"Best Ancients Rules for 15mm Tournament Play?" Topic

In your opinion, which rules are the best for competition play using 15mm figures?

Armati, hands down!

Mighty Armies Ancients

IMO. the best Ancient Rules for 15mm tournament play is a set of rules that actually have tournaments at major conventions. In the US, the only ancients tournaments that you'll see consistently at most conventions is DBA, followed maybe by FOG (which is on the decline).

DBA

Games are not size-specific, of course … but nobody much plays at events using 28mm (except events organised or hosted by people who sell 28mm figures): so 15mm is it by default.

Also so good:
Armati
Field of Glory (still has some support)
DBM (same)
Art de la Guerre (so I'm told)

Phil

DBA. Rounds can be completed in about an hour, so you can fit a whole tournament into a single afternoon.

In my opinion the best rules for tournament play are both DBA and DBMM.

DBA when you only have a day to finish the tournament, DBMM when you are playing for 2 or more days.

The things that make them suitable are that they have well developed terrain choosing mechanisms, points systems (DBMM), scoring systems, an extensive and well researched set of army lists, and have a long pedigree for tournament play.

But, for me, the best thing about them is that they are so much fun. True that DBMM is much more detailed than DBA, but if you want a game that can keep you busy and excited for 2 to 3 hours, DBMM does that. DBA is perfect if you only have an hour or less.

Cheers,
JohnG

Good rules are not size ("Scale" to some) dependent.

Another unanswerable poll suggestion because there are no "facts" involved.

What is available in the USA may not be known in the UK and vice versa.

It seems thd assumption is that "tournament" fixates on "ancient" period historical genre games only.

DBA

Commands & Colors: Ancients is the best tournament set for me. In truth though it's mostly played online or using the board game itself so it probably doesn't really count as a 15mm game.

Impetus. Beats the snot out of anything DBA or FOG.

Easy to learn, easy to play, looks better on the table.

V/R

Tournaments? DBA – lots of players and it's been used for tournaments for years. Before DBA – WRG of course.

DBA. Probably any flavor. It's fast. It's got a low entry cost. Board and terrain are inexpensive. For tournament play, the armies are set. very little in the way of min-maxing. DBA 3.0 has gone a long way to correct some of the disparity between elements from previous versions.

I second platypus. If you want a 1 day all in – then DBA – you can easily run 6 rounds, and everyone will have fun. Larger scale, the DBMM2 rules work really well. Impetus, Armati etc all have a lot of problems that make games past deployment problematic. FoG:AM is dead, it's dull, too predictable and too many markers.

AdG might be of interest, DBM 3.2 also – but in my opinion, DBM 3.2 is too predictable, and AdG hasn't been play-tested to destruction yet (and is also hugely derivative..)

Wow, not much of a troll-inducer, this, right? The best rules are the ones you like and can find ooponents for. I've played a lot of DBA, DBM, FoG and others. Currently I am playing ADLG, mainly because it's popular and eaasy toget games. "Best" is a word you use on TMP only when you want to start a fight.

I have good and bad experiences with tournaments over the years.

The best have been with DBA which generally draw those players who are less focussed on winning. The worse with other Ancient rule sets which I won't name as I think it had more to do with the players. When combined with being able to play several opponents in a single day means the only Ancients competition I would consider is DBA.

DBA in my humble opinion

Nikator, Adults should be able to avoid/ignore the trolls. Immature and the young not so much.

"Best Tournament Rules" and "Your Favorite Rules" are different questions.

i.e. for Best 28mm Sci-Fi Tournament Rules my vote would be a toss-up between 40K or Warmachine based on the large numbers of people who continually play in these tournaments over the years. I don't play either game, and neither would come close to 'My Favorite', but I would have to vote them the best for tournaments because of the availability of finding tournies and players.

For 15mm Ancients, at least here on the East Coast of N.A., that would be DBA (which I do play) for the same reasons. At the big HMGS-E cons, many other 15mm Ancients rules' tournies have come and gone over the years while DBA still has a solid presence for about a quarter century now!

@Mute Bystander- I agree in principle. I've seen a LOT of nasty threads started this way, however; so have you.

I love Ancients tournaments. I enjoy the competition, the comraderie, the pretty toys, the variety of armies, the weird things people try, the whole thing, including the dinner afterwards where you get a large table full of gamers all of whom think they would have won if not for bad dice. My favorite rules for 15mm Ancients are still Warrior, but nobody near me has been willing to play it for many years. Currently, all I have to do is learn to enjoy ADLG (not a bad set) and I get to enjoy tournaments.

I understand why other people hate tournaments. I acknowledge their criticisms. I don't care; it's what I like.

DBA and ADLG ("L'Art de la Guerre")

Here are a couple vids that look at each:

Full video review of DBA v3

A look at L'Art de la Guerre rules. Not a full review, but a look at the rulebook along with comments regarding some aspects of play.

Armati ,ngames are quick and you get a winner. adBaa are quicker, but not muchbspectacle.nDBMmand ZfoG are bedevilled by being too long for a tournament game and thus very often ending in a draw.
So Armati has the best combination of size of game and rapidity and certainty of outcome.

Impetus.

For me it is DBA. The big plus is the rules flow well and you can complete a game in an hour. Four rounds can get done in a morning or afternoon. I find my attention span drifting after a game goes about three hours, so getting a game done in a hour then on to the next is a real plus for me.

Used to be DBA 2.2….now with 3.0 I am looking for alternatives….perhaps L'Art de la Guerre might be worth a look?