"Ancients Rulesets: Are You Satisfied?" Topic

Have you found the ruleset(s) for Ancients that make you happy? Or are you still looking for something "better"?

Have you found the ruleset(s) for Ancients that make you happy?

Yes. Though the search continues …

Yes. Until the next one comes along.

Yes. But it has short comings, like allowing tanks to shoot through bocage. ;).
Rules we use without adaptation : 3
Rules we use with several changes : 96

I think I'm missing a set….I know I put it in the garage, with the Viking longships.

Yes, Commands and Colors Ancients and To the Strongest both scratch my itch!

Mollinary

Hail Caesar, I'm happy with it so far.

No.

I was happy with DBA for a long time, but eventually the geometry problems wore me out. I might be happy with DBA 3.0 (supposedly a lot of my issues have been fixed), but by now I'm so busy with other periods I just haven't gotten around to DBA.

I want a game that makes me feel like a general (not an accountant), resolves an entire battle in 1-2 hours, includes deployment issues and terrain considerations in the decision cycle, emphasizes player skill over luck, and scales well with multiple players. I am also specifically disinterested in tournaments or tournament style play; I want a game that will simulate a real battle reasonably well, and adapt to a campaign game.

I've enjoyed games of Impetus, Pulse of Battle, and Sword & Spear, and I'll play them when somebody else puts the game together, but all of them fall short of my criteria in some way(s). I thought Field of Glory had a lot of promise, but it turned out to be too intense and slow, and now it's just not popular around here. I'm told L'Art de la Guerre may meet my needs, but I have yet to try it.

- Ix

I am both happy and unhappy with DBA 3.0. I am happy with both the elimination of many of the geometry and historical issues… I feel however a few more tweaks are necessary for the historical issues.

Joe Collins

I am happy with WAB.

I'm happy with Armati 2.

I am very happy. I have WAB and Impetus and really am not looking for anything else.

I am happy with DBA and with my own set. Keen on trying "To the Strongest!" but I need to get a mat and have some actual time to setup a game!

Other than that, I am not searching.

I love Tactica. The other rule sets that I've tried just don't do it for me. Although I do enjoy Command and Colors with my friends. But that has the feel of playing a boardgame with miniatures instead of counters.

WAB was the best for me, sad that no new army lists are available and the mess they made with the last version. I do have to say I do not understand the whole DBA polemic since to me it is a form of chess.

DBA 3. As Yellow Admiral mentioned, a lot of the oddities have been removed, although honestly it never bothered us at our club, since we never would "exploit" the rules in the myriad of stupid ways some competitive gamers would do. We used common sense.

We have been playing DBA since it appeared. At one point it was virtually all we played for a few years, so at 2-3 games every Sunday, I've personally played (very conservatively) probably 400+ games of all the iterations of DBA through the years.

And all that being said, I think 3.0 is by far the best edition. It is much more fast moving and exciting, a variety of new troops have been introduced, the interactions are a bit more subtle. Some of the periods that were less than exciting – like Dark Ages England, or Classical Greek warfare – are actually interesting now.

I continue to be very happy with DBA. Starting with the original edition and now DBA 3. My main Criterion for liking any rules is whether I know how to play them or not. I know how to play DBA so no matter how "good" someone might think other rules to be, I will stay with DBA. If new rules are easier to play than DBA and give interesting results I might consider trying them. Every set I have read is much more complex than DBA for no additional value. So I continue to be happy with DBA :)

By the way, contrary to some, DBA is not a form of chess. Chess is much more complex and sterile in terms of how the battlefield looks.

No. DBA 3 is cute and all but I'd like something with a little more meat that makes me feel like a General. Much like Yellow Admiral is saying. I'm especially looking for a set of rules that lets me play Carrhae.

Happy with the Big Battle version of DBA.

Haven't enjoyed ancients since WRG 7 came along. I've tried many but none have been entertaining enough to make me buy or paint a single figure. I've bought a few rule sets because of endorsements of others, but none sustained my interest.

QILS works well for ancients. I'm happy.

I have been less and less satisfied with each successive rules set since Warrior/WRG 7th. I play both tournament and scenario games. I like detail, tactics, and am not much afraid of complexity. DBA, DBM, DBMM, WAB,FoG, and now ADLG each have their good points (if Tactica and Armati had good points they were well hidden from me; I found both insufferably tedious), but on the whole I would welcome a new set with greater depth and subtlety. Playability is great, but it's not Everything. I do confess I have not tried Hail Caesar or Impetus, ech of whichhas had its moment as flavor of the month on TMP.

Used to play Warrior. Then my brains began to run out of my ears, so I stopped!

I am very happy with Impetus and with Dux Bellorum.

Yes pretty happy though I will always enjoy trying out new sets …

Phil

Yes, DBA.

Yes,

Either Lost Battles, Big Battle DBA, or Commands and Colors Ancient depending on what I am looking for in a game.

Although I am waiting for Tactica 2!

My favored rules is Hail Caesar. It offers what I am looking for in an ancient game to play for fun, yet have rules that can bring about the historical elements I expect. It gives me the balance I am looking for.

I like DBA for tournament play and a quick and simple game. I favor it less for a historical feel. I agree some tweaks needed for some historical issues.

