"Rules for Ancient/Medieval Armies" Topic

Cleaning my room (I've advanced from having little stepping stones of clear space where I could walk to having actual paths) I found several Ancient/Medieval armies that haven't seen the light of day in quite some time. OK, they were build for WRG Ancients 3 or 4. They include hoplites, Persians, Byzantines, and Franks. What would be a good modern set of rules for armies like this? I've wandered off, doing skirmish games and other periods, so I'm no longer familiar with what's out there.

Grelber
P.S. Yes, I realize I'll have to rebase everyone, but it's time to take the plunge and do that.

Warrior is the most like WRG Ancients that is out there currently and it has a small but dedicated group.

L'art de la Guerre (ADLG) is probably the most popular currently.

Fortunately, they plus Triumph, DBMM(DBA) all can use the same basing scheme. The execption is that ADLG would require 2 bases of infantry to form a medium or heavy foot unit, but otherwise basing is identical. If you venture to Impetus, or To the Strongest, you would use 2-4 bases to make a unit, so 1 basing scheme can cover most rules currently being played.

To the Strongest is fast and fun. It uses a grid and units are a single stand so basing is somewhat irrelevant. Loads of free army lists available.

We have played it with Vikings vs Saxons, Romes vs Huns, all cavalry battles, all infantry etc.

I would second To the Strongest. No need to re-base what you have at all.

Games are a lot of fun and Simon supports the system very well.

There is also "To the Strongest!" from BigRedBat link and "Might of Arms" groups.io/g/mightofarms . Both use the venerable and still standard WRG/DBA basing so you won't have to rebase.

Jim

Feeling the love, feeling the love. ;-)

To the Strongest, no rebasing needed well worth a try.

Our group uses To the Strongest and we love it.

Just a couple weeks ago we played a really closely contested Great Italian wars game using TtS with some modifications I made for Renaissance era.

I use Age of Hannibal by Greg Wagman of Littlewarstv.com .

Mortimer et Gloriam gets good reviews. Looking at it myself

To the Strongest is not "1 base = a unit" unless that is how you want to represent the units for your game.

Hail Caesar.

Fast, fun, accurately recreates battle lines rather than units dancing around all over the place.

I haven't tried To the Strongest, yet, but I can recommend Hail Caesar. Hail Caesar has very casual basing guidelines that are very conductive to running a club game.

One of these years, I want to borrow a couple of different armies from some of my friends and host a convention game showcasing how well Hail Caesar can handle units with different basing conventions.

Impetus is my favourite. Looks great and plays fast.

Try Tactica II. An updated and improved version of the original Tactica. Basing is compatible with WRG Ancients.

Triumph uses similar basing to WRG, but there will be some new units that may or may not be in your armies.

I switched from DBA to Triumph, minimal basing changes for armies, like Polybian Romans a lot of changes for others like Classical Indians.

Depends on the style of game you want to play.

Hail Caesar does not have a standard basing scheme. the only important thing is that both sides have a similar standard frontage. If you're fielding both sides of the army, like if you're running a game at a con (I note you have hoplites and Persians), you can decide that a standard sized unit is 120mm across, or 160, or 200, as long as it's the same for both teams.

DBA V3 for me.

Phil

After 50 years of tabletop miniatures I have decided to write my own Ancients-Dark Ages rules in an effort to simulate historical precedents.
One area of interest is the effect of missiles on horses. Several accounts of battles refer to cavalry either being surprised by javelin fire and retiring to Asiatic cavalry encountering Agrianians at Arbela and shying away to look for other targets, through to the effect of Byzantine archery on the Goths at Taginae which considerably reduced the cavalry's effectiveness. The effect of Turkish long range archery on Crusaders fresh off the boat causing the cavalry to attempt to drive off the horse archers is interesting as a general principle.
I would be interested if anyone has seen rules that effectively simulate the above.

I also prefer Hail Caesar, great fun as a game

Ian

Mortem et Glorium is my current favourite.
Tight rules and can play fun games with good sized armies to a clear conclusion in 2.5 to 3 hours.

Peter Collidge I have been intrigued in Comitatus a set that covers Ancient/ Dark ages/medieval .free versions and scenarios on blog.

You may want to take a look at Triumph.

wgcwar.com

Or on youtube:
YouTube link

Clash of Spears is a new set of rules.

link

Hail Caesar are the only set of rules published by Warlord Games I have taken to, for what that's worth.

Flexible and enjoyable. I had stopped playing Ancients entirely until they were published and found them easy to pick up and easy to play.

Maybe newer rules out there that offer something different but so far l haven't even been tempted to look.

Take a look at To the Strongest! It is currently my favorite rule set.