Warhammer Ancient Battles - De Novus Milites

Format

This will be a contest for 1500pt armies over 4 games in 2 periods for up to 20 players in a single days gaming.

In order to facilitate historical match ups players will be placed into one of two historical brackets: Classical and Early Medieval. When booking players should specify which period they wish to enter an army for, as this will assist the organisers in planning the event. Armies are selected from the appropriate list in Armies of Antiquity, Warhammer Ancient Battles Rulebook, Shieldwall or El Cid.

The Classical bracket includes those armies, which span the periods from approx. 500 BC to 99 BC and includes:

Classical Greek, Archaemenid Persian, Macedonian, Ancient Indian, Nomad Horde (representing Skythians, Dahae etc), Republican Rome, Carthaginian, Barbarian, Cataprachts (Parthians) and Imperial Rome.

Please note that it is anticipated that the forthcoming Alexander supplement will be released in time for the tournament as such the lists in that supplement will replace the equivalent list in Armies of Antiquity.

The Early Medieval period spans the period from 900 AD to 1100 and includes all armies featured in the Shieldwall and El Cid supplements along with the Arab & Saracen and Byzantine lists from Armies of Antiquity.

Each player will play 4 games and score victory points based on the outcome. A further bonus will be scored for a fully presented and painted army.

The Best General will be the player scoring the most Victory Points.

The Overall Winner will be the player with the best combined score.

At the end of the day each player must nominate in writing, the opponent who he considered exhibited the best sportsmanship. The votes will then be added and the player scoring the most votes will win an award for best sportsman.

An award will also be granted for best Painted and Presented Army.

General

Each Player must have a typed army list with them, we would recommend using Army Builder although it is not essential.

Please note that we will be using the WPS Warhammer Ancient Battles rules clarification. A copy of this is available from here.

Battle Report

Well, first off, I'd like to thank George and the Ponders End club for arranging it. This was the first event that was specifically arranged for Londoners that we're aware of. Pity that more people didn't make use of the opportunity. Judging by the number of hits on the website, there should have been about 3000 people there, but unfortunately this was not the case. A number of players said they'd show, and failed to appear on the day, but that can't really be helped. Those of us who did attend had a good time.

The comp was split into two parts- a later era (Flemish, Vikings and Arabs) and a biblical part (Romans, Greeks and Chinese). Due to a little mishap with multimap and their p***poor directions, and some really bad road markings, I managed to arrive late, and so missed the first game. Well, my first game of the day was my Flemish against Vikings, which went very poorly for me- I made some very bad decisions in my deployment, and lost soundly- congrats to Ed.

My second game of the day was against an Arab army, consisting of one unit of light horse and one unit of skirmishers, one unit of mercenary crossbowmen, one unit of Black Guard and two large units mof mixed bows and spears. OW! I won this game by default, really, as my opponent had decided to make an attack on one of my cavalry units, and unfortunately failed to beat them, and in the process he was destroyed, which gave my other cavalry unit a breather- enough to win by just a few points.

The third game was more for fun than any serious competitiveness, and was "last man standing", with the Vikings and the Flemish against the Arabs. I think I speak for both myself and the Vikings when I say that the Arabs held us off remarkably well. He did manage to get a unit off table.

The Arab player was awarded the grand prize-a GB gift pack- after several convincing wins, and on points he was waaay at the top of the table. I was pleased to be told that my army (all Old Glory figures) was considered the best there (I disagree- tha Arab- all Artizan figures- looked better to me), and gladly accepted the prize of a Newline voucher.

Again, I have to say I was stunned at the poor turnout, but I thought it was a grand day, and will definitely make a point of returning there when George announces the next such day.

Olaf