wryeone | 04 Apr 2017 11:01 p.m. PST |
I don't normally run Ancients battles, but I'm thinking of working up a "Greeks inflitrate Troy" Scenario featuring a certain wooden horse for a convention next year. What kind of ruleset might work to quickly resolve hand to hand combat between individual soldiers, where the troop types are fairly simple? I don't want to have to track individual hit points on 40 individuals, or let things get bogged down unnecessarily. More like – Greek with a sling tries to take out a Trojan sentry, can I quickly determine if will he succeed or not? What would you guys suggest? ( I mean, obviously i can homebrew, but why reinvent the wheel?) |
Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut | 05 Apr 2017 1:17 a.m. PST |
FiveCore 3rd edition for 5-15 models per side. Lion Rampant for larger games. |
Fish | 05 Apr 2017 1:28 a.m. PST |
I've been toying with tghe idea of using Force on Force on any era. This has already worked really well with WWII. Gun shooting vs bow/sling shooting is not really any different. |
advocate | 05 Apr 2017 2:27 a.m. PST |
Song of Blades and Heroes might work. |
Dexter Ward | 05 Apr 2017 3:24 a.m. PST |
Bows and slings are stopped by shields, unlike bullets. Song of Blades should work for small scale skirmishes. Saga would work too, if you picked suitable battleboards for the two sides. |
teboj17 | 05 Apr 2017 3:49 a.m. PST |
I third a Song Of Blades and Heroes. Maybe Warhammer Skirmish also |
kodiakblair | 05 Apr 2017 4:08 a.m. PST |
Swordplay from 2 hour wargames,simple system. The Greek would attempt to hit,Trojan gets hit or ducks back or tries to close,maybe he runs away. All dealt with by a couple of dice rolls. Best news is they are free. |
XRaysVision | 05 Apr 2017 4:22 a.m. PST |
You might want to check out Open Combat. Available through Warlord and other retailers. It's a simple, 1:1, generic pre-gunpowder skirmish. Having run many convention games, I can't stress enough how much participants appreciate *simple* rules. If you have to take up half your time slot explaining rules before the game and stop every turn to adjudicate odd situations, nobody--including oyu--will be having fun. Whatever rules you choose, and I think Open Combat would be a good choice, you will well to choose a very simple set. BTW, "simple" means easy for a newcomer to miniatures gaming, not a button counting gray-beard. |
XRaysVision | 05 Apr 2017 4:22 a.m. PST |
You might want to check out Open Combat. Available through Warlord and other retailers. It's a simple, 1:1, generic pre-gunpowder skirmish. Having run many convention games, I can't stress enough how much participants appreciate *simple* rules. If you have to take up half your time slot explaining rules before the game and stop every turn to adjudicate odd situations, nobody--including you--will be having fun. Whatever rules you choose, and I think Open Combat would be a good choice, you will well to choose a very simple set. BTW, "simple" means easy for a newcomer to miniatures gaming, not a button counting gray-beard. |
XRaysVision | 05 Apr 2017 4:26 a.m. PST |
P.S. I would also use a commercial, unaltered, set of rules. It's frustrating to players when they ask where they can get the rules and they're old told the rules are OOP or they are house rules. |
Xintao | 05 Apr 2017 4:30 a.m. PST |
Games Workshop Strategy Battle Game. Can easily handle very small actions, 5-10 and scale up to 40-50 models a side. One of the strengths of the system is Heroes really shine, but are not unbeatable. Xin |
XRaysVision | 05 Apr 2017 6:03 a.m. PST |
I've both run and played in LotR:SBG games at a con. Yes they are very good rules. The trick will be in assigning stats to individual models. SBG is very much a game of heroes and reflects the cinematic heroism of the LotR movies perfectly. So your Trojan war scenario using SBG core rules would have to be centered around heroes in order to work well. |
Who asked this joker | 05 Apr 2017 6:17 a.m. PST |
Pig Wars. It's a Dark Age game but it works well for Ancients. I played in a Greek Hoplite game run by the author at Historicon several years ago. |
joeltks | 05 Apr 2017 6:40 a.m. PST |
Brink of Battle (?). I've been looking for something easy to run for similar projects but with a bit more granularity than SoBH. Only given it a read through myself; BoB seems to have some potentiality for this. |
ordinarybass | 05 Apr 2017 7:38 a.m. PST |
As others have said, simple rules are the best way to go for conventions. If each person is going to control around 10-15 figures (at the most) then Song of blades and heroes is a great option, and one that we've run successfully (in a fantasy setting) at conventions. In particular, however, I would recommend the "Song of Arthur and Merlin variant. It's a standalone book that is completely compatible with SBH, but it has some lists for "historical" dark-age troops that would provide some easy analogues (within SBH's abstracted rules) for other ancient forces. Available as a printed book… link …or a pdf… link …it has the advantage of being able to tell folks exactly which rules you used in a format that will allow them to play your game virtually from the get-go. If each player needs to control more than 15 figures two other options are worth considering. LoTR Fantasy battle is another good suggestion if you want every miniature to operate individually. Unless you're going to get into the game yourself, I recommend buying the older 5th edition softcover blue book that has "Return of the King" on the cover. It is widely available for around $10 USD or less online. It has a sultably large range of human troop types that have historical analogues. If you want to have small squads of minis moving about then Lion Rampant (or Dragon Rampant) is a great choice. Plays as fast as Song of Blades, (different rules style of course) but allows for more figs on the table. |
Logain | 05 Apr 2017 8:38 a.m. PST |
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wryeone | 05 Apr 2017 10:46 p.m. PST |
This is all very helpful, thanks guys. I am reading with great interest. |
Stew art | 06 Apr 2017 8:09 a.m. PST |
Brink of battle is a good rule set, but I wouldn't call it simple. Open Combat is good. Blood Eagle is better. for multi player I think LOTR SBG is likely the best option. |
Red Dragon 44 | 06 Apr 2017 9:30 a.m. PST |
Whichever rules, YOU need to know them very very well so if there are any questions you know the answer without having to frantically search through a rulebook! |