Warrior Kings: Tactical Rules and Campaign System from 3000BC to 1492AD Miniatures Rules Review by Russ Lockwood

It's awfully difficult to sell another ancients/medieval rules set these days. The big names -- WRG, DBA/M, Tactica, Armati, Classical Hack, Ancient Warfare, Knight Hack, Medieval Warfare, Day of Battle, etc. seem to have an unassailable lock atop the heap of also-rans. But that shouldn't stop designers from exploring new ideas and inventing new systems. You never know when a clever idea--like the aforementioned rule sets--can capture the imagination of the tabletop warriors. Ed Teixeira designed Warrior Kings: Tactical Rules and Campaign System from 3000BC to 1492AD, the first in the "React" series of rules, with the idea that ancient and medieval generals had less control over their troops than some rule sets would have you believe. You can see the threads of the design invoke similar mechanisms from several of the aforementioned rule sets, but Ed did not consult them and the end result is a different flavor of battle. After all, although the ideas of battle are not unique--the designers are all reading the same sources--the difference comes in the interpretation of the mechanics used to simulate the battle. The core of the system that impacts the "Magic Ms" (Movement, Missile, Melee, and Morale) is a series of "Reaction Tests" units must pass in order to continue the battle. As you can see, these pretty much cover the entire spectrum of a battle: Enemy Threat Test, Received Fire Test, Attempt to Charge Test, Being Charged Test, Involved in Melee Test, and Leader Lost Test. The twist in WK is that you roll 2d6 for each test versus a unit's Combat Value, and treat each die (with modifiers) as a distinct pass/fail result. Hence, you can get both die to pass, both die to fail, or one die to pass and one to fail. The tables provide the results--everything from stand fast to immediate charge to rout, etc. One hurdle to get over is the the definition of a "unit." An errant sentence early on makes a "unit" consist of "one, two, or four stands" and the rest of the rules stumble over multiple stand units. As intended, each "unit" equals one stand ala DBA/M. Forget the multiple stands. Fix unit size as one stand at the outset, and the rules make sense. Movement is very restricted: foot may either wheel or move straight ahead (no obliqueing), mounted may either wheel and 1/2 move or move straight ahead. You may move one "body" of units for each "War Rating" point--think of it as DBA pips, or MW orders. Interestingly enough, missile troops cannot move and fire, although if enemy start in missile range, missile troops must fire. Missile fire is quite liberal for hits: 97% accuracy against most troops (Armor Class 2), 86% against knights and huscarls (armor Class 4), and 56% against Clibinarii and Cataphracts (Armor class 6). Melee uses the same casualties table and is much more difficult to gain hits (barring favorable modifiers): 67% accuracy against most troops, 33% against knights and huscarls, and 0% against Clibinarii and Cataphracts. Interestingly enough, regardless of the number of hits on a unit, the unit continues to function at full effect--evenwhen hits outnumber its original Combat value. Here's where the reaction tests take over, as units come near the enemy, or get peppered with arrows, or engage in hand-to-hand combat. Certainly, the reaction roll modifiers favor compact formations with minimal hits, and penalize unsupported, isolated units. The basic percentage to pass is 1-4 on a d6 for most troops, with each hit subtracting 1 and each friendly adjacent stand adding 1 to the die roll. Other modifiers may apply as well. As you may have figured out, there's a lot of reaction tests in any given turn, and it's about this time that you discover that much of your army is on auto-pilot and out of your control. Battles end when the last unit routs, or when a player concedes. In a campaign game, the major pursuit and especially the casualty recovery rules are very interesting. The latter allows for an interesting allocation of temporary to permanent casualties (stand loss rolls), based on the hits received during the battle and pursuit. Campaign "political" rules also reflect a lack of player control--the idea that "higher ups" are deciding (die roll) whether to go to war and who to declare war on. A Reconquista 