RE: [WABlist] Battle Report from HMGS PSW

The game looked superb. Well done gents.

To: WABlist@yahoogroups.com
From: imitchellsmith@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2012 11:05:39 -0700
Subject: [WABlist] Battle Report from HMGS PSW


























Hey everyone,



Harold Hildebrand ran a WAB game this last weekend at the "Hit the Beach"

HMGS Pacific/Southwest gathering, and it was a fun and exciting game. This

was my first big battle using the new AoA (we used the old books for

Biblical stuff at Strategicon this year), and so I thought I would post a

summary of some of the action and some of the things I was thinking while

playing.



The game was set during the "Harrying of the North" (c. 1081), when the

Danish and Anglian resistance to Norman rule in the north of England was

brought to heel. Two, 2,500 point armies of Normans fought against a Late

Saxon Army and a Viking Army, also of 2,500 pts each. The table was

somewhat busy with terrain, featuring two fortifications that we more

obstacles than defensive works.



The Normans set up with all heavy knight infantry on one flank (facing the

Vikings) and cavalry on the other (facing the Saxons), and the Saxons and

Vikings were arrayed more or less in an even battle line. The battle

generally consisted of a flanking move against the vikings by the Normans,

while the Cavalry refused the Saxon flank. Victory went, finally, to the

Normans, but this was due almost entirely due to excellent dice rolling on

the part of the Norman general, as his two main units of Norman Cavalry

(and the characters) were stuck in combats which they lost almost every

turn.



I think the new rules work well, and the Normans seemed to be much less

dangerous on the charge, esp. because the characters don't have any of the

punch they used to have. The shieldwall rules for the vikings and Saxons

make the game very exciting as well, as these units can now close in on an

enemy, moving 4" at a time. I think the moving shieldwall might be the

cheesiest part of AoA for this period (units seem to be able to keep

shieldwall in a bunch of funky circumstances, such as failed charges,

following an enemy giving ground, and even pursuing a fleeing enemy, if you

roll low enough), but I didn't like how static these armies were before, so

I think it is cheese that adds to the game. Now, I think, Normans don't

have a great chance of breaking a unit of heavy elite foot in a frontal

charge, unless they get very lucky. This will change the way that Norman

players run their armies, I think, but it seems like it works historically

(thinking of Hastings and other battles where Cav bounce of of infantry

time and again).



So, all in all I think the new AoA works well for "Dark Age" stuff, and I

am looking forward to playing again soon. The one thing that came up,

though, is that in multi-player games, there seems to be a tendency for the

Normans to try to load up on one player by using their mobility to get odds

on one part of the table (the refused flank, above). I think this has the

chance of leaving one player out of the action, and so I am thinking that

multiplayer games should always be set up so that players have units on all

parts of the table.



Ilan



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