Knock! Knock! - " Hello is anybody there? It's me - Dicey!...Hello? - Can I come in from the cold? - Hello??". Oh bugger it - I'll let myself in!. Welcome to winter my Young Minions!. I'll just dust off me coat and sit by the fire and tell ya a yarn or two. Well, another issue of me favourite old mag (no - it's not Penthouse) comes a-callin' for more hot goss from the other side of the fence. The winter vunderland is upon us once again so it's time to pull on the thermals, pull that beanie down over the ears and get the uggies laced up tight. In amongst the football fever I have managed to review some things that are new and re-live some that are not. When men wore skirts (and weren't called Bruce) Chipping away the icicles I uncover Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB - for the chíc players). What can I say about a game made by The Evil Empire but… "I LOVE IT"!!! No more staid, placid movement of 15mm blocks of pygmy pikemen and rat-sized elephants here no siree! Let the juices run hot as I march my 25mm (really expanded to 28mm) Host with the Most across the bowling green plains of the table-tennis table. The hordes are with us once again! So what do I love about WAB you ask? Well, my expurgatorial little friends; let me tell you. Firstly, the bloody archers be they skirmishers or close formation archers, actually get to shoot again. Yes, that 5 AP that you paid for the little munchkins really allows you to shoot crap out of those bloody knights before they run you down. No more " Oh well they're expendable anyway!" thinking here! The rules drive you to field large units (ie. more than 5 figures) as if you're stuck with less than 5 figs surviving and they fail a break test, you can't rally the unit so they bugger off for good - no more superhero efforts by three Ninja's and a jar of Capillano honey holding up the Greek army at Guagamela (although... with three young boys and a donkey…..) The solid formation foot troops actually fight in ranks with appropriate bonuses dependant on weapon types selected. Long thrusting spears give you the ability to fight in depth (2 ranks) whilst the pike-armed Grunts get to fight in three or four rank formations. I could dribble on some more about my views on WAB but instead, I will let the God of WAB Himself speak: WAB Through the Crystal Ball by Jervis Johnson Following recent messages on the WAB mailing list asking 'what's happening next?', I thought you all might be interested in the following message sent to Steve Neate, editor of Slingshot, about 'work in progress' with WAB. The Open Day referred to is an event hoping to be held at the end of the year. (This was a letter submitted to Total Power Magazine) Nigel Stillman's 'Chariot Warfare' supplement for WAB is in production at the moment. This is very much a labour of love on Nigel's part, and is shaping up to be a very interesting book. The core of the book are a set of army lists for the main armies of the Biblical period (Sumerian through to Assyrian), each presented in the rather lengthier format used for the lists in the WAB rules, rather than the short '2 page' format we've used in Armies of Antiquity. Each list is backed up by a short introduction that puts the army in its historical context, and is backed up with painting, modelling and army collecting tips. Nigel is very taken with the new chronology, and has been doing a lot of work over the last 3 or 4 years converting timelines over. Just today he was showing me the 'military history' timeline he has worked out for the book, and which is basically the distilled version of all the work he's been doing. It really is very exciting stuff, and I'm hoping to be able to convince Nigel that a sneak preview might make a good Slingshot article. Whatever the outcome of this, we're hoping to get the book through production in March or April in time for a summer release. [If any readers have seen this puppy out here we wouldn't mind a review! Ed.] Following Nigel's book we'll be starting production work on the 'Age Of The Vikings' supplement. This is being written by Stephen and Duncan Patten of Gripping Beast, and is shaping up into another interesting project. The Pattens are concentrating on the period of the Viking raids in Britain (roughly 750ish through to 1066). The book includes four main lists (Vikings, Saxons, Celts and Normans), again written in the long style of the WAB rules, with a historical context, etc, for each army. The Celtic and Saxon lists include a number of choices and options that allow a player to make them more 'specific'; for example, some of the entries in the Celtic list is can only be used if you have a Welsh army, others only if you have an Irish army, and so on. In the Saxon list you can take a 'generic' type of Fryd unit, but can also include Fryd from specific counties that have special options or rules. However, all of the specific Fryd you use must come from adjacent counties, so you couldn't include a Cornish Fryd in an army with a Northumbrian one for example. Possibly most exciting of all, John Blanche, GW's art director, is going to be doing the cover and some internal art for this book. John is best known for his fantasy work, but in earlier days did quite a lot of historical work as well (including some art for Slingshot he tells me). That's probably all we'll manage to get out this year. However, John Lambshead is writing a supplement on the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The early work I've seen so far has some very interesting scenarios, and lots of useful stuff about running campaigns and small scale skirmish games. In the States, Allen Curtis is working on a Punic Wars supplement, which will probably be the most dedicated and 'focused' of the all of the WAB supplements, concentrating as it does on two armies in a well documented war. As an aside, one of the things we've tried to ensure with all of the