WAB is based on Warhammer Fantasy Battle 5th Edition, with a few new rules like Fall Back In Good Order (units that outnumber their opponents by more 2:1 in combat don't flee from a lost combat, they withdraw gracefully instead) and Massed Archery (units with archers in the rear ranks can fire at enemy using half the number of models).

The big thing for me is that most of your troops are Toughness 3! Characters and some elite units are T4, but you pay the points for those. Also, no stupidly powerful magic weapon combinations, which means you don't get uber-characters or units of Instant Death unbalancing the game. You learn very quickly that small units of cavalry will not run over a big unit of infantry like they aren't there. (Edit - WAB 2.0 has made cavalry a bit more useful, as they are not march-blocked by infantry, and so can get to the flanks easier). This means that for the bulk of the army choices, infantry is king. There are exceptions, like Steppe Nomads, Huns, Byzantines and lance-armed Normans.

I have chosen to do a Rus list, for a couple of reasons: one, it's bit off the beaten track, and makes a nice change from the normal Roman, Greek, Sassinid Persians,  etc lists; two, as my wife is Russian, I have developed an interest in the area (Lena is from Volgograd), and already have WW2 Russians in 10mm, and will get eventually a Rus list for Warmaster Ancients.

Anyway, enough twaddle! Here are my current lists, which are still in development as I learn the rules and how the army plays:

Pagan Rus (750 - 950 AD)

2000 points

Era of the Princes Rus (950 - 1100 AD)

2000 points

Pictures are here.

Battle Reports (very brief ones!)

29/07/2009 v Vikings (1200)

First outing last night - a bit of a disaster really! I never got to grips with Toby's infantry, and my skirmishers were fairly ineffective. My shooting and combat dice were a bit pants as well, with the only thing I was good at was leadership tests!

The list as it stands needs some tweaking, to make it more viable. I also think that the Rus would benefit from bigger games i.e. 2000 points, as 1200 doesn't give you much!

Overall though, a good learning game, and once I've read and assimilated the rules, things can only get better!

03/08/2009 v Early Imperial Romans (1500)

Last night saw another victory to the mighty Rus!

I played Jerry, who had a scratch force of Early Imperial Romans consisting of (from memory):

General

2 x 20ish Raw Recruits

1 x 20ish Legionaries (Light?)

2 x 10 Archers (in skirmish formation)

2 small bolt throwers

1 big bolt thrower

I had the same list that I used against Jonny.

The first few turns were spend manoeuvring and skirmishers shooting at each other. I managed to chase off one unit of archers with my Nomad horse archers, then Jerry chased off and ran down my javelin armed skirmishers. My Voi (levies) failed a Warband test, and charged into combat with one of his Recruit units, and managed to hold their own, but were then charged in the flank, panicked, and fled 11", which left then on top of one of the Varjazi units, so they got moved further to get past them, resulting in a total flee distance of 19"

My cav had returned from off board (where they had ended up after running down the archers) and charged into one of the bolt throwers. Then followed the most dismal display of hand-to-hand combat I've every seen: the first two rounds no-one hit anybody (I had two cav in combat to Jerry's 2 crew), and the next three(?) rounds there was the occasional hit, but no wounds! My cav eventually panicked, due to having non-engaged models killed by missile fire!

My two Varjazi units eventually got a charge in on the legionaries and 1 unit of Recruits, and despite giving them a good shoe-ing, the Legionaires stuck around due to their Stubborn ability. Jerry found out the hard way that his general is not there for fighting, just to provide inspiration to the troops and to lead the Triumph back in Rome. Luckily he survived the challenge!

Overall a good game, but there are still a few rules and quirks that need remembering, like all missile armed troops can Fire and Flee, Romans have heavy throwing spears, which give the first 2 ranks of unit S4 in the first round of combat - very useful!

As Jerry's list was a quickly cobbled together one, it probably wasn't a good reflection of the strengths of the Roman list, and as I had cav and he didn't, I had the edge on mobility. His dice weren't kind either (he was using mine, so they may have been biased )

(Post Script - in his haste to get a list together, Jerry only had 1000 points worth, which makes my victory a little hollow! I only found this out about 3 days later...)

10/08/2009 v Wessex Saxons

Well, after my two weeks of wins, I was bought firmly back down to earth by getting a good slapping from Scotty's Saxons! 1500 points gets you a lot (162 models!) of Saxons!

Scott's Saxons:

3 Eoldermen

32 Ceorls + mus, std

7 Huscarls + ldr

28 Ceorls- leader

12 Thegns + mus, standard

28 Ceorls + mus, std

12 Thegns+ leader

10 Thegns on Horses, ldr, mus

10 Geburs, slings

10 Geburs, slings

10 Geburs, javs

It did take him 6 turns to do it, but I had lost everybody by the beginning of Scott's 6th turn, due to my unit of Voi breaking from combat in my 6th turn. This caused my general's unit to panic and get run down (they were also in combat, as was my other unit of infantry). The demise of my general caused the two remaining units to panic as well. Game over.....My light cavalry let me down as well. They successfully ran down a unit of slingers, but in a fit of enthusiasm pursued 15" straight into the side of a big block of infantry, lost combat, broke, and never recovered! Ah well....

One potentially crucial thing I forgot was to put my two units of Varjazi into Shieldwall formation. This may have made quite a difference, as it could have reduced the casualty count, thus helping me in a second round of combat. Live and learn!

My list needs further tweaking, as the Voi having a combined formation doesn't really work, as it renders half the archers redundant. I'll probably drop the unit of javelin-armed skirmishers, and replace them with bow-armed ones instead.

Onwards!