Retrospective: Cold Wars WAB Tournament, 11-12 March 2011 (Intro)

The Northeastern Warhammer Ancients community has started to splinter somewhat with the arrival of the new 2nd edition of the ruleset – some long-time members of the community have been unhappy with the changes to the rules, while others have taken to the new rules with few complaints.  This 2011 Cold Wars was an opportunity for the two ‘sides’ to reach a sort of working compromise on the issue – those favoring the 1e rules (as well as those looking for a change of pace) flocked to the English Civil War tournament, while the remaining few who showed up at this low-turnout event played in the fully 100% anachronistic, not-at-all historically accurate Ancients/Medievals combined tournament.

Of course, before the shenanigans on Saturday (12 March), there was the traditional evening doubles tournament to start off the festivities.  Unlike in previous years, I already had a partner for the doubles in advance – fellow Warmonger Ancients gamer (and fellow prenomen) Ken P, fielding his Arthurian Saxon army.

The French (via Chad) R&B duo Les Nubians;
What you get when you google "Nubians"

What did I bring?
Still struggling with the inherent randomness of elephants, and hoping to finally master an elephant-heavy, light-infantry list with amazingly awful cavalry, I brought my Meroitic Nubians yet again (a proxy list that uses the Imperial Mauryan list, with the “no longbow” option throughout, as Nubians did not use longbows).  I had mixed results at the Warmonger Charity tournament in January, but fielded basically the same list as I had then, with an additional heavy ballista.  My general tendency in all cases is to default to more reliable firepower, and that was the case here, as well.

3000 points (Doubles list):
MEROITIC NUBIANS

• General/Candace on (Mv6) horse, with Lt Armor, Spear, Bow, and Broadsword
• ASB on (Mv6) horse, with Shield
• 10 formed cavalry (Mv6) with Sword, shield, Spear, and full command, a.k.a. "The Worst Cavalry in the World"
• 3 Elephants, each with 3 crew (all with bows, lt armor, javelin, broadsword)
• 2 units of skirmishing Elephant Escorts (8 models with broadsword, javelin, shield)
• 2 Heavy Ballistae, each with 3 crew
• 2 units of 14 archers, each with bow, broadsword, and full command

ARTHURIAN SAXONS

• 3 units of 28 freemen, one with General & BSB
• 1 unit of 28 churls
• 1 unit of 10 skirmishing freemen cavalry
• 2 units of 9 skirmishers

1750 points (Singles list):

• General/Candace on (Mv6) horse, with Lt Armor, Spear, Bow, and Broadsword
• ASB on (Mv6) horse, with Shield
• 10 formed cavalry (Mv6) with Sword, shield, Spear, and full command, a.k.a. "The Worst Cavalry in the World"
• 3 Elephants, each with 3 crew (all with bows, lt armor, javelin, broadsword)
• 2 units of skirmishing Elephant Escorts (8 models with broadsword, javelin, shield)
• 3 Heavy Ballistae, each with 3 crew
• 3 units of 16 archers, each with bow, broadsword, and full command