"Coolest Thing About Ancients Wargaming?" Topic

What is the coolest thing about wargaming in the Ancients period?

Don't know, even I was not alive then…

OK – the cool variety of uniforms and shields,etc…

Elephants

Chariots

Well in 2mm my troops can look like armies,28000 Romans Vs 20000 Celts.On a 6' x 4' table that's cool.

Elephants are definitely cooler when you can deploy 120 of them.

Ditto Chariots except there's 120 heavy and 280 light ones.

Course I'm answering the " Coolest thing about 2mm Ancient Wargaming " topic ;)

That I no longer play (read that as "lose") ancients.

Alexander the Great.

DBA 3

Hoplites are both the coolest thing and the least cool thing about it.

Bronze and Corinthian helmets.

Men in skirts routinely beat men in trousers.

Xena the Warrior Princess.

You don't have to get rid of your troops just because the codex changed and you can't use them anymore.

the ice-period?

Elephants

The range of troop types and cultures makes fantasy gaming look dull by comparison.

Note for the hard of humour: this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek…

A block of Macedonian pike.

JohnG

Scythed chariots, burning pigs, anti-elephant carts, the helepolis, pikes, cataphract camels, and hearing the lamentations of der tiny lead vimen.

Thinking I might be any good as a general in the ancient period. The delusion continues

The plethora of rules!

In the time it's took to play my last game three new sets came out. We started playing Mace, by half time we had changed to Axe V2 but scrapped that for Scipio. After halftime I quickly read the 10,000 pages of Dull Swords but opted for the Broken Helms set which is so realistic……but I really want to write my own set for the period March to April, 567, so unique……

Cataphracts.

The variety of weapons systems. In some periods every infantryman has a similar musket and bayonet, but in ancients one side has pike and the other pila, or one side are hoplites and the other sparabara. It makes for interesting battles.

A large number of very different uniformed or un-uniformed armies that often have very different fighting methods. Being intrigued by a new army often causes me to study the people, culture, and times as well. Most enjoyable.

Hoplites!

Crushing a Phalanx Greek Army with a Roman Republican Legion and sacking a city afterwards.

Romans Seas Ram and Burn Regatta.

Ancients has masses of variety, colourful armies, colourful personalities, a number of fascinating evolutions in warfare and a good mix of combat and tactics. So what's fascinating about the broad period is all of it …

The rise and fall of empires … The hubris of Ramesses II .. The drama of Alexander and of the struggle between Hannibal and the Roman Republic. The discovery of new worlds and new peoples. The great sea battles … and the long decline of the later Romans.

Phil

The variety of troop types and combinations of these within armies, and the fact that most armies have lots of different historical opponents, so you get a huge variety of types of game. Also there is often a significant "rock-paper-scissors" element to the match-ups of troop types present in a battle, so there is something to manoeuvre for, and games aren't just about advancing to contact and rolling the best dice.

I 100% agree with Phil!

It makes the fantasy and SF games' background so shallow in comparison.

It is the hand to hand combat and the variety of armies to use. Also I like ancient history. Mike Adams

EVERYTHING!!!
Especially naked fanatics and counterfeit elephants!
Oh, and geeky Kalipanni carts with Elamite archers.
And Lydian war dogs, Thracian falxes and hybrid Babylonian spear and archer formations. Almost forgot Skythian cavalry and female Sarmation warriors!
Oh, and …… (This could take a while).
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

The history behind the army.

Roman armor that looks straight off the rack and warriors with graffiti on their shield.

Agree with the above… cataphracts and elephants are neat-o.

Lots and lots of different troop types.
And how to game with them, or how to stop them if used against you.

Yes, almost infinite variety in troop types, colours and formations. Many of the units for some armies provide the core troops for other armies, Carthaginian for instance. Similarly many troop types are 'generic' and can 'fill in' in many armies.

No lack of choices for troops, troops you can use in multiple armies without anyone complaining, heroic generals, more scenarios than you can count, hoplites are amazingly cool – and, my favourite, the iron hand of an early Imperial Roman legion

150,000 sun bronzed Italian men in loin cloths and sandals, what's not to like, baby.

I think…you're in the wrong…genre…my friend. Ha ha ha!

The sheer variety of troops.

Christopher

Romans – always has been the biggest draw for bringing gamers into Ancients.

Celts – Roman-smackers with chariots.

Carthaginians – Roman-smackers with elephants.

Greeks – more educated and more pointy sticks than Romans , self-smacking.

Egyptians – Yul Brynner with chariots.

Hittites – Egyptian-smackers with heavy chariots.

In seriousness, yes, Everything! And especially hoplites.

The Groupies?

Foundry Caesarians
link

For a genre I don't understand the appeal of, it's been going strong about as long as the hobby has existed, and that makes me happy for some reason. :)

It's all about the groupies:

and the diversity of armies in the age of muscle…

Chariots:

and of course elephants: