Warrior Clinic #4.

1 – Temporary Fortifications

[This is a revised version of the originally published Clinic #4, which was found to have
minor errors]
From the ditched palisade of a Roman camp to a Pecheneg wagon laager to the sharpened stakes
of the longbowmen at Agincourt, ancient and medieval armies often made use of various and sometimes
quite ingenious methods of bolstering a defensive position. These methods are represented in Warrior by
temporary fortifications.

What’s in a name?

Warrior recognizes two types of fortifications – temporary and permanent. Permanent

fortifications are not included in the Warrior rulebook and all information covering their deployment, use
and effects will be contained in Siege Warrior.
Temporary fortifications (TF) are also sometime referred to as field defenses, field fortifications or
temporary field fortifications. These terms are completely interchangeable.

What are the options?

There are two basic types of TF: those that are obstacles, those that are both obstacles and cover
from shooting.
Often, TF have additional restrictions to their placement or other characteristics.

TF that are Obstacles: Additional Characteristics

Ditch Cannot be placed in woods, defender counts higher.
Abatis or plashing Must be in woods feature.
Strung Chains Portable. Must be between two fighting transport/artillery elements.

TF that are Obstacles and Cover:

Wagon laager -
Ditched palisade Cannot be placed in woods, defender counts higher
Stone wall -

What are Portable Obstacles?

Portable Obstacles are man-made or controlled items that act as obstacles but are not Temporary
Fortifications.
Stakes, emplaced chains and tethered animals are portable obstacles. Which body is carrying
them is written down at the start of the game. Positioning or removing them takes a COMPLETE approach
or counter move and prevents preparatory shooting by the body employing them. Note that chains that are
positioned (strung) by a troop element between two elements of deployed fighting transport and/or artillery
are TFs, but chains emplaced separately are obstacles only.

Portable Obstacles
(can be defended, but are NOT TFs)
Emplaced Chains Portable. Not fixed on either end.
Stakes Portable.
Tethered animals Portable.

What are Portable Hazards?

 Caltrops and spiked pavises are portable hazards. They are carried, positioned and removed in the
same way as portable obstacles.
Hazards are neither obstacles nor TFs. They act to increase an attacker’s casualties in a charge.

Hazards:
(are not obstacles or TFs)
Pits -
Caltrops, spiked pavises Portable.

How do TF affect movement?

TF that are obstacles affect movement in the same manner as natural obstacles. That is:

 Obstacles of all kinds are impassable to wheels.

 A tactical move crossing an obstacle is reduced. See 6.11 for the effect on each troop type.
 A march segment crossing an obstacle is reduced to 120p unless LI (6.2).
 Troops must stop movement until next bound if they:
o reach an obstacle after exceeding permissible very rough area move distance
o reach an obstacle within a very rough area.
o reach a second obstacle.

In addition to the above, mounted troops cannot cross TF that are obstacles (unless they have been
destroyed – more on that later). Foot can cross TF only in column unless they originally charged troops
defending them. Crossing means to move past the edge of the TF onto the ‘other side’ in the case of
plashing, wagon laager, strung chains or stone walls and into any part of the TF for other TFs that are
obstacles.

Hazards do not affect movement.

How do TF affect troop state?

Movement across any undefended TF that is an obstacle disorders close formation troops. Close
formation troops attacking enemy defending plashing, wagon laager, strung chains or stone walls are not
disordered by the TF until they have forced the defenders to recoil and followed-up. Close formation
troops attacking enemy defending other TF that are obstacles are disordered by these on entering combat.
Hazards do not affect troop state.

How do TF affect combat?

If troops charge enemy defending TF, there are several possible combat effects.

 If the TF counts as an obstacle, the friendly troops may become disordered. See above.

 If the TF counts as an obstacle, the friendly troops receive the –2 tactical factor in hand to
hand for fighting to cross a defended obstacle.

 If the TF counts as a hazard, the enemy troops receive a +1 tactical factor if the friendly
troops are mounted and charging this bound.

 Troops defending a ditch count as on higher ground.

 The TF may be of a type that provides cover to shooting.

Who can have TF?

 Temporary Fortifications are only allowed to armies who have them explicitly permitted in their
army list. The cost of TF is shown in 17.2 (only) to permit those doing their own army list development a
reference. IF your army is allowed TF, you may either purchase them in your original list, or buy them
after terrain positioning (14.3). The points replace an equal value of troops already chosen and
compulsory troops can be replaced in this way by an equivalent point value of TF. The cost of TF does not
include troops to man them.

What are Mantlets?

Mantlets are portable cover. They are positioned in the same way as portable obstacles, but do not
reduce movement to recover them. They must be recovered to move. They do not count as cover unless
positioned.

Deploying TF

Unless otherwise expressly permitted by an army list, non-portable TF may only be deployed in
the player’s rear zone. This applies to any game using the competition battles rules of 14.0. In an historical
scenario, TF’s may deploy as the scenario designer sees fit.
Note that placement of immobile TFs must abide by the terrain positioning rules of 14.31.  For this
purpose, open spaces are still considered to be in place through deployment. Note that abatis and plashing
MUST be deployed in a woods feature.
TF often come in six element sections. Each such section must be deployed with each element
touching another of the same TF section. You may deploy less than 6 elements in a section if you like.

TF and Elephants

Stakes, chains and tethered animals are NOT obstacles to elephants. Elephants moving or fighting
across these do not suffer any of their effects.

Incendiaries

Incendiary missiles (flaming arrows) may be purchased for any troops armed with B or LB if the
enemy’s army list provides the ability to purchase temporary fortifications – whether some are actually in
the list or not.

Shooting at TFs

An artillery body or a body equipped with incendiaries that has no target closer in arc than a
wooden TF (palisade, abatis, plashing, wagon laager) may choose to shoot at the TF. This may be done in
one of two ways.
 shoot at the TF as a whole
 shoot at one or more individual elements of the TF

If shooting at the TF as a whole, the section counts as 5 figure equivalents for each element in the
section.
If shooting at individual elements, each element shot at must be in the arc of each element
shooting and each element shooting must shoot at the TF element closest to it – shooting player’s choice if
target elements are equidistant. Each element counts as 5 figures for casualty calculations.
A wooden TF section or element that receives 4 CPF from artillery or incendiaries is destroyed.

And all this is temporary?

While this may seem like a lot of information, remember this is because Warrior seeks to give the
players the maximum options across 4500 years of military history. Most games will not contain TF on
either side, and those that do will typically only have one type on one side. Simply check for the effects of
that TF type on the game and play on!