The Dragon People

[Toby]

I've actually got a lot more toughness 3 troops than toughness four, it's just that toughness 4 is rare in WAB and you have to pay for the privelige! The unit that caused John the most problems was once again the WS3, st3, t3, 6+save spear block, big blocks like this can hold their own against attacks and if big enough, can Fall Back In Good Order if they do lose the combat, which means they flee, but dont cause panic and auto rally at the end of the move, if the winner pursues and catches then they're not destroyed and combat re-starts.

[Sedge]

Fall Back In Good Order
That sounds like a sensible rule.
I think that WAB sounds like it has a lot of good rules like that.

[Toby]

Yeah it does and they really influence the game and how you should go about things, no such thing as a quick kill here!

[Toby]

I picked up a can of undercoat today and have got the rest of my boys sprayed. I've also finished the last member of the Viking mercenary unit and have started on the Hirdmen, the Viking Mercenaries bases will hopefully be done this weekend after I've purchased some additional basing materials.

[Toby]

After inhabiting Thornborough, Thraun set out to once again prove his valour and strength. He raided southwards across the land ‘til their chests were crammed and sacks bulged, money, treasures and slaves were took, with little resistance. He was greated by the cries of the fearful and left to the pitiful wails of the broken, once more the fires of victory licked the sky, but Thraun was careful not to light too much. Leaving the way clear, for quick re-settlement and production. Leaving the way to later raids and further glory.
Upon the home journey the met a force moving from the west, a raiding band of fearsome warriors form the cold heartlands of Rus. The invaders reacted quicker and deployed to the centre of a wooded clearing with their right flank next to a old woodsman’s cottage, a unit of Militia and Rus warriors held the centre with skirmishers and nomad cavalry to their left, skirmishers to their right and heavy cavalry behind. Thraun took his hirdmen to the centre flanked to his left by the Vikings and a bow armed bondi unit. The main block of Bondi held his right flank with the remaining two units of archers further to the right, the Thralls set up a screen protecting the infantry.
Unsure of how to handle the threat of the norsemen the Rus edged forward in the centre, while the Nomad cavalry pranced forward, to fire at some Bondi before retreating. The answer was a mass push up the centre by the Norse and both Bondi units opened up on the light cavalry, felling one. Bow fire on the left was aimed at the Rus warriors but the range and armour proved too great, the unit then picked off one of the heavy cavalry before concentrating on the skirmishers who moved up to the cottage. The fire fight on the right flank was decided when the nomads thought better of their hit and run attacks when facing twenty shots, they had felled one archer to three loses, they simply charged head long into the fray, felled one, but lost two of their own and fled from the field.
The centre fight was being dictated by the aggressive movement of the Norsemen, who pushed forward with their screen of thralls, the Rus took the bait with their Militia attempting to charge, but found after a volley of javelins the Thralls ran behind their lines to safety and like the cowards they are kept on running. The Bondi reacted by counter charging but the Militia held the initial charge and then almost broke the Bondi before being forced to flee. As the remainig Thralls moved to the side to contest the cottage, the Hirdmen and Vikings pushed forward to invite the charges, with them duly coming, Rus warriors into hirdmen and heavy cavalry into Vikings. The warriors took down one opponent before the hirdmen cleaved through their ranks like a scythe through wheat, the warriors ran. The heavy cavalry faired little better but held their ground, before forcing the Vikings to fall back. Confident the fight was one the cavalry charged back in, however in good order the Vikings turned and butchered three of the remaining horsemen and ran saw off the last survivor and his general. The Hirdmen had attempted to crush the Militia with a flank charge however they fled in fear. The Rus force was in tatters as both skirmished units had now been wiped out through concentrated fire from bows and javelins, the infantry having rallied from the combats, fled again as they saw their general flee the field. However in a desperate bid, to ensure his escape they turned and threw themselves at the pursuing Norsemen, it was a vain effort as both units were cut down and the survivors dispatched as they turned to flee. The dragon people were victorious and the latest invaders knew to avoid their lair.

This was the first game of WAB Kiwi Dave had played with his new, well proxied, Rus army. Once again we saw the merits of NOT taking small units of cavalry, as without whittling down the infantry ranks they couldn’t punch through. Shooting was rubbish for both sides, as Dave couldn’t hit at all and I repeatedly did twenty shots a turn, needing 6’s, to hit once. The rest of my army worked well and I look forward to larger games.

[Jonny H]

Ouch!

Poor Dave and thats three from three for Toby's Vikings. Scotty, pull your finger out and give Toby a game

My County of Flanders list is very slowly coming along...

