Quest for Stillmania: Stillmanicvs Crosses the Alps

 

What's that you say?  You didn't realize there was so much Stillmania in White Dwarf?  I can honestly say I didn't either.  As we do though the more we research the more we find.
This article with accompanying snippets are from WD 206, WD 210, and WD 216.

Oh you just stumbled upon all this Stillmania, well you better get caught up.

Essential Stillmania reading: The Quest for Stillmania, and the interview with Nigel Stillman himself.

Okay caught up...good. ;)

First up the Stillmania abroad article, where Nigel and a few of the other staffers including the Perry Twins visit a game convention in Italy.  It's mostly an over view of the trip.  However towards the end of the article is what is was intriguing to me. 

(For some reason this scanned a bit funny, it is still readable when blown up, but the text is a bit fuzzy. Just letting you all know, that yes I know. )

He summarizes a battle report that was fought over the weekend. What is interesting is his comments on tactics...did you catch it.  Go reread real quick.  Ya he starts talking about the Roman Legions and some other brief tactical ideas.

Then we have a couple more tactical snippets that were sprinkled through out several other White Dwarfs that I have collected here for you, as well as the thought of the day above.

 

Decisive scenarios where the focus is on completing the scenario then fighting a slugfest in the middle to the last man, which we so often do.  Don't act like you don't....LOL ;) 

 You know even in 2016 he is right!  I've been guilty of this.  I've really been giving some thought to my initial deployments.  I am going to try and strive to think more tactically instead of gamically if that makes sense.

 The above is the one that finally drove me to action.  I had read over this battle report several times, gleaning as much info as I could.  When I had gleaned as much as I could I thought, hey why don't you ask him about it yourself...

So some more scrolls have been located and I thought I would share...

Stillmanicvs,


I had been studying the scrolls of late, and needed some further deciphering.  From the glyphs I gather that you played Bretonnians.  However the glyphs on some of the other scrolls uncovered were to worn to decipher.  I was hoping you could shed some light.

I was wondering what your favorite armies were to play, and what they consisted of along the lines of Stillmania?

I'm not sure if you got pigeonholed by doing things for in Studio or if you had the freedom to create or own personal armies?  Like you I really enjoy small armies.  I prefer games between 500-1500 points, 1000 point armies being my favorite.

I noticed in a couple articles that you preferred to deploy your armies in successive lines.  Trying out other tactics against many and varied armies, what were some of your favorites to try?  Anyway this scrolls is getting brittle, better send it before it disintegrates.


Cheers,


Thomohawk
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Hi Thomohawk the Mighty

I had several armies at GW which were often created while I was working on an army list book and so were the first such armies to exist.  They included prototype models and were used to playtest the army list and associated rules.  Most notable of these was the Lizardman army, created in collaboration with Rik as it was  his original idea entrusted to me to develop.  I bought dinosaur models and created conversions. Another army developed in this way was Wood Elves where I created the Dryads as prototype models among others.  Other armies developed like this were Tomb kings, Dogs of War, Bretonnians and Man o War ships for the first game.  I did not keep any of these armies, but probably should have.  I had a Bretonnian army and I may be able to regain some of it from friends whom I gave it to.  My favourite armies were Wood Elf, Lizardman and Bretonnian.  We often also playtested with Imperial and Orcs, Dwarfs and High Elf.

Tactically I think Lizardman is the best.  Skink wave attacks supported by Saurus were effective. I like tactics of successive lines as used by Romans and Byzantines, but the reserve line needs to be far enough back not to be affected if the enemy break through the first line.  If enemy outflank first line; reserve line gets them. Another tactic I like is to hit hard on one flank (where the enemy best troops are) and halt it or damage it or if lucky demolish it, then with a following reserve, swing round and hit the centre.  Chinese ideas from SunTzu behind this.

Practicality and desire to have room to move on the battlefield always leads me to opt for smaller armies.

Glyphs fading in sunlight, returning to crypt now,

Stillmanicvs
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So there you have it!  I've finally got my chaos army set to the 1000 points-ish that it will stay at.  So now I really need to start focusing on tactics, now that all my list testing is done.

I like the ideas of successive lines, though with most of my force with a movement of 6" not sure how this is going to work.  Also my chaos dwarfs moving at 3" never seem to make it into the fight.
I am trying to decide how to make better use of them tactically.

Nigel has definitely given me some food food for thought.  I will get a chance to test these new ideas and tactics in less then 60 days at Oldhammer Weekend USA!

Oct 1 at 1 PM to Oct 2 at 9 PM in EDT @

Huzzah Hobbies 44927 George Washington Blvd, Ashburn, Virginia 20147

I will of course let you all know how it goes with comic reports and blogposts.  ;)