I am new to Impetus and have not played it much, like what I have seen so far, just not deep into it.

ADLG totally new to me. Similar to DBA, just a bit more complicated.

So comes down for me I like Hail Caesar for historical games, solitaire play, and games for fun. I like DBA for tournament play and simple and quick games. Both fill different roles for me.

I should've added Dux Bellorum to my comment. Very nice set of rules too.

So mine are WAB, Impetus and Dux Bellorum.

I use the same set for fantasy, medieval, and ancients – Two Hour Wargames "Rally Round the King" which works for me since I think too many games allow micro-management of the battle.

Very happy with DBMM.

Cheers,
JohnG

So far I am really liking Sword and Spear, it is simple, plays relatively quickly, about 3 to 4 hours for a large battle and the dice mechanic really works well for simulating the ebb and flow of battle. I have never played it but I am also wanting to try the original Tactica. I have the rules but no armies based for it.

Long been happy with DBA, still happy with 2.2+ Amendments.
Would be happier still with it written in standard English.

3.0 adherents claim that one has better English than it might have, but it still hurts my brain trying to parse the amount of Barkerese it does have.

Surprised there are still a few people playing WAB. I loved WAB, one of my favorite games. Of all the crap that GW has pulled, killing WAB is probably the one that hurts the most.

I also enjoy DBA, and still like Might of Arms. Too bad no one plays ancients/medievals anywhere near me. It's all solo gaming for me…

Damon.

Love Impetus!

I enjoy DBA 3.0, both regular & BBDBA. Am also enjoying ADLG, which has some similar gaming mechanisms to DBA, but with some good original ideas of it's own.

I still prefer the attack weapon vs defensive armor combat. While I used to prefer counting hits, I now prefer the whole and half losses for castings on the stand. The system if Supreme Warlord, blood lust tactical rules. Very pleased with the play tests a few years ago.

For our group, WRG 6th Ed. has been the ruleset of choice since it came out. Those of us who haven't been playing it quite that long need the chart enlarged since we (the newer ones) don't have it memorized!

Yeh, there's a lot of "accounting", but other rules that I've played at cons seem to be missing something (or a lot, for that matter).

Perry

(hoping someone will make a smartphone app that uses a picture taken of the game every turn to calculate factors….)

Loved DBA till 3.0. A great community fractured. Oh well, lots of WW2 and modern micro armor to take up my gaming time. I am interested in giving Art de La Guerre a whirl….as well as To the Strongest. I even thought of converting Tactica to using one stand to represent a unit and converting the bucket of d6 to percentile rules…..speed it up. Larger stands of massed 6mm ancients would look great!

Yes, we seem to have been happily playing CnC Ancients for some years now, despite a brief foray with Neil Thomas. I imagine something else will come along at some point.

Recently returned to Ancient gaming after being a happy weekly player of WRG6th back I the olden Days. Those fun Neil Thomas rules brought me back now I realise I'm looking for something to give me the same fun as WRG 6th but with out the headaches.
Just started Hail Caesar and are enjoying them enough to order a new army.

Yes, for now…. I am really happy with War and Conquest. It takes WAB that little bit further. Also after the rule book all army lists are free online meaning i can dabble with different lists when that new range of plastics have been produced.
Then for smaller scale games really enjoy DBA (again plenty of lists), though i did enjoy FoG for a while, but found the community for it far more closed to new blood than other games.

Tried dozens.
Until I tried Dux Brittaniarum and never looked any further for that particular era. Brilliant!

Still looking for good Biblical set though.

My group is very happy with armati 2. I suspect we could be even happier with civitates bellantes – it ticks all the boxes that yellow admiral suggested are important, and I agree with him. However we only played it a couple of times and I need to exlpore it more before it can dethrone armati

Nope – resorted to writing my own and I'm not keen on them either …

Yellow Admiral – if you want a fast playing army level game, you might want to look at 'To the Strongest'

I'm pretty happy with several ancient sets, and use them according to scenario and mood:
DBA, Field of Glory, Sword & Spear and To the Strongest are all good sets. Dux Brit and Saga are excellent for Dark Age skirmishes.
DBMM is also good, but I find it's a set you need to play regularly as otherwise I forget half the rules.

Happy with Big Battle DBA or Hail Caesar (depending on scale).

Sort of. Face to face I have played, and still enjoy Armati 2. For solo play, I wrote my own (Ancient Battlelines Clash) as I wanted a very fast chaotic ruleset and I did not find one I was entirely happy with. I am fairly happy with it for fast solo play.

I am also quite taken with Mighty Armies Ancients although it leans more to a game then I really like…but it is so much fun and so fast!

The search does still continue but not as fast as it used to. I am sure there are more rules I will really like – I am especially looking forward to trying out ADLG.

As far as i'm concerned, To the strongest! is the rule that ticks pretty much all of my criteria (one of them being clear positioning of troops thanks to the use of grid).

Currently my own choice would be Sword & Spear. I also happily play DBA and Command and Colors for shorter games.

Makes me realize just how fractured Ancient gaming is today. I remember the days when WRG was so dominate that one could play with people from around the world. Hated the rules but did appreciate their universal nature.