One method of winning wargames is to follow Napoleon's counsel: Don't give me a good ,general, give me a lucky one. Unfortunately, try as I might, I cannot match Napoleons advice. In fact, I sometime suspect I am the victim of the opposite situation: I'm an unlucky general. I thus tailor my play to minimising the opportunity for luck to indulge its fickle way with me. And under 7th edition this means, above all, being wary of the waver test.

At first glance it looks as if there is very little choice over the waver test. You either have to take it or you don't. Readers more familiar with the rules will realise you do sometimes have a choice. Certain troop types who receive 2 or more casualties per figure (2 cpf) from shooting can elect to either follow a prescribed action or waver (P37 - Results of Preparatory Shooting). Always elect to take the prescribed 'action. The prescribed action are roughly as follows:

Skirmishers/Light troops - rally back
Most other shielded foot - halt
Elephants - halt
Other mounted troops - charge
Irreg A foot - charge

You should be in a position to accept the prescribed action without any serious consequences. Let your skirmishers evade, your cavalry charge or your foot halt. At worst it will lose you some fatigue points. This is infinitely more preferable by having a unit shake. You may wish to argue that you don't want your unit of knights, who have just received 2CPF from longhows, to charge the opposing English bowmen, and thus you're better off taking the waver. My only response is your knights should not have been in front of the longbowmen if you do not wish the knights to charge this bowmen. After all, the French eventually regained some tactical initiative in the Hundred Years War by trying tactical innovations and not charging the English head of at the first opportunity.

So the golden rule with wavers is if you can possibly avoid it - do so. The more waver tests you take, the more chance that eventually you will fail one. Some test you will not be able to avoid, a unit breaking nearby for example. But by pressing your luci with even the one voluntary waver you are courting disaster.

If you want the flank of your phalanx protected then put a troop type that will do the job. Lights who are shot up will rally back leaving a potentially exposed flank Therefore you want an elephant of peltast unit flanking your phalanx. At worst, under intense fire, they will halt and possibly delay an advance - always assuming you do not attempt a waver. And what is more, such a positioning of troop types is historical.

One way to apparently safeguard wavers is to upgrade troops to 'A' or 'B' grade status However, you need to be wary about doing this. To start with, you immediately becos tempted to try for a waver test after receiving 2CPF from shooting because the odd look so good. Secondly, you pay extra points for this privilege, points that may we1 be better spent elsewhere.

For example, a Later Imperial Roman army with legionaries would require a spend of 72 points to upgrade from 'C' to 'B'. The legionaries will be tough as 'B', but alternatively you could buy an extra unit of light cavalry or infantry for 72 points. Against some armies the light troops will be of more use than elite legionaries.

Thirdly low morale class troops shoot as well as high morale class troops, so you could have 18 Reg C bow for 58 points or 12 Reg B bow for 58 points. In the majority of cases you are better off with the larger unit of shooters, both in firepower terms and their ability to take casualties, which in turn could lead to avoiding having to take a waver...

So, where is it appropriate to take high morale grade troops? One obvious case is with reserve troops. They are there, amongst other reasons, to plug my breaches in your line and so are likely to encounter friendly routers. By making them high in morale increases your chance of a successfully countering a local breakthrough.

Shock cavalry are also worth upgrading for two reasons. They will be in the thick of fighting so require the benefits enjoyed by high morale troops. Also, shock cavalr} are expensive so the extra point or two spent on morale upgrade is only a small proportion of their total cost. And because they are expensive, there are fewer of them, so you have to spend less points on upgrades.

For example, 24 Reg C legionaries (HI,HTW,Sh, @16pts) costs the same as 12 Reg C EHC (L,Sh R 12pts), but it only costs an extra 12 points to upgrade the cavalry as opposed to 24 points for the infantry.

Support

Perhaps it is stating the obvious, but the rules for support are also worth studying (p22, para 8). Unsupported troops tend to be uneasy. In 7th edition this is reflectec by reducing the score of a waver test dice by 1, thereby increasing the chance of a failure. Thus a 'C' grade body under good conditions will fail a waver on a score of 1 or 2 (1 in 3 chance of failure or 33%). An uneasy 'C' grade body will fail on a 1,2 or 3 (1 in 2 chance of failure or 50%).

The support rules are roughly as follows:

LI and El, - friends to rear
Other infantry - close or loose friends, or friendly terrain, within 80 paces of both flanks. Note that light troops don't provide such support.
Cavalry friends within 240 paces.

It is thus obvious that foot need support located physically closer than cavalry. It should also be obvious that foot units can mutually support each other and so care should be taken when specifying the order of march and deploying troops to ensure this mutual support is present. The close order foot should be placed in block. This basic formation can be supplemented by intermixing elephants, as for example with a Hellenistic army, or shock cavalry, as for example with a crusader army, between the infantry blocks. See figure 1 and 2. 

If you start to fragment your close or loose foot units, or over stretch the deployment, without providing adequate support you leave yourself vulnerable. This vulnerability is twofold. You open the risk of the enemy concentrating on one of your groups and defeating it in detail while fobbing off your other groups with light troops or skirmishers. And once defeated the neighbouring groups have a reduced chance of passing the waver. See figure 3.

Ensure that mutual support is offered to the foot troops in your army. You are looking to play the percentage game. Your foot say still fail that crucial waver test in one particular toss of the dice, buthow often have you remembered that throwing a 3 on a waver test for a 'C' grade unit - galling isn't it - especially if you could have prevented it by supporting the unit.

Similarly, look to see if your opponent has failed to support his troops adequately, and if not, look to exploit it. Your opponent say still throw a six on a waver dice for that unsupported pike unit and get away with it, but by stacking the odds in your favour you increase your chances of shaking an enemy unit, and eventually of winning.

Elephants and chariots can cause havoc with morale because they sake troops uneasy, even when supported properly. The most effective counter to this is the use of an army standard. An army standard advancing and within 240 paces of the enemy allows troops to ignore a cause of uneasy (p22 par& 4). Therefore your CinC, with army standard, should be positioned near to such a trouble spot so that he can boost morale when elephants or chariots try to intimidate your army.

An alternative to the army standard, or if your army is not permitted an any standard, is to upgrade morale to 'A' or 'B'. This is especially effective with irregulars because fresh irregular A/B troops can also ignore a cause of unease. The down side of making too many troops 'A' or 'B' has already been mentioned but in light of the above discussion on support you say like to make the end unit(s) of your block of foot 'A' or 'B' class to shore up the flank of your main battle line. Historically, the right flank, the shieldless side and regarded as the position of honor, has tended to be upgraded.

More Beginners Guide to Tactics Under WRG 7th

Part 1: Pick Your Army {Saga v5n6)
Part 2: The Waver Test and How to Avoid It {Saga v6n1)
Part 3: Movement, Missiles, Melee {Saga v6n2)
Part 4: Competition Wargaming {Saga v6n3)
Part 5: Pilum, Darts and Javelins {Saga v6n4)
Part 7: Foot or Mounted? {Saga v6n6)