"Aurelian...a fresh approach to Ancient gaming" Topic

The one thing that Sam Mustafa does well is indepth historical research in to his games…this is a new one that will soon be available…very different from most Ancient games and well worth a look even if you have no miniatures:)

I've played many rulesets and these certainly seem a nice new step in the development of ancient gaming:)

link

Paul

Actually have the armies featured in the game, which is a first!

Will be using single bases from existing units, rather than making up new single base Impetus style ones so I'm good to go!

The beauty about the game is that it can be played with all scales and base sizes…and even if you have no miniatures and want to try out an exciting period in Roman history:)

I'm really looking forward to this one.

Also kind of interested to know more.

Timmo,

Try this:

link

Thank you.

How many units to a typical army?

The plain vanilla scenario had around 10 per side, I think.

Looks interesting. We have played Longstreet and enjoy it. I own and have read Blucher and it is looks like a good game. I was never really interested in playing the latter as I much prefer the flavour of battalion level games, but I am interested in Mustafa's design approaches.

The sample pages on the Website would suggest slightly bigger armies, around 15 – 20 stands/units for pick up games with card decks of 32 cards per side.

This would make the card requirement about the same as the average Longstreet game. Game play looks like an enhancement of Longstreet with the single stand unit approach of Blucher, to reflect an army level game rather than Longstreet's Battalions

I absolutely loved the campaign material in Longstreet. Although I've not yet had time to play Blucher, my friends absolutely swear by it so this all bodes very well!

On the Meeples and Miniatures podcast Sam stated that PSC will be producing a boardgame version of Aurelian as a seperate product to the minis game. Very intriguing…

One thing I forgot to mention and had to go back and check on, is that the game system is dice free.

Yes you read that. Its not played with dice.

There is a random number system included in the card deck in which players have to risk a value on one of the cards in their hand, plus relevant modifiers, against their opponents score and this gives the result of combat or shooting on a difference between the scores basis.

Its a nice touch as you may have a high value card you want to play in combat that has other traits in the game play that you might need elsewhere. Do you go for the big win or play a long game and use the card for another reason?

Could be interesting and you can't blame rubbish dice rolls any more boys!

Yeah … I got to that point in the podcast and could feel my eyes rolling back in my head all the way back to the 3rd century. ;)

Nice one CAT!

Having no dice is a major selling point for me.

After playing with the same gang for over twenty years it will be worth it not to hear them bitch over their, or someone else's, dice rolling!

Maybe like Kingmaker? Pick a card with the odds ratio on it? Your gang won't complain about dice rolls, but might complain about card pulls… :)

I have been looking forward to this release. An interesting time period to war game. A lot of conflict and possibilities. This game adds a campaign element that can carry the action far and wide.

So from reading each element is 1000 men, and has a threat factor, which can be modified by your armies training value and other special cards that are dealt from the deck.

No shooting resolution
No hand to hand resolution

Combat is worked out by cards with the difference being the cohesion/ combat effectiveness lost by the unit attacking or receiving a threat.

Is that correct?

@ bluewillow:

Check out the sample Chapter 2 download. Each element is around 500 men and has an elan value which is used as a modifier in combat. I guess other games might call this something like "combat factor."

I'm not sure what you mean by no shooting or hand to hand resolution. There is shooting and hand to hand, only not using dice to determine the outcome. That's where the cards come in. Loosing units gain disruption until they break.

The 'Sarmation' army list increases the attraction for my group: although we have plenty of Germans courtesy of a past infatuation with Dux Bellorum, no one has actual Sarmations – but then, thanks to the broadness of the list, we don't need any; all we need to do is acquire more German cavalry and we've got this 'faction' covered.

On the downside the list is perhaps so broad as to be too permissive to accurately represent all the armies covered, so it's probably best used in conjunction with lists from other, more traditional rules to fine-tune particular armies.

bluewillow,

The card decks are multi purpose. There's a number for each combatant (Roman, Sassaniad, Germanic and Sarmatian) plus a number of cards common to all.

The cards have various actions or counter actions on them and values for rallying units and a number value that's used in combat or for shooting etc.

The player selects a card to play in the combat for its number value and when this is revealed, along with his opponents and modified by any relevant factors, the higher score wins.

The a lot of these cards are one time use only, so the army will gradually loose its force and cohesion the longer the battle goes on. You can't just chuck in all your high value cards in the first few combats as you will be losing the other features on the cards if you do.

Players have to juggle what feature on the card to use and if a card is played to soon it may give short term advantage but won't be there for one of its other features later in the game.

Its a rather neat way of representing how armies of the period wore themselves out the longer the battle went on as you gradually lose ability and combat power over time.

Anyone who has seen or played "Longstreet" by the same author will slip into these rule in no time – although having said that it looks like they will require even more thought from the players this time round.

The feel of the game is very different from most Ancient games and the fatigue of the armies is well reflected if you over use your resources in hand (pardon the pun)…

Paul