Barbarian rumble

Played a 1000 point game over the weekend. My Gauls using the HatPW list vs. a Warlord list from FotW.

My army was 3x25 warriors, 9 javelin skirmisher, 9 slinger, and 10 cav. A cheiftain in one unit of warriors, a high chieftain in another.

I faced 2x30 warriors (1 with chieftain, 1 with warlord), 6 steppe cav, two units of 9 skirmishers (1 with chieftain), and 8 archers.

I thought it would be a straightforward match of running forward, hitting each other and then one side becoming more disordered than the other -- game over.

Instead, first my cavalry got ambushed trying to fast march around some woods. I destroyed the skirmishers, but the pursuit was exceptionally enthusiastic, and that put them between the two lines of infantry. They ended up fleeing out of the game. A poorly timed "unruly advance" roll caused my infantry to move up into charge range, so I was charged by the slightly larger enemy warbands. I did OK, winning one combat, losing the other. In the combat I won, my opponent both lost his chieftain in a challenge with my general and failed his break test. So it was panic tests for just about everything on the board. I managed to roll 12 for both of my warbands, plus my skirmishers ran as well. The only thing left was my slingers. I managed to make some lucky rally rolls the following turn, and my warbands came back.

So both lines scattered a bit, realigned, and met again. I lost one more combat, and that was pretty much the game.

I had my general, his warband, and my slingers left.

My opponent had his general and accompanying warband, a his steppe cav, and his archers left.

Interesting game that highlighted the subtle differences between the two lists.