In March 1995, I played a 15mm miniatures game under the WRG 7th Edition rules, with SAGA editor Terry Gore. He wanted to try out a new army for him the Medieval Prussians (Ed. Hey. why not? Plenty of Irr. As, lots of archers, HTW- or 2HCW-armed as well!). I used my Medieval Ethiopians, who were fighting in their 89th WRG 7th Edition battle. We used 1600 point armies.

Terrain is diced for in WRG 7th. I wanted the field open for my cavalry, while Terry wanted to "shrink the field and fill it with cover. The result was a major water feature in the west, which effectively narrowed the field about a foot. Also in the west were a woods on Terry's north half of the field and a brush on my south half of the field (see map). The west center, center, and east renained bare and open.

Terry's Prussian army list (a variant, I believe, of RGW List 48) allowed him a few light cavalry (LC) with javelin (JLS) and shield, which he placed in two tiny (4-man) units, each with a general. (Ed. I used the NASAMW list) Otherwise, he had several units of light infantry (LI) with bow and shield, and a variety of units of light mediun infantry (LHI). These ranged in size fron 6 to 27 figures (small to medium large) and carried shields and varying combinations of bow, JLS, heavy throwing weapon (HTw), and 2-handed jousting weapon (2HCH). While the LI and LHI "started" on the list as average Irregular C morale, Terry chose to upgrade nany of his troops to fanatic Irregular A morale, usually in mixed morale units which had sone of the advantages and disadvantages of each status.

My Ethiopians (WRG List 101, Abyssinian) had four cavalry units at good Irregular B morale with JLS and shield, the small Giyorgis Hayle (Strength in Saint George) extra heavy cavalry (EHC) unit, the small Abrigima (geographical) heavy cavalry (HC) unit, and two medium-sized LC units, Sawaryana Varnat (Carriers of Spears) and Gojjam (geographical). Besides one LI unit with bow and 2 LI units with JLS and shield, I had six units of LMI with JLS and shield. These ranged in size from 12 to 36 figures (the maximum possible). Three units of LHI--Wej (geographical), Saqalt (geographical), and Zan Amora (Lord of the Vultures)--were Irregular C, while the other three--Takuela (Jackals), Sellus Hayle (The Trinity is My Strength, and Badel Sabraq (Sun in Victory)--were Irregular A (I was allowed up to 60 Irregular A figures and chose to place then entirely in separate units.

Even in the water-narroued field, the upgraded Prussian arny did not quite reach all the way across. Generally, Terry had his LI in front at intervals and LHI in back in a fairly solid line fron the east end to just short of the uest woods. The LC were in reserve.

I chose to "flank march" ny Gojjam LC. Under WRG 7th, this meant that the unit was considered to be marching off table in the east, and would arrive if, beginning with turn 2, I rolled a 5 or 6 on a 6-sided die.

Otherwise, the Ethiopians, set up with the Irregular C LHI in the west and west center, the Irregular A LHI in the east center, and the two cavalry units Abrigima and Swaryana Narnat in the east. The EHC were in reserve. Two of the LI units were supposed to skirmish in front, but did poorly, being forced to evade back behind the main line, which basically took them out of an active role in the game.

The third LI unit, Badel Mabraq (Lightning in Victory), marched in a colunn up the narrow western gap between the water and the brush and woods, to emerge behind the Prussian west flank (Ed. I hate it when that happens...). The Prussians detached an LC and an LHI unit which eventually destroyed Badel Mabraq, but were out of the main action.

This began badly for the Ethiopians, who underestinated Prussian bowpower. Sawaryana Warmat went up to skirmish, had to take a waver (norale) test from missile damage, and failed (a 1 in 6 chance), failing to the intermediate state of "shaken". This was changed to a rout when they failed again when charged by a delighted unit of Prussian LI. The rout caused nearby Abrigima, already locked in hand to hand combat (nelee) with a Prussian unit, to roll a waver test.

Abrigima also failed (another 1 in 6 chance), failing to shaken, which in turn reduced melee effectiveness and ended up with a recoil from the melee. The east flank did not collapse only because the 12- man Irregular A Badel Sabraq rolled well and held of the larger Prussian LHI unit (in WRG 7th, Irregular A who roll a net plus on plus-minus nelee dice get an extra plus 2 on their melee combat factor, so that good results becone very good. Since each side had LHI, that is, troops basically without armor, any melees tended to result in heavy damage quickly).

Meanwhile, the rest of the Prussians made a steady advance. After the Prussian LI bowfire did sone damage and the LI then evaded back, the main lines of LHI closed. With the help of sone uneven die rolls, the Ethiopian Irregular C did better than the Irregular A. In the east center, Irr. A Takuela was routed, while its neighbor Sellus Hayle failed a waver test (another 1 in 6 chance) on seeing this and fell to shaken (Ed. Dave's language got rather colorful at this point in the game as I recall. I could have sold him a new set of dice at any point for a huge profit, but I sort of liked the ones he was using).

On the other hand, the 36-man Zan Amora rolled better than its opponents and held off two LHI unite in the center. In the west center, Saqalt skirmished for a round, throwing javelins and retiring from the first charge of its own and routed its slightly weakened opponent.

In the far west brush, a 12-man Prussian LHI unit and the 18-man Wej both rolled well, but as WRG 7th calculates damage by casualties per figure in the unit, the larger Wej eventually destroyed its opponent. The exhausted Wej was then destroyed by a flank charge from an alert Prussian LI unit.

However, this unit, along with another LI unit, was charged, caught, and routed by the victorious Saqalt (Ed. Oops! A slight miscalculation, there!). Also, into the space created by Saqalt's victory, the Ethiopians brought up the EHC reserve, Giyorgis Hayle, which turned, charged in the flank, and destroyed one of the LHI units facing Zan Anora.

Meanwhile, in the east, the other Prussian LC unit had flank charged and finished off the shaken Abrigima. However, Gojjam had finally arrived, tardily, on its flank march, behind the Prussian line, forcing the Prussians to detach two LHI units to face this new threat. Also, Badel Sabraq drove off its larger opponent, while Sellus Hayle rolled exceptionally well on a turn its opponent rolled badly.

This destroyed the Prussian LHI unit, a result which, under the rules, brought Sellus Hayle out of shaken status back to normal morale. In addition, two Ethiopian generals rode to the rear, caught Takuela und Sawaryana Warmat before they left the board, and eventually rallied then back to norma1 morale, although both were still damaged.

At this time, Terry and I agreed to call the game a draw. While he Ethiopians had rallied fron near disaster, cost point losses were still about even and the tactioal situation was still unsettled, particularly in view of the melee swings that Irr. A status could still produce for either side.

(Ed. This was on extremely exciting game. I think that I had won after the first hour of play, what with Dave being only one unit away from having a command become demoralized. I could not break thee final unit As the game progressed, he slowly came back, one melee at a time until by the end of the game, we were both in pretty rough shape. This is the advantage of WRG 7th, to me; the excitement and uncertainty of each and every game. In the other systems, there is not the nail-biting intensity of play which 7th has. I truly hope it does not disappear from the tournament scene. I for one will really miss it.)