A Return to WAB and Shieldwall!

[Atheling]

Great looking armies.

All of my dark age figures were originally based for WAB, I have since switched to Triumph!

I still have all the supplements and rules, it is a great game, but much more time consuming for a big battle (in preparation and playing time) and I found it hard for doing presentation games with new players.

My biggest gripe with WAB was once a unit started fleeing it could go anywhere! Fleeing units often had a more disruptive influence on the game than the combat at times! In a way, that was part of the fun.

I've been looking at Swordpoint as it seems to have fairly prolonged combats which really suits 'Dark Ages' and Medieval warfare.

[Dervel]

My biggest issue with WAB was the time constraint to prepare for a battle and then play it.  I used to spend hours making up all the little unit sheets, which I enjoyed doing, but still was a slog to prep for big battles.

If you get a chance, take a look at Triumph!

With Triumph, shield wall battles end up being a pushing match back and forth between lines, until something bad happens, a hole in the line or a flank gets wrapped and one side crumbles.  Exactly what you would expect.  When using the grand tactical rules when commands broken commands need extra command points to keep them from routing off the board or simply evaporating.

It worked great for Hastings which is really an asymmetrical battle.  The rules have a built in mechanism for stands of troops surging forward when they "win big" doubling their opponents score.  With this tactic, skirmishing troops and light Cavalry can yank heavy foot units out of a line when they try to chase them off.

The Norman knights have a good chance to shatter heavy foot, but then risk getting pulled in and possibly surrounded if they do not have support.

Ran that battle more than a dozen times at conventions, really one of the best historical refights I have managed to pull off in my opinion with about 50-50 win results for the two sides.

[Atheling]

My biggest issue with WAB was the time constraint to prepare for a battle and then play it.  I used to spend hours making up all the little unit sheets, which I enjoyed doing, but still was a slog to prep for big battles.

If you get a chance, take a look at Triumph!

Is that the DBA based game?

[Dervel]

It has similar mechanics to DBA, it was written by guys that played a lot of DBA in past.

The core mechanics are stands face off with a contest roll on a D6 plus/minus some factor, and it still uses random command points for moving troops, so from 10,000 feet looks very similar just like ADLG does, but when you get into the details it has a lot of changes.

One being that is uses a point system for the different troop types, so losing a stand of skirmishers does not have the same impact on the army as losing a stand of knights.  Also, the troop types and their abilities are expanded which makes a significant difference on how they play on the battlefield when compared to DBA.  For example Triumph has chariots where in DBA chariots were just Cavalry on larger bases.

My progression in Ancient rule systems was pretty much WAB to DBA to DBM, back to DBA, then to Triumph, with side trips into FOG, Tactica and ADLG plus numerous other systems.  I really like Triumph because it gets to a sensible result with a very low amount of rules overhead.  I feel like I am playing the army and tactics, not the rules.

[Atheling]

It has similar mechanics to DBA, it was written by guys that played a lot of DBA in past.

The core mechanics are stands face off with a contest roll on a D6 plus/minus some factor, and it still uses random command points for moving troops, so from 10,000 feet looks very similar just like ADLG does, but when you get into the details it has a lot of changes.

One being that is uses a point system for the different troop types, so losing a stand of skirmishers does not have the same impact on the army as losing a stand of knights.  Also, the troop types and their abilities are expanded which makes a significant difference on how they play on the battlefield when compared to DBA.  For example Triumph has chariots where in DBA chariots were just Cavalry on larger bases.

My progression in Ancient rule systems was pretty much WAB to DBA to DBM, back to DBA, then to Triumph, with side trips into FOG, Tactica and ADLG plus numerous other systems.  I really like Triumph because it gets to a sensible result with a very low amount of rules overhead.  I feel like I am playing the army and tactics, not the rules.

I'm going to try out Swordpoint.... well, that was the aim but I might have to do the 'social distance' thing due to an underlying health condition

My first year back into wargaming after a hiatus of more then a few years too 

Still, it will leave me with plenty of time to get some serious amount of brushwork under my belt for after the apocalypse