Retrospective: Cold Wars WAB Doubles Tournament, 11 March 2011 (Game 1)

Opponents: Mike D (Teutonics) and John B (Ottomans).  John is a long-time opponent and I am very familiar with his maneuver-heavy playstyle with Ottomans.  Mike’s Teutonic Knights, on the other hand, was sure to be a fairly blunt instrument, but also heavily reliant on cavalry.

Armies: (3000 pts)
TEUTONICS (Mike)

• General & BSB on warhorses with full armor, not attached to units
• 2 units of 5 Knights and 5 Turkopoles in back ranks, one unit with WS5
• 3 units of 8/8/9 crossbows with heavy armor and pavise (3+ saves)
• 1 unit of 8 skirmishing cavalry with bows

OTTOMANS (John)

• General & BSB on horses with armor, not attached to units
• 2 units of 10 medium spear/archer cavalry (one unit is Janissaries)
• 2 units of 9/10 skirmishing nomadic cavalry
• 2 units of 9 skirmishing infantry archers
• 1 unit of 10 medium infantry (Janissaries with halberds/bows)
• 1 Bombard artillery piece with crew

Mission: Alternating deployment (2 units per side until all units set up), 12” in from long board edge, and an unmodified roll-off afterwards to decide who takes first turn.

Terrain: Playing on a 4x8 table, the left half was almost completely open, with a few trees and hills about 12” in from either long edge.  The right half had a huge hill in the middle of the table, neatly blocking up LOS from most angles.

Retrospective: Cold Wars WAB Doubles Tournament, 11 March 2011 (Game 2)

Opponent: Adam (Imperial Macedonians) and Duncan (Spartacus Romans).  Duncan is a tournament regular and true ambassador of the hobby, and had traveled to Cold Wars from England to participate in the events.  Adam is one of the more notorious members of the Warhammer Ancients scene, as you will see below.

Armies: (3000 pts)
IMPERIAL MACEDONIANS (Adam)

• General & BSB on horses with armor, not attached to units
• 4 units of 21 phalanx pikemen
• 1 unit of 11 companions (medium shock cavalry)

SPARTACUS ROMANS (Duncan)

• Special Character General Crassus, on horse and not attached to unit
• BSB and Lictor on foot, not attached to unit
• 4 units of 18 legionnaires (three are drilled/stubborn)
• 1 unit of 9 skirmishers
• 1 unit of 12 archers without command

Mission: Alternating deployment (2 units per side until all units set up), 12” in from long board edge, but also more than 12” from short board edges, and an unmodified roll-off afterwards to decide who takes first turn.

Terrain: A large hill and long arm of trees largely divides the table into two parts, one part significantly larger than the other.  Hills and trees ring the rest of the killing grounds.

Retrospective: Cold Wars WAB Singles Tournament, 12 March 2011 (Game 2)

Opponent: Ken P (Arthurian Saxons).  This is an army list that I’m very familiar with, as I’ve helped Ken playtest and modify the list over a number of months.  It’s a pretty straightforward fast warband horde list – save one key difference that wouldn’t make much difference against me: no auto-breaking opponents after winning combat.  Since my elephants stampede automatically when they lose combat, and I don’t expect my archers to do well against the Saxons in melee, I figured this distinction was more or less moot.

Army: (1750 pts)

• 4 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

Mission: “Meeting Engagement”.  Armies deploy in pre-determined sequence (‘marching order’), with war machines automatically setting up last.  Units deploy 6” away from center line, and no closer than 18” to enemy units.  NO special/skirmish deployment to start game, and player who finishes first – or who has no war machines – gets automatic choice of first turn.

Terrain: Low hills and trees surrounding an empty midfield.  The Saxons had no terrain really breaking up their deployment zone, while my zone was broken up into several discrete areas, forcing me to set up fairly tight in order to have mutual supporting LOS with all my ranged units.

Warmonger Charity WAB Tournament: 30 January 2010 (Game 3)

Opponent: Don Effinger (Saxons). An all-around great guy, and a pillar and leader of the wargaming community in the Northeast for many years, Don was fielding an early medieval army list – a large mass of infantry warbands, but sadly without any of the traditional benefits of a classic warband army. The Saxons would not autobreak, they did not have throwing spears, and they only moved a base of 4 inches, not 5. Don was fairly certain that only doom awaited him should he face the Burgundian gunline, but being far to good a sport to take a rain check, he instead gave this astoundingly anachronistic match-up the old college try.

Army: (2000 pts)

• 1x48 Medium Infantry with spears (with Stubborn Huscarls with Double-handed Weapons and Toughness 4 in the front ranks), including the General, ASB, and an Abbot (granting Hatred)
• 3x35 Medium Infantry with spears, with Thanes in the front rank; one unit had a hero leading it as well
• 2x11 Skirmishing slingers
• 1x14 allied Vikings (Medium Infantry with Toughness 4)

Mission: “Pitched Battle” – standard 12” deployment zones, with one variation -- both sides deploy in secret, setting up all forces with a screen dividing the table. Table quarters do not count for VP purposes.