please convert me from WAB!

[argh]

hi fellas

i'm new to this forum

i'm very interested in these new rules.

can anybody tell me what i will like about them over WAB

please don't turn this into a slagging off of wab, i've played the game for the last ten years!

i just need a push to try pastures new

thanks in advance

[sergeis64]

Well, I will try to explain without slagging off on WAB
Generally, sets of rules like DBX, Warrior, Piquet and others have more unpredictability compared to WAB.
As is in WAB: " I am general, I can miove troops where I want and how I want". other game sistems are more taking in account "Fog or war", actual messaging to subgenerals, etc. Hence if you want troops to do something they might not do that due to all sorts of reasons. Also morale in other sistems is a more gradual thing, so troops do not break after one round of combat, but gradually reduce combat effectiveness/ morale grade. Also most sistems do not count individuals fighting individuals, rather groups fighting groups, so more generalisation occur. Also since you are dealing with stands with several figs on it, instead of single stand figs, mechanics are slightly diferent.
Also WAB is more of a single player game ( unless you are doing a mega game), while other are played with subgenerals, so your buddies can have their own commands, not just push single units.
I hope it helps.
Sergei

[hammy]

hi fellas

i'm new to this forum

A belated welcome

i'm very interested in these new rules.

can anybody tell me what i will like about them over WAB

Hmm, it depends what you like and don't like about WAB.

To me WAB seems like a big skirmish rather than a mass battle. It is often about having musicians and standard bearers in the right place.

AoW is aimed at being a representation of a larger battle but still with the 'unit' or battlegroup concept keeping troops together. Most of the WAB games I have seen have perhaps 7 or 8 units per side, AoW generally has 12 - 16 but some battlegroups are joined into larger groupings. Missile ranges in AoW are much lower than WAB (only artillery has a range over 15 cm (6 inches)) so the battlefield feels bigger. You don't worry about individual figures, really speaking you are concerned about battlegroups so as a general it I think feels different. A game of AoW will almost certainly have more turns than a WAB game (I seem to remember WAB games being about 6 turns) so there are more decisions and more things to do right (or wrong) along the way.

I can sense myself starting to waffle now so will wait for you to say what you like and don't like about WAB.

Hammy

[argh]

thanks guys

i like 25/28mm scale soldiers, just coz they look better (to me)

so i'd realy need to know that AoW will work in this scale, and will be supported?

i realy like the fact that armies have there own characteristics in wab

i don't like the fact my warband armies can perform complicated manouvres

i like using the dice for chance (not as often as non-wabbers would think)

i don't like my absolute control over my army.

other stuff niggles me, but not enough to put up here.

will AoW have lots of events around the country, will they be well supported (in 25/28mm)

cheers

[hammy]

i like 25/28mm scale soldiers, just coz they look better (to me).

so i'd realy need to know that AoW will work in this scale, and will be supported?

OK, that's easy. AoW is designed to work with both 25/28mm and 15mm figures and for both scales to work on a standard table.

i realy like the fact that armies have there own characteristics in wab

In AoW there are no army specific rules (all the rules will be in the rules book) but in general each army will have flavour depending on the combination of troops within it. Personally I don't like having rules in army books as it really means that if you are going to play seriously you have to buy all the army books.

i don't like the fact my warband armies can perform complicated manouvres

OK, in AoW troops are either drilled or undrilled, skirmishers, cavalry or other troops. Skirmishers are the most maneuverable, then drilled, then undrilled cavalry and finally undrilled others. Your warband are undrilled others, trying to do anything slightly complicated will require a die roll or it can't be done and the more complicated things like turn 90 and move are impossible. I think that you would be relatively happy as to the lack of maneuver among undrilled troops.

i like using the dice for chance (not as often as non-wabbers would think)

OK, there are dice in AoW, no combat is a foregon conclusion although there are some where there is about a 1 in 1000 chance of losing (say heavy knights fighting light javelinemen in the open)

i don't like my absolute control over my army.

Each move you can move all your battlegroups BUT you may not be able to do what you want with them (see the maneuverr answer above). Unlike DBM where large chunks of your army can stand around doing nothing if all you want to do is advance then AoW will allow that at least.

will AoW have lots of events around the country, will they be well supported (in 25/28mm)

That depends on how many people end up wanting to play it. If AoW bcomes reasonably popular then I would expect that there will be a similar number of tournaments in AoW as there are now in DBM. At present there are four big tournaments per year run by the BHGS plus a load of doubles and team events run by various people. The big events all have a 25mm section as do the team events but there are only a small number of 25mm doubles events.

Take a look at the BHGS site to find out more about the possible level of events (www.bhgs.co.uk)

Hope that helps

Hammy

[argh]

thanks hammy,

will all the army lists be available soon?

like i said before i've played wab since its release (nearly ten years) and
still there are no specific lists for Caesar or the Successors

IMO a grave mistake

however i would realy not like to find myself playing a 'new' version of DBM

what is a realistic date for release?

[hammy]

I am afraid that at the moment I really don't know when the rules will be released I am fairly sure that the majority of the army lists will be released either at the same time as the main rules of shortly thereafter.

There is a Ceasarian Roman list in the lists available to playtesters and I have to say Ceasars elite legions are VERY tough.

It depends on how long you are willing to hang on for. If you are really desperate you could always approach Slitherine to see if you could get a place in the beta program

Hammy