Warband is a set of fantasy mass battle rules for 10mm
figures by Pendraken. It’s designed for their own range of 10mm (more like
12mm) range and has become popular at the club.
Back in 2000 Warmaster by Games Workshop became popular at
the club. It was 10mm with units made up of three stands of troops on 20x40mm
bases. After taking up the superior historical version of the rules players
didn’t want to go back to the original, in which a flank charge could wipe out
a third of an army in one turn. GW dropped the game like so many other of it’s
more niche products and the armies have been sold off on the bring & buy or
languished at the backs of cupboards for 15 years. Warband is an opportunity to
use those figures, by simply sabot basing them on 100x50mm bases.
This is my second game using the rules. Richard’s army is his old Warmaster undead army re-based for
Warband. Most of the undead units had been upgraded with the regenerate ability
which allowed them to rapidly recover damage. I used his Taurian army consisting mostly of Centaurs with
Orc allies. The miniatures are from Pendraken.
I put the orcs on my left, hoping to put a mass of solid
melee troops against his flank which contained his missile troops before I advanced
my centre into that missile fire. The orcs took so long to get there that the battle
was half over by the time they got into action and they were too late.
On my right I used light troops to harass and contain more
valuable enemy units. Having damaged the enemy with missile fire I tried to
finish them off in melee. But they soon regenerated and rallied. I attacked an
enemy flank and was in turn charged in my flank and destroyed. They other unit
was repeatedly charged and pushed back to the centre of the table before being
destroyed.
I had my light troops shooting at the enemy in the centre
while I waited for the orcs before charging in the centre, but the undead were
recovering damage almost as fast as I inflicted it. With the fight underway on
the right I decided to commit the main body in the centre. I ended up putting my missile troops in as well to avoid having one unit fighting two enemies, this turned out to be a mistake.
I had scored innumerable hits on the bolt throwers but they
were very fortunate in their rallying roles. In the centre I kept sending the
centaurs back in. They have 2 melee dice to the skeletons one, but they lose
one due to fear and the skeletons were often gaining extra dice from the necromancer.
Richard’s magic user was constantly boosting the units
around him, giving them extra motivation dice and combat dice, it was a major asset.
Eventually most of my
units in the centre were routing or destroyed and the game was over with only
one undead unit destroyed if I remember correctly.
I like Warband, though I prefer Sword and Spear Fantasy. I’ll
be digging my old Warmaster Chaos army out of the loft and sabot basing for Warband.