supplements is that each author is left with a fairly free hand to d the format they decide to use, and, as I hope you can tell from these brief notes, this is resulting in an interestingly eclectic set of books, that address a wide variety of different historical and game themes.choose what they put in the book and the format they decide to use, and, as I hope you can tell from these brief notes, this is resulting in an interestingly eclectic set of books, that address a wide variety of different historical and game themes. For my own part I've started work on 'Battles Of Antiquity', which is basically a selection of scenarios and army list variants for use with the armies in the WAB book and AoA. I've been rather taken with the 2 page format we developed for AoA, and have managed to come up with a similar 2 page format for the scenarios. The idea is for the scenario's to be playable with any two armies, but for them to include variants for the army lists based on the two armies that actually fought. I'm going to try and make sure that we cover quite a lot of smaller actions and skirmishes, as well as the larger battles that were not simply a straight-forward 'line up and fight' pitched battle, as I think that WAB's ability to change scale and cope with all kinds of odd special rules like this is one of it's main strengths. Anyway, the first scenario has worked out well and fits into the allocated two pages, so now it's just a case of picking twenty more! Following on from this there has been some loose talk of doing a 'Campaigns Of Antiquity' supplement, providing a selection of campaign ideas and rules based on an advanced version of the campaign rules from the rulebook which we've come up with. However, we've also got a set of English Civil War rules that are pretty well advanced, and we've also being playing some games using the new 40K rules as a basis for 19th Century colonial games. Ricks WW2 version of the 40K rules are now on a back burner while he concentrates on a project for GW, but Andy Chambers and myself have been thinking of trying out some WW2 games using a modified version of my Epic game system with 20mm models. Well, what I thought was going to be a quick follow-up has turned into a fairly lengthy tome, so I think I'll end here. It's late now and I've had a long day, so I hope the message makes sense. If not don't hesitate to get in touch and I'll be happy to fill in any bits that are unclear! Jervis Johnson (AKA - the WAB God!) WAB Bit's and Pieces Following on to this article Jervis has put together both a quick Q&A for Armies of Antiquity as well as some new OPTIONAL rules. As always with optional rules, make sure you get your opponents permission before you use them. Questions & Answers Elephants: The rules account for Howdahs, but NO LIST in the AoA book lists them! Which armies historically had Howdahs and what would the point costs be? In this case you'll have to let history and the model you are using be your guide (ie. if the model comes with a Howdah, then it counts as having a Howdah). No quickly scratch-built howdahs please! Having a howdah or not doesn't change a units points value. Chariot Generals: Most of the classic chariot armies (Trojan, Persian, and Egyptian) whose generals usually rode into battle in chariots are now easier to wound than the chariot drivers! Under the test lists the Generals (all have base toughness of only 3) would have a +1 to Toughness when riding a chariot. The crews still retain this +1 toughness. Is this intended or an error? The Hittite general starts with T-4 so is not af fected. This is intended. Basically, generals who I think should be good at hth fighting already have a high Toughness and attacks, while those that I see as being more skilled and shooting etc don't. Thus get stuck in, while Egyptian and Persian generals will be more likely to stand off. Massed archery: The test lists did show which armies were allowed massed archery, but this stipulation has been dropped in AoA. Are we to assume that all mixed formation units ar e now allowed to use massed archery? Thi s would make sense. All units can make use of massed archery if any models are equipped with bows. New Rules - Confident and Edgy Troops I agree with those that like the 'Falling Back in Good Order' rule and the associated 2-1 rule. One of the things that I've been mulling over with regard to the WAB rules is the way that panic tests and break tests don't take into account the situation that the unit taking the test is in at the time. Actually, that's not quite true, in that the fact that the unit has to take a test at all reflects its current situation to some extent, for example that it's lost a round of combat, or has been charged to the flank while engaged to the front. However, once triggered, the tests are very all or nothing affairs, where you either flee or hold. This can create some odd results, most noticeably where a unit in a plainly quite safe position will run off, or on the other hand where a horribly battered unit keeps on fighting just as easily as a fresh one. The new rules in AoA address this to an extent, by limiting the effect of skirmishers on formed units, and allowing units that outnumber their opponent by over 2-1 to 'fall back in good' instead of fleeing if they fail a break test. However, I still have a feeling that there is more that could and should be done. What I would like to achieve is something where when the position and state of a unit on the tabletop is *visibly* either good or bad, then this effects its reaction to events around it. On the other hand I want to avoid coming up with a long list of modifiers or complex special rules which would slow down or otherwise muddy the clean mechanics used in Warhammer. The new rules build on the foundation laid in AoA with the 'falling back in good order' rule, by adding in the concept of 'Confident' and 'Edgy' psychological