[Toby]

The warrior stumbled into the clearing, left arm hanging useless by his side, nearly toppling into the central fire before righting himself and taking the last few steps to his chieftain, "Lord the Dragon People have come!"
The wildmen, these Ancient Britons, attacked the new settlers at dusk screaming out of the trees towards the settlement with 4 massive blocks of warriors, two of horse, fearful chariots, skirmishing slingers and a group of frenzied besrekers daubed in woad and blood. The defenders quickly marshalled to face this threat with three units of archers, two Bondi spear, two hirdmen units and viking mercenaries. Lining up on the perimeter of their camp they were soon being under threat of being flanked and encircled as the horse and chariots raced down either side with the infantry moving up the middle. The outmost building of his village splitting his forces, Bucca of the Norsemen left two of his archers and one Bondi unit to hold the right flank, his thralls rushed forward from around the cottage to harrass the on-rushing warbands while he held the right with the remainder of his force. A storm of arrows was unleashed upon the invaders, but they fell harmlessly away or the wounds were simply ignored and few fell, then the horse were upon them! Ignoring the shafts sent their way they crashed into and through the archers on the norse left flank and hit the Bondi spear behind, on the right they pulled up just short of the archers flank and sent in a hail of javelins. Ignoring the fate of their fellows the right hand archers charged the horse threatening them driving them from the field and all along the ling norsemen moved forward to entice their foe, a barrage of javelins and arrows felled some more warriors from the central blocks, before fleeing from the charges of the massed infantry. The remaining horse were finally beaten by the Bondi spear after previously showing a remarkable act of courage in holding the infantry whilst the chariots could manouvere for the flank, however it was in vain as the infantry smashed into the fighting platforms. The Vikings ran over a skirmishing sling unit and straight into the unit of warriors behind, while the Bondi on the right charged the threatening warriors intent on taking out their druidic leader, the warriors proved too hard however and the Bondi fled in fear, eventually being driven from the field. The Vikings proved little better their massed attacks not being able to penetrate the warriors defenses and were run down as they turned to flee. The nearby Bondi however were too much for the chariots.
The victorious Brit warriors on the norse left surged into the nearby hirdmen unit, though these wer much stiffer competition and made short work of their foes, running down the wildmen before they could flee, the left flank was now in the sole hands of the norse. Ignoring their fleeing friends who had been viciously mauled by a raving beserker the lord and his retinue moved up along with his own beserker band. This move was met by Bucca charging his hirdmen straight at his foe, causing two grievious wounds on him and carving through his unit, before they turned and fled out of reach.
slightly frustrated the beserkers turned to face the Hirdmen flank as their lord rallied his troops and prepared for the next charge, while the fleeing unit fled for the safety of home and warriors on the norse right finally drove off the fleeing Bondi.
aware that help was no where on hand Bucca once again led the chare while his remaining units struggled to get back into position, many blows were aimed true at the british leader but none semed to wound the man, his bodyguard were not so lucky however as the front rank was decimated, bucca took a wound from the lords retaliation before his hirdmen champion swung his massive bearded axe and removed the wildmens lord head from his shoulders, the bodyguard broke and were cut down as they fled.
The loss of their lord proved too much for the lasr warrior band who fled the field, leaving only the beserkers stranded in the centre of the field, surrounded by enemies.


This was my first WAb game at 2000 points against Grahams Ancient Britons and boy what a game! For long parts of this game I thought I was going to lose and probably was losing to be fair! I set upok, aware that my force had to be split by the building and that grahams infantry blocks would have to go in the big open space in the centre to my right flank, which was why I set up the bulk of my force to the lef of the building, however I made a mess of unit deployment and it led to a few difficulties.
The dice didn't love me much either, while Grahams were probably average, in fact mine were prob average but in the worst way possible, instead of rolling halve hits n half again wounds it would be 3/4 hits, 1/4 wounds. The best example was my Vikings going up against his warrior unit, I was quite comfortable going in against a 6+ save that i could do enough wounds to win or draw the combat and 14 hits later I was laughing, 4 wound rolls, one of those saved I was crying! My shooting was so bad, this is the only mention it's getting.
In all the army worked well and the beserkers did very well, killing 4 cavalry, 6 infntry and 2 infantry respectively. The list will be staying the same for the next encounter, we'll just have to hope I dont muck up the deployment again!
Graham played welland as ever was a joy, I think WAB actually suits him better than fantasy and his dice behaved to back this up. We did discuss him splitting his chariots up into two units of 3 instead of one of 6, to make them easier to manouever.

[Kiwidave]

It's always good when games go the distance - nothing worse that it being all over by turn 3.....

Things can't have been too bad Toby, as we only heard you shouting at the dice once....

[Jonny H]

A tough little game then. It's been nice to see other people winning games and Graham almost pulling it out the bag! Long live the WAB revolution

[Scotty]

Us British can't possibly allow this revolution to continue, heads ( top players) are rolling and the peaseants are rising up to nearly overcome their masters! We'll have to send in the Army to quell these upstarts