Introduction Prior to Bob Hurst's retirement to Texas, he accumulated an army of 25mm Games Workshop and Citadel figures, the intent being to introduce his grandson to the wargaming world. The figures are undeniably superb... the fantasy sculptors ran hog-wild on the designs, and the detail and quality of the entire lines are beautiful. Given a good paint-job, it's no wonder that more and more kiddies are attracted to Games Workshop WARHAMMER wargaming. And so on Thanksgiving '97, in a galaxy far, far away (Kerrville, Texas, will just have to do), Bob Hurst set up his first WARHAMMER (WH) game. Below is his rather abridged battle description. I assume his references to the rules will be fully understood by the WH buffs. The Battle The three sides were (a) Robin the Grandson was in charge of the Lizardmen. Their main strengths are (i) their armor-class skin, and (ii) they're just plain stupid (which helps in morale tests... they toss 3 morale dice and pick the lowest two). The Lizardmen started out on the west edge of the table. (b) Allen the Son was in charge of the Bretonians. These are Humans of the Knightly Orders who charge in wedges, and whose bowmen fire in arrowhead formation similar to a wedge. This allows 10 men to fire with a frontage of only 4 men. Bretonia started out on the south edge of the table. (c) Bob the Elder was in charge of the Empire. Their main strength is missile weapons... great cannons, multi-barrel cannons, steam cannon tanks, plus bowmen who can skirmish. Unfortunately, no cannon were ready for the battle, and the bowmen decided to remain in two lines with only the front rank able to fire. The Empire started out at the north edge of the table. 1. Victory points were city ruins controlled by the Lizardmen, spanwing ponds controlled by Bretonia, and major hills controlled by the Empire. Destroyed units would also count in assessing victory points. 2. The Lizardmen launched some flying units to attack Bretonia. They also sent a large unit of bowmen to attack the Empire units. 3. Bretonia reacted by launching its own air units. Since the Empire didn't have an air wing, it tried to reposition its ground units. The Lizardmen flying units were destroyed by Bretonia, while the remaining Bretonian craft were grounded because of damage. 4. All sides lost some figures due to bow fire. A unit of Empire men@arms charged the Lizardmen bowmen. The Empire won and the Lizard unit routed from the field. It was a small victory... only 8 of the original 20 men@arms remained. 5. Magic had been used in all the preceding turns, but had no major impact... it could 'hurt' for a turn, but did not determine the game. 6. At this point, the Lizardmen commander, Robin the Grandson, and the Bretonian commander, Allen the Son, commenced a lively discussion concerning some magic spells about shooting at attached leaders of enemy units. 7. Robin the Grandson decided he didn't want to play and the battle ended unresolved. I'd like to try the rules again, but not with a young teenager. Final Comment You'll note that the battle ended when Robin the Grandson just up and quit. And that Bob wasn't too unhappy with the WARHAMMER rules... his only negative comment concerns not wanting a 'young teenager' to participate in a re-fight. Early in 1998, a couple of us plan to visit Texas Bob, and we'll see if he prefers us surly ol' guffers to the teenager crowd. I must admit that my own experience with teenagers in wargaming hasn't been bad at all. It's the pre-teenager crowd that does me in... the cute @#$%^&! little tykes that sit at daddy's side and want to help him by tossing the dice. In fact, they insist on helping by tossing the dice. Years ago, at one of the HMGS conventions, Bob Hurst and I volunteered to present a 'kiddy game' for the young, teeny-weeny set. I brought along a box of science fiction figures, gave each of the participants a couple of figures, and we were off and running. By the third bound of the game, Bob and I were 'up to here' with the kids... they didn't know what was going on, didn't care what was going on... but, for that matter, neither did we. We had planned to distribute a couple of 'medals' to the best kiddy gamers, but as soon as we took out the medallions, every kid started to shout "Me, too! Me, too!". We were inundated with the little @#$%^&!. Back to PW Review December 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 Wally Simon 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