One of the historical miniatures wargaming events held at the SIMCON XV convention in March 1993 at the University of Rochester was an ancients tournament under the WRG 7th Edition rules. The tournament was hosted by SAGA and umpired by Scott Holder, and doubled as a NASAMW qualifying round.

There were four rounds held over a Saturday and Sunday and 20 players. It was round-robin style with a somewhat complicated scoring formula. In each game, a player would receive 0-5 points depending on such items as enemy destroyed and margin of victory. Each player then received a percentage of the total points of the player's round opponents, the theory being that the player deserved credit for fighting tough opponents (as shown by those opponents' points).

The winner was (SAGA editor) Terry Gore who scored 44.7 tournament points with his Italo-Normans [Ed. See, Phil? That DBA game was no quirk!]. Second place was Vic Fitzpatrick with Saka; third was Jamie Fish with Anglo-Irish; fourth was Sean- Patrick Scott with Medieval Prussians. I took fifth with my Medieval Ethiopians (WRG List 101, Abyssinian). Other armies included Golden Horde, Knights of St. John, Carthaginians, Anglo- Normans, Kingdom of Vijayanagar (Medieval southern India), Seleucids, Chin Chinese (200 B.C.), Tibetans, Prefeudal Scots (1000 A.D.), Alexandrian Imperial, Seljuk Turks, Palmyrans, Marian Romans, Burgundian Ordonnance and Illyrians.

Each player was allowed to pick a 1600 point army under the WRG troop-cost-point system, from one of the approved army lists. My Ethiopians were all Irregulars, which generally under WRG makes them harder to maneuver than Regulars, but sometimes provides advantages in hand-to-hand combat. I had 4 units of good morale Irr B cavalry w/JLS &Sh--1 small unit of extra heavy cavalry (EHC), 1 small unit of heavy cavalry (HC), and two medium size units of light cavalry (LC). The mainstay of my infantry were three fanatic Irr A light medium infantry (LMI) units with JLS/Sh. I also had some Irr C foot--3 more units of LMI JLS/Sh, 2 units of light infantry (LI) with JLS/Sh and 1 lone unit of LI archers.

WRG requires a player to pay points for command for units and for "commands" of units led by generals. I had been having some command control problems with my Irregulars, so for my Giyogis Hayle ("Strength in St. George") EHC, Takuela ("Jackels") Irr A LMI, and Sellus Hayle ("The Trinity is my Strength") Irr A LMI, I replaced the normal unit command with a Sub-General in the unit. This gave me more flexibility, but left somewhat fewer points available for fighting troops, and made the units somewhat dependent on the character of the Sub-Generals--in WRG you dice, 50% of the time, you receive a "Bold" result, otherwise you may receive a Rash, Cautious, or Unreliable general, who among other things, may interpret the orders given by the Commander in Chief in the way suggested by the name.

[Ed. I especially appreciate Dave's use of historical names for his units. Isn't that so much better than "the yellow archers" or "unit 3"? It shows the research which Dave has done with his armies...and I, for one applaud him for it]

First Game

My first opponent was Alan Isabelle with Marian Romans of about the 1st century B.C. This variant was allowed some elephants; otherwise he had many legionaries, which in WRG are good fighters with heavy throwing weapon (HTW), and some supports of lighter troops and cavalry. He organized them into over 20 small units, making them more maneuverable, but also somewhat easier to destroy, and increasing the number of possible waver (morale) tests, which in WRG are taken by units.

Terrain dicing left most of the field open except for basically 2 woods on my half of the field on the east flank. Alan suspected (correctly) that I had hidden units in the woods (allowed in WRG with a "force march" cost in fatigue) and concentrated in the western 2/3. My units, which were Irr C LMI, came out and with LI support began a slow sweep around his flank. He pulled out reserves to meet this--including his CiC, who was in a bodyguard cavalry unit- -and eventually destroyed an LMI and an LI unit, but was thus distracted from elsewhere. On the far west, where the Ethiopian cavalry were concentrated, the small, third Badel Sabraq ("Sun in Victory") Irr A LMI impetuously charged and routed I of the 2 Roman elephant units, causing at least one legionary unit to fail a waver test and fall to the intermediate morale state of "shaken"--it never saw action.

