Well, two weeks into the SAD WAB (Warhammer Ancient Battles) Pyramid and four games down, and I’m still milling around in the bottom bunch.

I only have two painted WAB armies – Macedonians and Caesarian Romans. I therefore went with my Macedonians, the only army I am confident of using. All games are 2,000 points and no Special Characters are allowed, so out went Alexander to be replaced by an un-named Strategos.
My standard 2,000 point army is:

Strategos, mounted with heavy armour;

4 pike phalanxes of 32 men each,

2 units of 15 Greek Peltasts with thrusting spear,

13 Cretan archers,

5 Mercenaries with buckler and javelins and

12 Mercenaries with composite bow.

My first game was against Warren with his Ancient Greeks around Warren’s house. This was a close fought game – we rolled 10 and 11 for Oracles – and my plan to envelop Warren’s flanks failed due to Warren’s aggressive rush across the table. We both scored over 1000 victory points, but Warren was a clear winner by 200 or so.

My second game, on a Wednesday, was against Steve Bradley, who was running Imperial Macedonians. His army had four pike phalanxes as well, but he ran his as two with 48 men and two with 24 men. He also had two units of Skythian horse archers and lots of mercenary skirmishers. Both our pike blocks sat at the back whilst we committed our skirmishers to a massed melee. This swung backwards and forwards, but on my last turn I committed my pike blocks into difficult going against the skirmishers. Although I would lose my rank bonus, and thus my ‘Phalanx’ special rules, I thought the massed attacks would still win through. In the event the skirmishers all fled, and some didn’t rally on Steve’s last turn, giving me a very narrow victory. This put me on the second rung of the ladder.

My third game was against Derek and his Pagan Rus. This army had a couple of smallish warbands, a few archers, and two really hard units – the general’s unit of elite troops, and a unit of Vikings. Shooting caused a unit of Derek’s warband to flee, and they took the Vikings with them, and the Viking didn’t rally for a couple of turns, which kept them out of the game. The Rus General’s unit went into shield-wall on a hill, and never got into combat – luckily, because after the game we experimented by letting it hit a phalanx and it ran straight over it! Derek had appalling luck in this game, but as always he remained cheerful and an excellent opponent. This win left me in a position to challenge another player on the second rung to get advancement to the third rung, but before that I had to defend my position again.

My forth battle was against Glenn and his ancient Spanish. Glenn had a huge army, including two really hard warband units with his General and Battle Standard Bearer. Glenn rushed over the table, looking to use his superior numbers to envelop my flanks. I therefore committed my pike blocks forwards to get into combat. This was a game of extreme dice rolling – they come along every once in a while – where my pike blocks failed to hurt anyone, I failed just about every leadership test I was required to take, whilst Glenn made 50% of his saves (needing a ‘6’) and made leadership tests after leadership test, including several where he needed a six on two dice or less. Glenn won easily, and took my place on the second rung of the ladder.