"Warhammer Siege and Conquest" Topic

I just bought the new siege book and I have to say another well done product by Warhammer Historicals. I've enjoyed seige games of WFB for my years and even used those rules to run WAB games. However, there was need for improvement and I feel that the lads at Warhammer Historicals have done just that. Although simular to the old WFB seige rules there are many tweaks and changes that vastly improve the mechanics and clearly explain how to run siege games. An added bounus are the rules for raids, town battles and additonal ideas for campaign games.

Of course there are tons of excellent photos of miniature wargaming castles and fortifications through out the book with fabulous painted miniatures to inspire all to rise to that standard. This supplement also provides some brief historical overviews of siege warfare in history and generic points and guide lines for all varieties of siege engines and defenses.

I'm inspired to perhaps run a Warhammer siege at a future HMGS con. I recommend this latest supplement and think it is a long overdue addition to the game.

Sounds interesting. Despite the name, it's still more focussed on the "assault" part of a siege than the "camp outside and starve 'em out" bit, right?

Not much fun gaming your troops succumbing to malnutrition and disease, of course. :)

Thanks for the review. I purchased six siege towers from Old Glory at Historicon last and was not sure what I would ever use them for. I also just got about 800 Trojan War figures and have started to layout the plans for Troy. Looking at doing a street fighting scenario. So I was going to check them out at Fall In! next week anyway. Looks like I will have to pick up a copy for sure.
VR
James Mattes

I never liked the WFB siege rules, they just didn't seem to work very well. (Medieval Tactica has a much better set.) I am however, looking forward to my copy of this book!

Condottiere, not per se but it is very scenario driven. The supplement includes a number of non assualt scenarios that envolve getting supplies to the castle, sorties against the attackers, etc. Also there is a scenario where both attacker and defender spend points to weaken the other before the big assault. One of those things the attcker can do is spend 150 points to tunnel under a wall and weaken it for D6 points of damage. In addition there is a a siege campaign where each scenario affects the outcome of the next.

This supplement has many of the things worked into it that I have heard players of the past WFB siege rules complain about. The writer encourages games that are scenario driven one of the more interesting being a scenario that has a besieged castle with the attackers outside the walls and a relief force coming in behind the attackers. Now that is one I want to play! The book has excellent diagrams that show how to move and deploy forces inside and outside the castle which was something that was often not explained well in the old WFB rules. One of the things they have changed is they have done away with the old "Man the Walls" rule where the defenders made an out of turn 2" move to take position along the walls. This always caused confusing in the game I thought. Instead an attacking unit charges the wall as if it were a unit in a regular game of WAB. Before the attackers can place any ladders the defenders on the wall fight a round of hand to hand with the attacks like a normal game except banner and musicains do not count toward combat resolution and only the defenders get to fight. This is to represent the defenders throwing rocks, shooting arrows, etc to prevent ladders from coming onto the walls. If the Defenders win then the Attackers take a break test and if they fail they fall back 2d6" to regroup. If the attackers win (ranks do count) then the ladders have been succefully raise to the walls and the attacker can begin to scale them.

I left out in my begining post that in additon to the siege rules the supplement is chocked full of other non siege sceanrios such as a cattle raid, a city fight, a battle involving a river crossing, a hunt, caravan attack and a variation on the pitched battle that takes place in a mountain pass. There is also a scenario called Chosen Ground which is a guide for doing battles such as Angincourt, and Flodden. One of the best things I think are rules for weather in WAB as well as ways to play multi-player games. I think this supplement is to WAB what the General's Compendium was to WFB and then some. The only thing not in this supplement is rules for naval battles and that is something I am working on my own at this time.

@wm: You may want to get in touch with Guy, since some naval rules had already been started:

link

One of the handiest sections in the book is how to create legal siege armies from you're conventional WAB army list. This is particularly useful for horsey armies like Normans and El Cid Spanish.

That was a great link Skeptic. This group and I have very simular gaming attitudes. Great site!

elcid1099, yes Siege and Conquest made a great point about how to have these types of armies participate in siege games. I like the 2 troops for the cost of one mounted so your not debating over points or equipment. This has been a well thought out supplement and worth the wait.

I also have the Siege book and can second the comment that it's just a top notch publication.

Full of interesting and useful ideas for WAB. Even if you don't like the full WAB rules, it would still be useful for smaller games--somewhere between skirmish and full armies-- because it includes rules and scenarios for raids and such.

And, of course, the production values are outstanding.

It is a great book and has a fun section dealing with town fighting. Nice eye candy.
I am itching to do a Hussite Seige game!
Whitemanticore – if you run a seige game at a Con please let me know!!!!!!!
Tanc

I'll post it here on TMP if I do Tanc. I'm sure we will be doing one soon at my favorite local gaming store. There are a number of us with HYW armies in my gaming group and I have all the siege equipment already painted along with a castle. I just need to scratch build a breached wall.