1081 AD Campaign setting is included in the rules, along with 23 army lists (23 pages out of the 50-page rule book). One major omission is the points formula for creating your own armies, which is: Combat Value + Armor Class +/- special abilities x # figs per stand = points per unit. Pairing campaign recruiting rolls with army lists is a nice touch. Once you get the idea of the reaction tests, and the multiple layers of tests that occur in sequence, play proceeds quickly enough. Certainly, 20-25 questions during play (1/4 of them about multiple-stand units) prompted an e-mail to the designer, who responded in a couple of days. If you want total control, Warrior Kings will provide quite a shock. The reaction tests will fragment your forces and remove precision from your maneuverings. A real reserve, not just a double or triple layer of front line forces, is almost mandatory. You'll get plenty of opportunities to roll dice, as multiple reaction tests per unit per turn are the norm. It's a little much sometimes, but this fits the designer's vision concerning the vicissitudes of battle. In some ways, the multitude of reaction tests make Warrior Kings a better solo game than two- or multi-player game. And that's a forte over the other rule sets. Note that a skimrish set to go along with this is scheduled to appear in the middle of 2000. Warrior Kings, Ed Teixeira, 2360 Widgeon Dr., Lake Habasu City, AZ 86403. web page: futureone.com/~edrotex, e-mail: edeverett@hotmail.com Rules Questions Answered As always, questions pop up about rules during a game. Here are the ones I asked and the answers from Ed. UNITS 6.0 What exactly is a unit? It says 1, 2, or 4 stands, but I don't get the distinction between the number of stands and the strength or firepower of the unit. Must they always stay together? Can you split a "unit" into multiple stands (assuming you spend the appropriate War Rating pts)? If a "unit" of 2 stands (one behind the other) charges an enemy and melees, is there any difference than if two separate "units" (one stand each unit) do the same thing? Do multiple stand units take reaction tests differently? One stand = 1 unit. Ignore everything else. The reference to multiple stand units is for people who want "big" units made out of multiple stands. In this case, a group of two or four stands would be ONE unit and all stands would be treated as one unit in total. There is no difference other than to make it "look" more impressive with more figures. Note: I played with 1 stand equal 1 unit. It is the easiest and will cause the fewest headaches. Many questions/problems stemmed from that one errant sentence. I've saved you the trouble of reading many questions that came up because of this multiple stand per unit sentence. Do yourself a favor: make one stand equal to one unit.--RL MISSILE FIRE 16.0 Missile fire: says bodies must stop upon entering eligible position to fire at an enemy (see Mandatory Fire). Looking at Mandatory Fire, 2nd paragraph says when a unit "begins" turn in range. Does that mean that a unit that moves may not fire? Correct: No move and fire. 21.1 Target must be in LOS and range. Is there an arc from the firing unit? Or is it pure straight ahead? No. Straight ahead. And (in 2nd paragraph): Skirmishers may fire to direct rear--does that mean 360 degrees, or just directly behind? Directly to rear. Can you "borrow" an arc from an adjacent unit (ala WRG)? No. Does it matter if it is a skirmish unit or not? Can the second rank of bow (or sling or jav) fire over the top of the first skirmisher row? No. Can they fire over any other troop type? No. Do I read the casualty table right--missile foot always hit (except on a snakeeyes: a roll of "2") because they roll 2d6 and *add* the numbers together? And in cover they would hit on anything but a 2 or 3? Yes. I don't understand 21.3--does this mean one stand fires multiple times at all stands within range and arc? Or does one firing stand designate one target stand? Only one Fire per stand, and thus, a maximum of one hit. If there are two equidistant targets, the target with the lower Armor Class gets the hit, but both test. ARMOR CLASS AC (Armor Class): Is it always 2,4,6? (What happened to 1,3,5?). Doesn't seem to have anything in the casualty table for them, so I assumed they were not valid classes. Correct. 