"Ancients Campaign Games and Systems" Topic

Anyone create or come across any simple but fun campaign boardgames or campaign rules systems for Ancients. Either period specific or generic that give a little extra meaning to a string of tabletop games.

Solo systems are a plus.

Successors. It's a point to point system board game originally published by Avalon Hill toward the end of their existence. I believe there is a new version due in a kickstarter soon.

Depends on how much work you want to put into setup; "Berthier" campaign management program allows creating multiple plans for your "opponent" allowing you to campaign with incomplete knowledge of enemy forces. Definitely worth a look if you do a lot of solo gaming.

Tony Bath in "Setting Up a Wargames Campaign" describes a couple of mini-campaigns that use a simple area movement system for strategic maneuvers; this should be adaptable to a randomized decision- making process for the "opponent" (weighted for the more rational choices).

Both of the above are obviously geared to large- scale battles. If skirmishing is more to your taste, a number of skirmish games have rules for linking a series of battles in "campaigns" that focus more on character/ squad advancement along the lines of D&D.

Slightly to my surprise, googling "King of Kings dba" brought up a very old page with my DBA abstract campaign. Should be usable for other rules if you tinker with the army sizes: DBA gives a surprisingly interesting game even when one side out numbers the other significantly, provided each side is limited to a single die to generate pips. Many other rules are not so cabable of giving the smaller side a chance.

The Society of Ancients soa.org.uk publishes a Simple Campaigns Guide that has a series of excellent campaign systems.

Some great suggestions so far. I am checking them out. I will buy that Society of Ancients book and I like this King of Kings business. I was actually thinking of a Kadesh-like campaign.

The Successors game is a bit complex for me and doesn't seem "solo" friendly. However, I am sure many others will find that a useful resource.

Back in 2003 Games Workshop published The General's Compendium. Its not just for fantasy/science fiction. It has a large variety of campaign rules and systems from simple linked games and ladder campaigns to more complex map and country building games.

I picked up a copy off Ebay for $10. USD

have a try with the old "Mighty Empires" system from GW. I make my own maps but use their rules for everything else

I made a few variations on the DBA campaign, for both the Macedonian/Punic Wars era and the Middle Ages. My focus was usually on multi-player games, but the Iberian Campaign and the Syrian War were meant to be 2-player see-saw affairs.

All of these could be adapted to other gaming systems, and in fact, I even wrote a whole set of tactical rules to play games in Arthurian Britain using my own campaign system. (I never liked DBA for Medieval warfare very much.)

One of the problems with using a boardgame as a campaign is that boardgames are meant to be played to a clear conclusion in a reasonable time; just like real wars, they tend to discourage fighting battles at anything approaching even odds, and thus tend to make terrible battle generators.

All of my DBA campaigns were designed to generate roughly balanced battles with minor variations in forces and just enough strategic context to make each one an interesting new tactical puzzle. All of them could theoretically go on ad infinitum, with players surging back and forth between overwhelming victories and utter defeats.

- Ix

tagmata.it/campaigns.htm has several ideas that have been used successfully. Obviously designed with DBMM in mind, they could easily be modified for other systems since they're about delivering the game rather than playing it. Some require a number of players, others, like the Normans in Italy one is a very simple two player campaign to create an excuse for games and a link between them. Could be a simple but very fun game to try.

Cheers,
John

Advocate

I took a look at your King of Kings campaign game. It's interesting but seems a little complex for a solo game; what with all the card interplay.

Still nice for some group of three or more players.

Phil Sabin's Empire fits the bill. Available from the Society of Ancients here:

soa.org.uk/joomla/sabin-games

We played almost every single battle on the tabletop. Plus it's nice and cheap…

That Empire game looks pretty good. Seems it might even work for Solo gaming.
I did get The Society of Ancients Campaign guide which also looks interesting.