A Thracian LMI auxiliary of the Romans charged Badel Sabraq in the flank and destroyed the Ethiopians, but the Roman flank was strained. Alan brought up his (only) Sub-General, commanding a substantial portion of the army, in a bodyguard unit of Irr A German cavalry, and charged my Abrigima (a geographical district) HC. However, I rolled better, and Abrigima routed the Germans and general. Not only did this cause multiple waver tests, shaking or even routing other Romans, but WRG also sometimes requires a general to issue messages (prompts) to take desirable actions, and one of the Roman generals was gone and the other tied up at the far end. The Ethiopians pressed their advantage, and with the help of Roman- routing efforts by Sellus Hayle and the Irr C LMI unit Seqalt (a geographical district) in the east center, ended up with 378.5 game pts. lost to 950 Roman. This translated to a 5-2 victory in basic tournament points.

Second Game

My next opponent was Sean-Patrick Scott, the eventual fourth place finisher. His Medieval Prussians were somewhat similar to the Ethiopians in troop types, with some LC, HC, and LI, and many LMI. However, a large proportion of his LMI were archers, who, as more concentrated than LI archers, were both more deadly in and more vulnerable to missile fire. Also, while the Prussians had only somewhat fewer Irr A troops, the Ethiopians were in entire units, whereas many of the Prussian Irr A were spread out with a few per unit, giving them some, but not all of the melee and morale advantages.

The terrain ended up with woods on both sides of both flanks, with some brush on the Prussian side, and an open center. He decided to force march 2 LI JLS units to the front center, where they moved up and temporarily pinned my center units from coming up quickly.

This did not turn out well. On the east, lacking more LI, he sent up a small unit of LMI to scout the Ethiopian woods and ran into the 36-strong (maximum size) Irr C LMI unit Zan Amora ("Lord of the Vultures") [Great name!]. Missile fire damaged the Prussians, who had at least some Irr A, and they charged Zan Amora and actually drove the Ethiopians back, but WRG calculates casualties per figure (CPF) in a unit. The smaller Prussians took so much damage they were .. exhausted", which automatically made them shaken, whereas Zan Amora was barely touched. They regrouped, charged, and destroyed the small unit.

A nearby Prussian LMI bow unit, of medium size, failed its waver test and fell to shaken upon seeing this. Zan Amora charged and routed them. Generally, thereafter, the Prussians followed a pattern whereby they failed a substantial number (though not all) of their morale tests and usually rolled worse than the Ethiopians in melee, which is not a successful formula. The Ethiopians ended up with 261 points lost to 681 Prussian, which translated into a 5- 2 victory.

Third Game

My third opponent was Vic Fitzpatrick, the eventual second place finisher. His Saka came from 100 B.C. when they controlled northern India. Thus he added some elephants and light foot to the usual tribal horse archers and some backup HC and EHC. All of the Saka cavalry could fight in 'wedge', a formation allowed only to certain WRG armies and conferring a melee advantage. However, most of his cavalry were not considered by the army list to be trained to fight alongside elephants, which meant he had to keep a certain minimum distance or his cavalry would be "disordered" by his own elephants, reducing their effectiveness.

In fact, the elephants never saw action in this battle. The Ethiopians had very good terrain dice, ending up, on their side, with two large woods in the center and west center, and a steep rocky hill in the far east, all of which became crammed with Ethiopians. There was a small gap in the far west and a larger gap in the east between the hill and woods.

The battle was lost by the eastern Ethiopian Sub-General, who commanded Badel Sabraq and an LI unit on the hill, both LC units, and the Abrigima HC, that is, most everyone who could reasonably be expected to catch the enemy horse archers. The general rolled 11 unreliable" as character. On turn 1, he rolled "1", disobeyed his orders, and went into mandatory WAIT orders which, among other things, meant that no unit in that command could charge unless taking at least 2CPF from ordinary shooting in one turn. WRG in effect allows a corrective attempt by the CiC every other turn.

The Sub-General rolled a 1 on turn three and a 1 on turn 5! By the time he finally obeyed on turn 7, the Saka had skillfully exploited this, charging and routing one LC unit, driving the other off the board, and routing one Abrigima, which had failed a waver test and fallen to shaken. Also, on far west, a Saka HC unit charged and destroyed in turn both Ethiopian units trying to block the gap-- the Qasta Neheb ("Bow, Sting or Arrow of the Bee")--Li foot archers, and the Saqalt LMI.

The Ethiopians finally got some points at the end when Takuela, with a very good die roll (as Irr A, they got an extra plus 2 in melee when rolling a net plus), routed a Saka EHC unit that had charged them; and Badel Sabraq, when its orders eventually changed, routed an LI unit. The Ethiopians ended up with 473.5 game points lost to 191.5 Saka, which translated into a basic 5-1 tournament point victory for the Saka (the Ethiopians fell just short of destroying 201, which in tournament terms would have helped them).

