WAC - First Impressions

[andy]

Well tonight I got my first game of WAC, with no other than Rob Broom himself who made the loong trek across to swindon (well it took him nearly an hour and he was rewarded with a curry on arrival) to field his Greeks against my persians. Warren also provided support to the persians once he managed to get free of work!).

No idea of the points as the persian list was in play test - but the game was played on a 8by6 table - and was certaionly larger than a normal game - in WAB terms probably 4000pts per side equivalent - I am sure Rob will chime in and give approx WAC pts values...

Overall the evening apart from a social catch up was to learn the game mechanics, while there were certainly a number of underlying game mechanics the same as WAB there were a fair few changes - which in my opinion certainly added another dimension to the game - one that had all three of us thinking... and to be fair and honest make it a sufficently different game from WAB to be worth the investment.

In particular I liked the Intervention points, and rolling to see who has the initiative at the start of each turn - really makes you think about the impacts of choosing to go first or 2nd and wether you should use up those intervention points to ensure you go get the choice or keep them for command tests/morale...

The use of a leader to determine charge distances seemed unusual at first to me - but as the leader of the unit is used as the focal point for all measuring for tests it became a very simple and effective concept.

Officers (aka characters) contribute extra dice to the combat overall, which in itself is different from WAB in that combat is simulatenous - the benefit of charging is transfered to the combat resolution where the charging unit gets +1... there is also a cumulative "push and shove" bonus if you win and dont break an opponent so it theory it gets easier to win each subsequent round...(you loose teh P&S bonus if theres a draw or you loose a round of comabt so it can swing back and fore on protracted combats)

Shooting seems to be slightly more effective (than WAB) - espeically against less or non armoured troops, phalanx are still tough nuts to crack with shooting but certainly more casualties were caused even against spartans who die as easily as other phlanax to shooting!- even more would have been caused if we remembered to take a command test for Phalanx to double pace (march move) - which we forgot about until they were to close to my persians to make a difference... it would have just delayed the inevitable though...

Overall the game lasted about the same length as I would expect a game of WAB to last - and as it was my first game I was very impressed with the flow of the turns and speed of playing...

Note - this game uses lots of dice - one of my persian archer units was using 36 dice for massed archery - basically the whole unit looses arrows provided the enemey are in front zone...

We are already looking to organise a decent sized game next time (at least a 12x6ft) table - so that should indicate that my first game was thoroughly enjoyable.

One last point - the production and visual impact of these rules is very good to the point I would say they are the probably the best of the bunch.

If we don't do G&P again then it will liekly be biblical game as Rob shares Warren and my passion for biblical gaming...

Not so much a battle report just my ramblings on WAC - which will certainly see me playing more of.

Regards
Andy

[Lurker]

HAven't played it yet - but I've decided to switch from WAB (along with another member of my club) for the reasons I've given on the WAB bit of the forum. It looks very promising

[scarabminiatures]

To Lurker- thank you and welcome. I had to go and check your comments on the other board, but I think you will find theres a growing number with the same feelings, switching to games such as War & Conquest.

And of course, as Andy has kindly noted, War & Conquest offers a number of different challenges, adding more excitement and decision making to the game as it progresses.

As an example, in turn two I won the Strategic Advantage and chose to go second (move shoot fight etc). I was just out of Persian arrow range, and by going second, IF I could win the third turn Strategic Advantage, I could then have had two consecutive moves, meaning that chances were the Persians would only get one round of shooting off before I got close enough to give Andy a few new choices. Once within 8" a unit cannot massed shoot at a target.
Of course here I should be honest enough to acknowledge we (I ) forgot that to double pace, a phalanx needs to take a command test so fueled by curry and excitement, I just ploughed striaght forward. There was then a big brawl in the centre, which the Greeks won convincingly although it should be noted the 'immortals' were anything but, while some of the Persian archers gave a much better account of themselves (simulataneous combat benefitting them heavily, just the Immortals dragged them down, having clearly forgotten the art of combat )

However, on the flanks, had Andy had a little more fortune, the Persian cavalry could have caused havoc and got him into an excellent position, but my gaining the Strategic Advantage there kept his cavalry on the back foot rather than the forward.

Any way, looking forward to a chariot war, chariots operate very differently in War & Conquest compared to other games, and it takes time to get to grips with using them in a style more in keeping with how I believe they operated on the battlefield.

[Godwin]

Well, I just placed my order for the War and Conquest rule book. I listened to the podcast with Rob Broom (a very respectable gentleman)and the rules explainations make a lot of sense plus I also still get to roll a lot of dice. Been looking at some of the free army lists online and I am very much looking forward to getting my copy and diving in. Well done Rob.

[scarabminiatures]

Many thanks, welcome and enjoy the games!

There are more army lists online, plus some have had some updates

[Dave Toone]

I've recently made the switch myself to W&C and after several games I can now safely say that I think it's a far better system than WAB. As Andy said, the mechanics are similar, but W&C deals with many aspects of a game, such as skirmish troops and ongoing combats far better than any incarnation of WAB ever has, in my opinion

With the ups and downs of Forgeworlds handling of WAB over the last year or so, I found myself first waiting to see what happened, then falling away from ancients gaming and into a state of limbo. At last that's all changed and I'm looking forward to playing as many games as I can get in (I hope to get to an event or two this year too, time permitting - maybe I'll give you a sound thrashing at ancients, just like ECW one day Andy )

Hopefully as more and more gamers try W&C a community will build up and the resources will grow and grow.

Top marks Rob!

[ubertek]

I'm in too!

But you know that already Rob.

[Dave Toone]

I'm in too!

But you know that already Rob.

Excellent! - Maybe we can get to one of the events together, where you can leave our flank unprotected AGAIN, and we can get soundly thrashed AGAIN!

[Matt1066]

I'm in too!

But you know that already Rob.

Excellent! - Maybe we can get to one of the events together, where you can leave our flank unprotected AGAIN, and we can get soundly thrashed AGAIN!

Great to hear that you like the game and the rules!!!

Matt

[Dave Toone]

Great to hear that you like the game and the rules!!! Matt

Matt, I've had hundreds and hundreds of great games of WAB over the years since its' release and I have quite a fondness for the system, but WAC seems to have many of the great ideas of WAB but has addressed so many of the problems that were built into the WAB rules from the early days when it was just a re-hash of WHFB (In my opinion).

I've said this before, but I think that WAC is close enough in style to WAB to make it easy to cross over, but almost completely different at the same time in that many of the subtle rules combine to give a really balanced, fun, yet very tactical game.

Top marks from me. I just hope that it builds up in popularity to make Rob even richer than he already is.

[Matt1066]

I've said this before, but I think that WAC is close enough in style to WAB to make it easy to cross over, but almost completely different at the same time in that many of the subtle rules combine to give a really balanced, fun, yet very tactical game.

IMHO, a perfect summary of W&C

Matt