[Ed. This article first appeared in Slingshot.]
I know how difficult it is to fathom how a rules set works without actually playing a game. This can be especially true of a new set that has had little exposure outside of the U.S. With this in mind, I would like to relate how a particular game was actually played using the Medieval Warfare rules.
First of all, I like to play historical opponents against each other. Failing this, we deal with armies that existed at the same time. In a friendly game, any army can be pitched against any other…likewise in the tournament setting, but it is still fun, and appealing to my historical sensibilities to have co-existing opponents. That said, I invited Ken Brate over to play a game. Ken is new at historical miniatures, and got his first experiences playing DBA. This prompted him to begin to collect armies. With his first game of MW, Ken along with his nephew, decided to invest in two 25mm armies. Ken chose Conquest period Scots (late 9th to early 12th centuries), and his nephew chose Sicilian Normans (mid-11th to late 12th centuries). When Ken suggested we get together for a game to practice up for the upcoming tournament at Fall In, I dusted off my own Early Normans (late 9th to late 11th centuries) and said "Sure!"
The army lists in MW are based upon 'buying' entire stands of figures, the ubiquitous 'element'. Each army list has a basic, core army, listing which stands and how many of each must be purchased. This is usually half or more of your total allotment of points. For our tournament, we are using 500 point armies. This breaks down to a 450 point DBM army or a 1600 point 7th one. For my Normans, I chose to use the Normans in Italy variant. This precluded me from using a Papal Banner and Breton/Gascon allies, but gave me Sicilian Greek and Saracen allies instead. Well, if Guiscard HAD invaded Scotland, he would have taken anyone who he could force aboard ship.
The basic core Norman army required me to take over 250 of my 500 points. My Norman army consisted of nineteen units including unarmored archer units, heavy cavalry (all veterans and armed with lance and shield, capable of fighting in wedge), mercenary skirmisher cavalry armed with javelins and shields, mixed heavy infantry and lightly armored infantry spearmen, all in close-order, Greek and Saracen loose order unarmored javelinmen, as well as skirmishers, half with crossbows, half with bows. I also had three general stands, all as fully mailed cavalry, the CiC with Elites, the others with Veterans (I elected to keep the CiC as a single stand command, thus allowing him to move each turn without orders.
The other generals each had another single stand attached to them. Now this is a tough call. In one respect, giving your generals more stands under his personal command allows him to fight more effectively. On the other hand, he now is required to spend an order to get himself moving, just like any other unit, the rationale being that he must spend more time 'running' his larger unit. When he just has a bodyguard (his own stand) he yells "follow me" and off they go. In MW, if a general is involved in a close combat situation, he loses his order giving ability until he is no longer fighting. So the problem with placing your generals with units is that you will be more tempted to use them in combat, thus losing your command control. I opted to use my CiC as a single stand in order to resist the very real temptation to throw him into combat, while my other generals would be able to fight in wedge, if necessary.
This gave me a very balanced army that could comfortably compete with their contemporaries. Ken chose a traditional Scottish host, featuring three single-stand generals, two of whom were mounted Scots and the other a Highlander chieftain; 32 stands of unarmored infantry longspearmen in four units of eight stands each; six stands of heavy infantry veteran thegns; twelve stands of unarmored Highlander loose order troops, half of whom were fanatics in two units; another twelve stands of loose order heavy infantry veteran Islemen in two units; four stands of mercenary Norman knights in one unit and eighteen stands of skirmish infantry in three units. This looked to be a very good army, especially if it could get decent terrain to fight upon.
We had to roll for the quality of our generals. This roll determines how many orders each can place during the orders phase of the turn. Quality also can give bonuses for terrain placement and move initiative. My rolls produced a charismatic CiC with five orders per turn, a brave sub-general with four orders and a stalwart general with three orders. For my nineteen units, I had the capability of giving twelve orders. Ken's rolls were not a high as mine, he had a brave CiC and two stalwart sub-generals for a total of ten orders, but he only had thirteen units, so his command control would be better than mine. In MW, each player decides how many pieces of terrain he wishes to attempt to place (from 0-5) and both players simultaneously uncover a d6, with the number of pips face up indicating his number of picks (with a 6 equaling 0).
We both selected four pieces of terrain. We then rolled to see who placed first. I rolled higher, so made the first attempt. Since my CiC was charismatic and Ken's brave, we both could add or subtract one from our terrain attempt rolls, the rationale being that a better commander would fight on favorable ground. The terrain die rolls determine in which of the six sectors of the battlefield the terrain selection is placed
At the end of the terrain selection process, I had placed a low hill (which does not delay movement, but does confer height advantage for combat and morale), and a clear area, my other two picks being rolled for as discards. Ken had placed two woods and a hill, unfortunately for him, the hill had to be placed in my left flank sector. The two woods were on either of his flanks. Perfect places for ambushing Highlanders to surprise me from. Ambushes are set up secretly before set-ups are revealed and the troops are not placed until the ambush is either sprung or discovered. They can be in woods, ravines or gullies. Unlike other rules, an ambush can be risky to attempt. When the ambushers move or fire, revealing themselves for the first time, the ambushing player must roll for attrition losses. The rationale for this being that some of the troops would take the opportunity to go home, sleep, get drunk or whatever else they could get away with once they were out of sight of the rest of their army and their generals. Being trained, veterans, elites or fanatics made them less prone to attrition loss, but all ambushing and flank marching units must roll for this once they are placed upon the table.
