WAB Night!

Club Night @ Plastic Legions HQ 6/1



Rich has done a nice job on his WAB stuff and owns several painted armies

Last night we met for our Bi Monthly club night, it was preplanned as an evening of the new Warhammer Ancient Battles. Five of us in attendance and most of us have the makings of various WAB forces..I have a ridiculous amount of Celts due my interest in WAB over the last 3 years and release of a ton of plastics for the game during the same time frame. I fielded a straight up 1000 points of Celt Barbarians right out of the new Book and Billy did the same with Imperial Romans. Rich had 2000 points of Rome and Carthage, out of the Hannibal book and finally Chris was packing 2000 points of Macedonians..3 huge phalanx's of pikes..2 units of Cavalry, some Skirmishing Cavalry and lots of foot Skirmishers.Chris and I played 1000 points face off early just to demo the rules Celts vs Macedonians, in which my ability to roll ridiculous amount of "6"'s for armor saves won me the day. Do to my shortage of "ready to play" models..I did run three characters, barbarian characters are very powerful considering particularly the Shaman.


The full shot of the battle lines, our turn moving ahead
excuse the unpainted models here..still figuring out what
the heck to even focus on..

After defeating the Macedonians the 5 of us set up on the 4 x 8 and did a 3000 point game of Rome / Carthage against Macedonians with Barbarian Allies..we definitely had more troops, then our opponents but they certainly had the better troops overall. I really like the the new charts for determining terrain, after which we had an open battlefield with large hill on one flank and two big patches of rough, one dead center, and one near the other flank. We piled all our skirmishers in the middle since they would not be impeded by the rough, The bulk of the Barbarians, the cavarly and the chariots where on the left, with the Pikes and some skirmishers on the right to deal with the heavy Roman Armor. Our Skirmishers and my Barbarians broke thru the center early and separated the Roman lines and a few turns later almost collapsed the entire left flank. The Romans were making some headway on right and last turn I had two units fleeing that 'if" rallied I would have brought to the right flank to aid. Before that came to be however, we called the game (after 3 hours and midnight). In the end it was slight advantage our way but can't say we won.

Barbarians taunting our lines..

That's the thing about WAB, things can change, radically every turn- thanks to the biggest single arbitrator of the game: Psychology!. Those familiar with the current 7th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles will find themselves in comfortable surroundings with the new WAB. The game is more like 7th Ed WFB, then the previous edition. However, Psychology is completely different and Panic is a huge dynamic. You must test for panic, not only if someone else breaks within 12 huge inches of you, but if a fleeing unit is within 6 inches of one of your units at the top of your turn Then that unit will need to make a Panic check as well, before moving, or declaring a charge. Furthermore, even if you win your combat but an allied unit nearby loses and breaks..your winning must test before your overrun, even if engaged in combat!. Given average leadership in WAB is much lower than its Fantasy cousin, you will fail alot of panic tests.

These intense Psychology rules do present a very accurate depiction of the chaos of an ancient battlefield, where drilled and disciplined soldiers held their ground over untrained hordes, men and beasts running wildly from combat to combat on the battlefield. and the huge battlefield is made up of dozens of individual skirmishes and you have clear, drawn and formed battlelines There is alot more going on in WAB ruleswise than I have time to illustrate here. When the evening concluded is was clear we all had a great time, and the general overview of the new rules is that they are great.


Chris's Macedonians...

In comparison to WFB, the 8th edition of WFB is definitely going to be a streamlined much simpler game from its current edition, while WAB on the other hand has taken the oppposite approach with 7th going in the more detailed direction. I think both games will have there niche..with two, different and appealing flavors. Personally WAB is now (and was) incredibly tactical..I my two games, I had easily a half dozen ideas on how to better my Celt army. 8th ed WFB should be tactical as as well but in completely different manner. Where WAB focuses on standard military tactics, the new WFB will focus on marginalizing losses and maximizing combat resolution, within all the things infantry, support, huge monsters, and heroes can bring. The new Warhammer Fantasy Battles is going to be more of a standard miniatures "game" where Warhammer Ancient Battles is even now more of a head on- military simulation.


Three Roman Units...outnumbered almost 2 to 1 I put the majority of my infantry into these guys, Barbarians broke them, this time.

I'd recommend trying out the new WAB rules to see if it suits your style of gameplay. Be prepared for much steeper learning curve that goes much deeper into the possibilities with 7th ed, then the future progress you'll see with the streamlining of a new WFB edition. Look for more WAB taking place right here for sure!





Fleeing Romans in the rear, Barbarians push ahead!