Age of Tyrants

This is the army list used for the Newark Irregulars' tournament "Age of Tyrants" (12th November 2000). Notes are also included for using the list in more general battles.

The list is the work of James Moris and myself. It reflects our view of Dark Age warfare. The bulk of an army would be of quite low quality troops, with most of the fighting done by the personal bodyguards (comitatus) of the battling warlords. To this end, most of the troops in the list are quite low-powered, typically WS and BS of 2 and correspondingly low leadership ratings. This encourages careful generalship, particularly in campaigns. Good troops are virtually irreplacable and you have to rely on you characters to get most of your army fighting.

ARMY COMPOSITION (Tournament) 1000 Points Maximum

• Characters: Up to 250 points.
• Household Troops: Up to 250 points.
• British Troops: At least 400 points
• Mercenary Troops: Up to 100 points.

ARMY COMPOSITION (General use)

• Characters: Up to one quarter of the army.
• Household Troops: Up to 250 points.
• British Troops: At least 400 points
• Mercenary Troops: Up to 200 points.

The mininimum size for a Regiment is five infantry or cavalry models. There is no upper limit. One model in each unit may be upgraded to Leader at +5 pts, Standard Bearer at +5 pts and Musician at +5 pts. There may be no more leader, standard and musician models in total than there are non-skirmisher units in the army.

In the tournament, with armies of 1000 points or less, the upgrades to leader, standard or musician are free.

SHIELD WALL

Units may form shieldwall if permitted by the army list, such units may form a shield wall instead of moving. A unit that has formed a shieldwall may not cross an obstacle, march or charge without breaking the shieldwall, the formation is also lost of the unit is a warband forced to advance by rolling a "1" on its warband check. The distance moved is halved if the unit wheels more than one inch during its movement, unless it is Drilled. As long as the unit is in a shieldwall, then the unit gains a +1 armour save modifier (up to a maximum of 4+) against all shooting and hand-to-hand attacks from the front of the unit. The unit benefits from the shieldwall as long as it does not lose a round of hand-to-hand combat or use any weapon other than hand weapons, or thrusting or throwing spears.

FEIGNED FLIGHT

A unit may normally only stand or flee when charged. However a unit that may use feigned flight, and that opts for the 'fire and flee', or 'flee' charge response, rallies immediately at the end of their movement. They may reform facing in any direction. If the charging enemy troops contact them, the fleeing troops are not destroyed, but instead fight in hand-to-hand combat. Their opponents still count as charging however.

WARBANDS

Part 2:  If a Warband charges and wins the then the enemy unit is automatically broken if it is outnumbered.

CHARACTERS