Ken and I now placed a cardboard screen across the table, so that our set ups would be hidden from each other. My Norman army consisted of the following: four archer units of six stands each, two loose order foot javelin units of four stands each, two units of six stand spear-armed heavier foot in close order, two skirmish infantry stands of six stands each, a skirmish cavalry unit of six stands and four units of Norman cavalry in two stand units, one in a four stand unit and two generals with an extra stand of heavy cavalry as well.
As we removed the screen, we saw that we had both set up with strong centers and right flanks, while both of our left flanks were weakly held. In MW, there are two types of movement, strategic (much like march moves in DBM and WRG 7th) and tactical (the normal rate of movement). Units which are outside of Engagement Range (16" for 25mm, 12" for 15mm, 8" for smaller scales) may use strategic movement. At the start of the game, we both could use the faster strategic movement to close quickly on each other. Initial setups are extremely important, as you may end up being 'pinned' after the first turn, it the opponent has skirmisher cavalry, capable of moving 24" in 25mm scale during strategic movement. In fact, my skirmisher horse did just that, running up to and pinning Ken's right flank division, slowing it down and allowing my own, weaker left flank division to prepare for his inevitable attack.
In the center, both armies lumbered toward each other. The Scottish schiltrons were formed up in shieldwall formation, allowing them better protection from missiles and close combat, but slowing them to half their normal movement. The skirmisher infantry archers of both sides closed and quickly began to fire at each other, before the Norman skirmishers charged in to try to sweep the Scottish archers away. The Scots held their position with a defense order and his skirmishers fired as I closed, destroying a complete stand of my troops (two figures), and causing my skirmishers to take a morale test (each time a stand is lost, morale is tested). The Normans passed and tore into the stationary Scots, but could not damage them enough to push them back. (We use a random roll for close combat. Each player rolls a d6, the higher roller adding the difference to his tactical factors.)
Meanwhile, on my left, the Norman archers started in on the Highlanders. The Scots were fanatics who continued to close with the feverishly firing bowmen. (Fanatics are required to move toward and charge the nearest enemy unit unless constrained by orders). A Norman general in wedge and a second Norman cavalry wedge moved into range of the Scots Highlanders and charged. The fanatic Highlanders, being charged by mounted troops in the open had to take a morale test and easily passed. Not only were they fanatics, they had their divisional commander close behind them and a unit of Scots spearmen on their flank (they were thus considered supported. You are required to have friendly, unrouted troops within support range of flanks or rear, two out of three to count as supported).
The Normans charged in and the close combat was fought. The cavalry had decided to attempt to become frenzied before charging in. This represents their commander giving a short speech to get the men worked up. If you decide to try this, it is a risk. You must roll the unit's morale To Pass value or better to become frenzied. If they fail, the charge does not go in, and the unit may even turn and run away! Poor speeches did not inspire the best efforts.
The Scots Highlanders were to find that it was not a good thing to be unarmored, on foot and being charged by heavy cavalry in wedge. They were, however, fanatics and Ken had kept them in shieldwall as protection from the archers, so they were about as good as they could get to hold off the onslaught. It was the random rolls that doomed them. They rolled a one while the Normans rolled a six.
"I'm calling on the gods!" cried Ken, grabbing the die for another try (you get to re-roll one bad die roll per turn, we call this the 'God roll'). He duplicated his roll of one!
The Normans had a huge tactical advantage and easily beat the Highlanders, destroying a stand of figures and inflicting well over twice as many casualties as they took. Wedges count both ranks in close combat, while the Highlanders counted a rank and a half. This particular outcome allowed the Normans to attempt a breakthrough move. Unfortunately for the Scots, directly behind the Highlanders was their divisional commander! The Normans rode into him at full-tilt, catching him and his bodyguard halted and surprised.
While the rest of the game swirled back and forth, this attack proved decisive. The Normans were in wedge, fighting with two stands against one. They counted as charging frenzied against a stationary target. The Scottish general also had to test morale for being surprised by the unexpected appearance of an enemy heavy cavalry unit cutting through their own foot. Not surprisingly, the Scottish general lost the close combat and was destroyed a turn later (in MW, looses and close combat fighting is attritional. It is rare for a unit to simply blow apart on contact, though a morale failure may cause this. Usually the combat sways back and forth for a number of turns. If you lose for three turns, however, your unit will break and rout). The loss of the divisional commander caused a massive morale failure among the units under that particular command. The flank folded and the Normans had achieved the victory.
Ken had now lost a third of his units and at this point, the game ended. It could have gone either way as Ken's schiltrons and thegns had closed on my center of mostly unarmored archers. I had to have a victory on the flank, and this is what happened, though a timely charge in the center had caught Ken's thegns in the flank (this is very deadly in MW, causing double casualties and disordering the recipient of the charge).
This was a good game and lasted 2 1/2 hours, played with 25mm figures on a 5' x 8' table. I'm looking forward to meeting Ken again in November at our Historicon MW tournament.
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© Copyright 2000 by Terry Gore
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