states for units in your army. Being confident or edgy modifies the way a unit responds to or takes a panic or a break test, and does something to mitigate the 'all or nothing' nature of these tests. I hope that the effect of these rules will be to reward good play. In particular, the 'edgy' rule makes flanking the enemy *much* more dangerous than it is as the moment, while the 'confident' rule should make reserves and forming up in a neat battleline more useful. Please note that these rules haven't been tested yet - you're in at the ground floor here guys! Please give them a try if you like the look of them, and if you can e-mail me with any comments, I'd appreciate it! By the way, for those of you that haven't got AoA yet, a unit that can fall back in good order flees normally, but then rallies automatically at the end of the move. It can be pursued, but if caught it's not wiped out; instead the pursuers count as charging in the next combat phase. Units that fall back in good order may not charge in their next turn, but otherwise can shoot or move normally. CONFIDENT & EDGY UNITS Sometimes the circumstances that effect a unit will make it more confident than would normally be the case, while at other times units, or even the whole army, can decide that things are going against them, which will make them edgy and prone to panic. To represent this there is a chance for a unit to be either *confident* or *edgy*. It is possible for a unit to be both confident and edgy at the same time, in which case both sets of special rules will apply! Sometimes the situation a unit is in will change over the course of a turn or a phase, so that a unit that starts off confident ends up edgy. In the case of a dispute it is always the player whose turn is in progress that decides what order things happen during his turn (i.e. what order to take break tests, fight close combats, move units, etc.). Confident Units Units are confident if *any* of the following circumstances apply: 1.They are at full strength and no unit in the army has been broken in close combat other than skirmishers. 2.They have secure flanks and rear support. See below for a definition of these. 3.The army general is with the unit. 4.They won a round of combat this player turn. IMPORTANT: Units in skirmish formation can never be confident. A confident unit will fall back in good order as described in AoA if it fails a Panic Test. Note that confident units that break suffer the normal penalties. Flanks & Rear Support I'm not going to write legalistic definitions of these, as it'll just encourage some players to get round the letter of the rules as opposed to their spirit. So, a flank is secure if it is covered by friendly units or terrain in such a way that the enemy can't possibly get at it. Rear support means that if an enemy should charge the unit in flank or rear, there is another friendly unit in a position that it could charge that enemy in its' next turn. Edgy Units If *any* of the following circumstances apply then a unit is deemed to be edgy. 1.The unit has suffered 50% or more casualties. 2.The unit is more than 12" from any other friendly units (friendly units that are fleeing don't count!) 3.The army general has been killed (this doesn't apply until the turn after he has been killed). 4.There is an enemy unit (other than skirmishers) in a position from which it could declare a flank or rear charge on the unit. 5.The army has lost 50% or more of it's starting number of models An edgy unit takes all Ld tests on 3D6 instead of 2D6. A Note For Absent-Minded Players Like Me These rules are quite easy to forget, especially in the heat of battle. It's therefore up to you to remember which of your units are confident, and it's up to you to spot which enemy units are edgy. If you forget to do this at the time you can't backtrack when you spot the mistake later on - it's assumed that the troops weren't quite as confident or edgy as one might have thought! STOP PRESS! DBM DOES IT AGAIN Just when you thought it was safe to put your big toe back into the WRG waters yes, Dear Readers they have managed to unleash the white pointers (not the Bondi type): Here ye! Here ye! DBM Version 2.1 has arrived! With new army lists etc, OOOOOHHHHHH GGGOOODDDD! - when will they ever learn to leave things as they are for just one bloody year?!? But then again, we are talking about a company that has the famous "Barkerism" named in their honour. I guess Richard Brodley Scott must be commended for attempting to fix the Barkerisms and I suppose that new lists are based on new historical research and developments. Ancient Egyptians can now field an Eric Von Daniken (remember 'Chariots of the Gods?) Space Marine army armed with Power Wands, teleporters and rocket-powered chariots. Chinese can field an army of stone Golem statuettes and Celtic races can field some bloody big grass giants armed with rocks shaped like stone potties! I have played DBM Ver 2.1 (- is that what it is this week??) and have found MAJOR improvements with it. One is that I no longer have to have a neo-classical Latvian soothsayer transcribing it into English from its original text of ancient Barkerian. The diagrams are clearer and the little idiosyncracies have been, in the majority of cases, cleared up. The game is also much smoother with the little annoyances (such as who can group with who) cleared up. A generally much improved game system if, of course, you have the cash to keep up with the plethora of WRG releases. I sometimes think they are trying to make their own US Congressional Library with the amount of rule books published (or should I say - amendments to rule books!) Well that's it from me - see ya next time and happy rolling! Back to Table of Contents -- Kriegspieler #5 To Kriegspieler List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Kriegspieler Publications. 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