they are very effective for concentrating fighting strength. ALWAYS support your attacks. A three unit attack force is usually the minimum as two units can go in and concentrate to destroy an opposing force while the third unit can charge into potential flankers as in the illustration. Units I or I and II charge enemy A and hope for a push-back or to rout him. If the enemy B attempts to charge onto the flank of Unit 11, Unit III in reserve can quickly turn that into an enemy disaster. This supported attack, though requiring three units to the enemy two, will be able to be used if you have concentrated your forces initially while pinning down the enemy. Occupy hills, rises and knolls on the flank your main attack is to develop from. Do not attack with enemy uphill on your flank or to your rear! It's foolhardy to figure that they won't leave the safety of their hill to attack you. Believe me, a tempting flank of a SHK unit is too much to pass up. Though time-consuming, it's important to at least have enemy units uphill of you engaged and tied down rather than free to foil your plans as they develop. Do not ignore woods! Treat every one on the other side of the board as potential ambushes. Use of lights and skirmishers to 'scout' is paramount to winning. Once the enemy 'reveals' himself, he keeps those units on the board for the rest of the game. So spring those ambushes before blissfully marching past a woods. Attacking unsupported or isolated enemy units is an easy way to get points. Although their departure is not readily noted by other enemy forces, it is also fairly simple to force them off the board or make shaken, both of which will get you points. Keep your own commands tight together as much as possible. Not only is it hard to change orders to a strung out command, it's difficult to coordinate supporting attacks or' defense... and you're in real trouble if a unit routs and your general in line of command is too far away to help straighten things out. I hope these hints will be of some value to those of you who are just getting into this period of wargaming. I welcome any questions or responses which you might have either through THE COURIER or directly to me. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VII #6 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com