2,4,and 6 is it. LEADER MODIFIER Is that a specific unit (single- or multi-stand) in contact with a leader, or the body as a whole in contact with a leader? It must contact the stand, so a leader stand can influence up to eight stands. SEQUENCE OF PLAY Let me see if I got the sequence right during this situation between two attacking spear stands (one behind the other, separate units) versus one skirmisher bow stand. The spear start 2 inches from the bow. 1. Attacker declares a charge, rolls Attempt to Charge reaction test (and makes 2 passes) 2. Defender rolls a Being Charged reaction test (and also makes 2 passes): Skirmishers fire and retire (puts one hit on the AC2 lead spear stand). 3. Skirmisher retire 3 inches +1 inch for rolling a "5" for a total of 4 inches...however, three inches behind is a column of non-skirmisher in reserve, one stand wide, nothing to either side. According to 17.3 Retire, the skirmishers "move directly away from the path of the enemy", which brings them into contact with the non-skirmish reserve, which halts them. The skirmishers take 1 hit for retiring, and another for contacting the reserve unit. 4. The attacking spear then roll for "Received Fire" reaction test (passed 2 dice), which gives them a continued charge. But there is nothing to charge, so do they roll to "Pursue" (17.5), or continue to the extent of their charge movement distance? Roll to OCCUPY SPACE and then Roll to Pursue Do the skirmishers indeed stop as per 17.3, or do they swerve around the reserve? If so, would the chargers then hit the reserve? Would that trigger an Enemy Threat reaction test for the reserve? The skirmishers stop. The chargers would, if they make the roll, hit the skirmishers. Yes, it would be a test. The chargers would also, if a new target becomes available, make another Charge Test. ROUTS If a front stand routs, does it also retire? No. Just take it off the table. What happens if there are units behind it? They just lose +1 for adjacent support. CHARGES If an attacker rolls a Attempt to Charge test and rolls a "halt," do the defenders roll a Being Charged test? No, see 25.4. If it has the movement, can a mounted start in front of an enemy unit and move (by wheeling) into its flank? YES, if you have the movement. MELEE In a melee, where both units must roll a Involved in Melee reaction test, which rolls first? Or is it simultaneous? Simultaneous COMBAT VALUE (CV) 26.1 (last paragraph) says this is the only time a unit's hits may exceed its CV. I didn't see anything else in the rules about what happens if hits exceed CV (and due to modifiers of support, etc, it can pass reaction tests even when hits exceed CV). Also, in a melee (17.4 box), it is possible for a unit to exceed CV and yet remain after a melee. Yes, this is true. So what happens at the moment hits *equal* CV? Nothing What happens when hits *exceed* CV? Nothing REACTION After Battle---1/3 die, remainder rolled for. Pursuit. Campaign game interesting, one-off not applicable. That is true. Also, the campaign presented in Warrior Kings is all about fighting, not diplomacy. The idea is to generate battles. Note: the pursuit idea is rather interesting. Again, this is quite applicable to solo games.--RL MOVEMENT Is there OBLIQUE movement? No. POINTS I see references to certain types of troops costing an additional point for this, +1 point per figure. But I don't find the base cost if you want to create your own army (one that is not included in the rules booklet). How do you calculate the points? This was an oversight and the points forumla is not in the rules. The formula is: (CV+AC) + special features points = base points Multiply base points by the number of figures on a stand = total points per stand. Example: 2 figure stand bow troops: CV 4 AC 2 (4 [CV] + 2 [AC]) - 2 [skirmish special feature] = 4 4 x 2 [figures on the stand] = 8 points per stand OTHER COMMENTS Warrior Kings allows your units to behave on their own and act like real people in some respects--reactions to others, take initiative, etc. The campaign system is for fun and to generate battles. Defeated players can come back, and games play in about two hours or less. You have to learn to keep reserves and use inititive to counter opponents' plans. Thanks.--RL Back to Historical Game Review List Back to Master Game Review List Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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