Copyright © 2011-2024, Paul Scrivens-Smith

Copyright © 2011-2024, Paul Scrivens-Smith

All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of the creator.

Thursday 22 May 2014

El Cid with War & Conquest



On Tuesday night Nick and I played our El Cid game again using the War and Conquest rules this time.

We had previously played the game using Warhammer Ancients and Hail Caesar, now it was the time for War and Conquest to get a look in. I don't have a copy of the rules and Nick had not played them before, this would be interesting.

Based upon the lists available for free on the War and Conquest forum I picked a couple of armies. Unfortunately, the list appears to have been put together by somebody who knows nothing of the period and has probably not even seen a film of it! The Feudal Spanish list has no Caballeros, no Jinetes, some Berber horse with bows!, no Javelins for the light horse or spearmen. The Early Muslim North Africa list is no better, again, no javelin armed light horse, no javelins for the spearmen, etc. However, the lists are free, I would have been rather annoyed if I had paid for them.

Anyhow I picked a couple of lists, the Spanish had 5 SIPs, General, Brigade Commander and Army Standard, three units of Hildagos, one unit of Jinetes (I ignored the list and put these in) two units of Peones with spears and bow, a unit of Guard spear and two units of skirmishers with slings. The Berbers had 2 SIPs, General, Brigade Commander and Army Standard, two units of Berber Light Horse with javelins and five units of Berber infantry with spears and bow.

We set to and started the game, I took the Spanish as usual and drew a map while Nick deployed the Berbers.

The Spanish went with two units of Hildagos and a unit of Jinetes on the left the two units of Peones in the centre and the Guard spears backed up by the other Hildagos on the right. The Berbers had a solid wall of foot flanked on each side by light horse.

We had quite a good game for a first try. The Spanish right overwhelmed their counterparts and were soon in the Berber rear. The Berber foot fell upon the Spanish foot and we had some strange combats - the Spanish Guard Spearmen were routed, however, the Peones in turn formed a Shieldwall and managed to fight off their opponents.

The Hildagos soon fell upon the rear of the Berbers and it was game over.

There are some good mechanisms in the rules, I particularly like that formed foot take leadership tests on 3d6 and chose the best two results while they are over half strength. I think they deserve another go maybe we will understand them a bit better next time. Those lists do need looking at though.

All the figures are from my collection and were painted by myself.





13 comments:

  1. War and Conquest is a cracking game, but the army organisation lists are a bit hit and miss. I've started putting together new lists on the WaC blog for that very reason. If the army lists were done properly and regulary updated as they could easily be (free downloads, rather than printed books after all) , I think WaC would quickly push itself to the top of the Ancients rules pile, which is it's rightful place!! Absolutely luverly armies btw!

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  2. Yes, lovely looking armies! Happily, army lists are easier to fix than rules.

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    Replies
    1. Quite right! Luckily, the rules are top notch :-)

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  3. Once again, it's a great pleasure to look at such wonderful armies, beautiful pics!

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  4. Fantastic looking minis, thanks for the nice report.

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  5. Shame the army list isn't up to much. If only we knew someone who was an expert in the field with a previously published supplement on the subject for a remarkably similar game.

    Wait a minute....
    :)

    I quite fancy giving this game a go, so maybe when we're bak from our respective European sojourns we can give it a try one Tuesday?

    Tom

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  6. Great looking game and figs, of course, Paul. Nice to see you using different rules with basically the same units - less the cool stuff per the list. So far I've used WAB and Hail Caesar for the same armies and found it pleasing to be able to use the same figures for different game play. I've not yet tried War & Conquest, but looks interesting.

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  7. WaC is the first choice for me with El Did period at the moment. The lists are a first pass I think based on the old WRG lists, but only a starter for ten. And easily fixed from WAB or similar lists.

    Great looking game as usual, nice to see your El Did stuff on the table again.

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  8. Lovely figures Mr Scrivs!
    Good to hear that you're giving WaC a whirl. Feel free to hassle Rob about the lists. I'm sure he'll appreciate any input to make the more representative of the real forces.
    Lok forward to hearing about further games.
    Cheers
    Matt

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  9. Hi mate, I would like to give you a Liebster award. Look at my blog for directions.
    http://panzerfaustnostalgia.blogspot.co.nz/
    Keep up the good work!

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    Replies
    1. Flattered, but reading the instructions I don't meet the criteria - although have been stuck on 207 followers for ages.

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    2. Oops, well I like your blog just the same!;-)

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