Incidently, as I mentioned to Vic Fitzpatrick during the game, my Sub-General change described above was, with respect to the Irr A, partly based on a suggestion from him after a prior game in which he had beaten the Ethiopians (with a different army list). In this game, it was the "conventional" cavalry wing Sub-General who caused the trouble--the unit Sub-Generals might have protected them from attempting useless charges against the horse archers, and becoming surrounded and destroyed--though that would not have affected the ultimate tournament point result.

Final Game

My final opponent was Jamie Fish, the eventual third place finisher. His Anglo-Irish represented the Medieval English army in Ireland. He had a few Irish LC, with JLS and no shield, some English HC with lance and medium cavalry (MC) with lance and no shield, and a variety of infantry. There were Reg C Welsh longbowmen LMI, whose front rank carried a two-handed cutting weapon (2HCW>. In addition, there were Irr LMI with 2HCW or JLS/Sh and some LI with JLS/Sh.

Among the many pieces of terrain which resulted from the dicing were 4 large woods in the west and west center, half on each side of the line. The east center and east was more open, and that is where the main effort of each side ended up.

The Anglo-Irish tried a flank march in the east. Under WRG, the troops are assumed to be proceeding off table and may or may not arrive, depending on a die roll every turn beginning with turn 2. The Anglo-Irish never showed up, costing him half points value of the marchers. However, these turned out to be only a small, inexpensive LI unit, while the Ethiopians were caused considerable worry.

The west turned into a sideshow because the Ethiopians, rather than hide troops in the woods at a fatigue cost, tried to bring them up with theoretically longer "march moves". Under WRG, however, the marchers--the 3 Irr C LMI units--had to roll for "deviation" (losing their way) in the woods, rolled a number of 6's, and generally drifted east. Finally, they switched to ordinary "Tactical" moves to head in the right direction. The Anglo-Irish had become so bored that they came out of hiding in their own woods. On the last turn, contact was made. Saqalt failed a waver test from being shot at, and was charged and routed. However, Zan Amore. and an Anglo-Irish LMI unit charged each other, and Zan Amora, with much better dice, destroyed the LMI on the spot.

Meanwhile, in the open east, the Ethiopian LC units Gojjam (a geographical district) and Sawaryana Warmat ("Carriers of Spears") and two Irish LC units charged each other. The Irish were theoretically weaker, but rolled better. Sawaryana Warmat drew on the first round, managed to rout the foe on the next turn, and spent the rest of the game gradually falling back from the additional enemy units it had attracted. Gojjam, on the other hand, was routed on the first turn, and as it left the field, caused the EHC Giyorgis Hayle, in reserve, to take a waver test. They failed. Even though the EHC could have been rallied by their general had they managed to stay on the board an entire turn, because all units in the 1-unit command had become shaken, the command (that is, the unit) was forced to change to RETREAT orders. The EHC, being in the back, marched off the board in one turn, from which, as shaken, they could not return.

The second game turn also saw in the east the start of a combat between two Ethiopian JLS LI units and a large Irish LI unit. With help from some slightly better dice and the later intervention of some Welsh longbowmen, the Anglo-Irish destroyed both units. The Abrigima HC partly restored the situation by routing the Irish LI and, in a complicated charge and countercharge, the victorious Irish LC. In turn, however, tired Abrigima was eventually caught and routed by an English HC unit.

Probably the decisive combat came just east of the woods. Another Welsh longbow unit, having routed the Qasta Heheb LI archers, continued and made a "converted charge" (converting their original pursuit into a charge on another unit) into the Irr A LMI Takuela, who were forced to receive that type of charge standing still. Takuela started out well by rolling a plus 3 on the net plus- minus dice, which, together with the plus 2 Irr A bonus, actually threw back the Welsh, who, with their 2HCW, had to fight shieldless in the second and succeeding rounds, a great disadvantage for LMI. On the next turn, Takuela rolled a net minus 4 but still pushed the enemy back. In the third round, however, the last turn of the game, the Welsh were joined by parts of two other units, Takuela rolled a net minus 3 and was destroyed.

Overall, the Ethiopians lost 781.5 points to 196.5 Anglo- Irish. This translated into a 5-1 win in basic tournament points for the Anglo-Irish (the Ethiopians just missed 201 again!)