"Fantasy, Ancient & Medieval Battles " Topic

I've been doing some re-writing of the wargames rules I've been working on :Fantasy, Ancient & Medieval Battles.
The rules are now in the playtesting stage, so are playable and available for free. I'd be interested in hearing any views on them and I'd be keen on getting any other playtesters to play some games and give me feedback.
We played a few playtest games last year, both with historical armies and fantasy armies. Since then I have completely re-written the combat system (mainly to speed things up by making combat more deadly), as well as tidied the rules up generally and removed a few things to speed up play. We've played one playtest game with the current version of the rules, and will be playing another this week. I'll post some photos of the playtest game later so you can see the look of the game.
The basic mechanisms seem to work and they gave good games.
The rules cover large battles in the standard Ancient & Medieval period as well as Fantasy battles. The aim has been to get the correct results for historical interactions, then add the fantasy elements to hopefully cover all types of fantasy games.
To give an idea of the kind of game to expect, my main influences are FOG, DBA and Impetus. You might like these rules if :
You like DBA but want more detail and variety, and want attritional losses.
You like Impetus but want more manoeuvre and more command and control restrictions.
You like FOG but don't like the complexity and lengthy games, and want more command and control restrictions.
You like any of the above and want to play fantasy games.
The rules require figures to be multi based on equal frontage bases, so the standard WRG/DBX basing works fine. Most units consist of 4 bases, and all units are two bases wide.
The aspect that makes these rules unique, IMO, is the command and control system. It is a variant of the alternate activation system, where each player randomly picks numbered chits which he places by each unit at the start of each turn. These determine the order in which the units are activated. On average each player only gets enough chits to activate half his units. So decisions have to be made about which units to activate and when they will be activated. When a unit is activated it does everything – moving, shooting, combat. So there is no turn sequence to remember and work through. Both players are involved throughout the turn.
The combat system uses opposed polyhedral dice rolls, with situational factors changing the type of dice rolled. However, rather than rolling one dice each (which can give widely varying results and is very unpredictable), each side in a combat rolls two (or occasionally more) dice, matches them up against the opponents two dice (best vs best, 2nd vs 2nd) and the outcomes determine the results of the combat.
I don't like having to refer to charts and tables during a game, and you rarely need to in this game. In fact in our second playtest game I think I referred to the rulebook once and the QRS about twice. So it is a game that can be quickly learned and memorised. Playing time is about 2 hours or less for a game with about 12 units on each side.
The rules are available on the Yahoo Group –
link
Or I would be happy to e-mail a copy to anyone who is interested.
All feedback gratefully appreciated.

I wanted to read this but it looked like too much work.

Thanks for sharing. I just joined and downloaded the rules and look forward to reading them.

Good stuff Mark. Questions on placing counters.

I presume you initially place the counters face down and turn them all up at the beginning of the turn?

You have enough counters for half of your units to move. What happens when you get units routed/destroyed? Does your counter go down? Example: The army starts with 6 counters (12 units). Later it is educed to 8 units so that means only 4 counters this turn?

If question 2 is yes, do you randomly remove the counters or remove the highest numbered counters?

Still looking but the rules look promising.

John

Yes, you place them face down by the units and turn them all over when they have all been placed.

You don't need to remove any counters from the bag when units are routed. Each turn you just pick the number of counters according to how many units plus leaders you have remaining.

You don't automaticaly get enough to activate half your units. You draw one counter per unit from a bag, and this bag consists of one numbered counter per unit and leader at the start of the game (total for both sides) plus an equal number of "No Action" counters. So on average you will get enough to individually activate half of your units.

JJ – I've sent you a copy of the rules

Note that when these rules are finalised (after some more playtesting, especially relating to the points system), I will release a version called Ancient & Medieval Battles, which has all the Fantasy rules removed. So purely Ancients and Medieval gamers will be able to use these rules without any fantasy elements cluttering up the rules (or offending their sensibilities :)).

I am also intereted in what you have done..

e-mail is

dervel (at) chartermi (dot) net

Why doesn't it feel right ?

In the orders phase you pick a number of chits equal to the number of units you have. Approximately half will be numbered, the rest are "No Action" chits. You decide which units you want to activate and in what order and place a chit face down next to every unit. When both players have placed all their chits they are all turned face up. Units are then activated in turn, starting with the lowest numbered chit and working upwards.

That doesn't feel right, but I'll be interested to see it in action.

That was my impression at first. However, after reading through the rules, I've found that there is opportunity to use leaders to gain some advantage by switching initiative.

Further more, there is a way for leaders to move more than once. A unit moves with leader attached. Then the leader activates and moves away and attached to another unit. Finally that other unit activates and moves with the leader.

I am pleasantly surprised at the simplicity of the rules and what they can accomplish. I have a bunch of fantasy elements waiting to get on the battlefield. I have at least enough to do an AMW sized (8 units) game.

Hi Marshal Mark, I'm interested too. My email is bestbandis (AT) yahoo (DOT) co (DOT) nz

Cheers,
Aaron

I'm in too please Marshal. Send me a copy at TooMuchLeadMike at gmail dot com.
Thx.

Here's what the game looks like (Photos from two different games, both Medieval Humans vs Orcs) :

More pictures are here :

link