Part 2: The Waver Test and How to Avoid It

The 7th edition rules on movement, melee and shooting are fairly straightforward so I do not intend to go into these sections in great detail. A beginner player to 7th would do reasonably well to try and concentrate on the dozen or so pages that deal with the essentially technical issues of factors and movement rates. Once these are mastered the remaining sections will fall into place more readily.

The fundamental principle regarding the wargaming Trinity of movement, missile and melee is concentration. The concentration of troops at the decisive point, the focusing of firepower, and the- use of shock tactics to breach the enemy line. Now do these translate into table top tactics under 7th edition?

When close to the enemy movement in 7th edition is termed tactical movement, and is relatively slow. The rates of movement are much slower than earlier editions of WRG rules. This prevents players from conducting rapid troop shifts and switches in the face of the enemy which is something I applaud. but it does catch new players out. They feel frustrated at not being able to quickly rectify deployment or positional mistakes.

In order to minimise such mistakes a player needs to ensure that his or her initial deployment and troop positioning is correct. Troops that are intended to support each other need to be adjacent. Past marching troops (i.e. troops with a greater number of marches, such as cavalry and light troops) need to be in front of, or next to, slower moving troops. Since the faster troops march first a clump of Infantry in front of then, or blocking their intended line of march, will prevent them marching and thus loose you a turns movement.

Seventh edition does have a mechanism for speeding up troop movements. This is termed march movement. The march sequence means players come into contact quickly. usually on the first turn. But the march move also means that you can manoeuvre a unit or two around an open enemy flank very rapidly. If you intend withholding a flank or leaving it open you will need to guard against such flank marches by either keeping troops in reserve available to counter any such move or throwing forward a small, preferable expendable, light unit to engage and slow down the march.

Since marches stop when enemy are within 240 paces, a legitimate tactic to use against opponents with a lot of close or loose order foot is to throw forward one or two light units to pin the foot on the enemy base line and prevent them from marching. This usually entails force marching the lights to the centre line in the central sector. It you are the player with the foot, you need to screen your slower foot with your own light infantry, who march before the close/loose foot and thus will give your foot room to move. Haas. all this use of light troops for screening and pinning sounds historical doesn't it? And yes, it also works on the wargaming table.

In general your close order foot are better off deployed In the centre sector, with cavalry and light troops, and possibly peltast/auxilaries types on the flank.

If a player places most of his close order foot on a flank it is too easy for an opponent to tie up the foot with skirmishing cavalry or light infantry and then concentrate the rest of the army on the remaining, usually weaker, troops. There are of comma always exceptions to the rule. If you wish to guarantee security of a flank and hold ground without being particularly interested in attacking from that flank, a large close order foot unit, back up by a flank march with a small light unit to prevent anyone sneaking around behind you will do the trick.

The march move is most powerful when you use it to concentrate troops. Ideally you will want to engage as many of the opponents units as possible while still keeping some of your best units in reserve, ready to march. Since a unit cannot march when within 240 paces of the. enemy, an opponent who has most or all of his units within 240 paces of the enemy will only have a very limited ability to react to your units in reserve. Your reserve units are then free to march to a point of your choosing. Obviously cavalry are faster and can move further in a turn, but close order foot can be effectively marched to a decisive point in this manner.

Concentration of missile is another potential game winner. While light troops are very fast their missile concentration is not usually great unless they can target a vulnerable troops type, such as medium or heavy cavalry, or shieldless infantry, or an isolated unit. I have aeon light cavalry overwhelm a thracian peltast unit which was force marched towards a scrub in the centre. The light cavalry opposite the peltasts immediately marched up to the peltasts, while adjacent light cavalry units positioned themselves so that they overlapped the lone enemy unit. Other units pushed past the flanks of the peltasts, outside of 240 paces so their march was not impeded, to pin the pikes that were supposed to support the peltasts.

On the second turn the trap was sprung. The overlapping light cavalry wheeled inwards onto the exposed flanks, the facing light cavalry moved into close bow range. The shooting disordered the peltasts. The subsequent charge and melee routed them. The supporting pikes, struggling gamely forward, managed to arrive just in time to witness the rout move and subsequently take a waver test.

Close order missile foot, and regular loose order shooters, at four figures to a base can deliver a formidable amount of fire power. Against the right target i.e. most cavalry, or unsupported or small foot units, they can blow the opponent away on shooting power alone. Unfortunately for players with such unit, opponents realise this and such units are countered with by either light infantry or large blocks' of close order foot, who can absorb the shooting hits without suffering serious casualties.

A troop type which does not look as threatening as dense missile' blocks but which I find effective 1s double armed (lance, bow) loose order cavalry at three to a base. They are a good compromise between the speed of movement of lights and the brute concentration of close order foot shooters. The lance also means that they can (usually) look after themselves if it comes to a fight. I find the belt way to use this troop type is against enemy cavalry. The firepower can be used to tire or disorder an opponent. The lance is then used in an advantageous melee. Light infantry thrown forward to spoil a flank sweep or as an attempted pin can be ridden down easily by such dual armed cavalry.

Finally we come to hand-to-hand fighting. In wargaming, as in war, we look to seek advantage in melee so that the outcome is predetermined, or at worst, the probability is in our favour. Unfortunately it is not as easy as it sounds because the opponent will not always cooperate! Movement needs to be used to bring better armed or fresher troops into contact with the enemy. Shooting needs to be used to tire or disorder the opposing unit before contact. Troops need to be concentrated two to one against an opponent. Since points are usually equal in a game you must devise stratagems to achieve such two-to-one in such a way as to not leave your own troops overly exposed.

The wedge is a particularly effective formation, especially for cavalry. It allows you to gain an initial melee advantage at the cost of being disordered in the subsequent melee bounds. The cost is almost always worth paying because the initial advantage often results in an enemy rout or disordered pushback.

People have argues that since a wedge provides significant melee advantage extra points should be paid for being able to form up in wedge. I have never been convinced of this. A wedge is an attacking formation. If met by skirmishing cavalry it becomes ineffective. The wedge is an effective mechanism for representing the historic superiority of some shock troop types such as Norman cavalry or Macedonian companions. It does have its limitations. If you own wedge cavalry they are best deployed as reserve strike troops. Use other troops to pin the units you want to hit and then march the wedges forward.

If you are faced by wedge cavalry try to draw then off with light cavalry, neutralise them with elephants, or face then off with lance/bow armed loose order cavalry. The shooting hits from such cavalry should do enough damage to at least tire the cavalry. If you are lucky enough the second rank (always use two ranks against wedges) will also shoot off a factor in support shooting during the charge.

Of necessity this article has taken a fairly broad brush view of tactics. In later articles I hope to discuss tactics and organizations specific to particular armies.

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)