"Best 'Presented' Ruleset" Topic

Hi all

If you were to recommend one ruleset for the clarity of it's presentation, layout and style, which one would it be?

I'm not after what you feel are the best rules, as regards playability, realism, etc., but those that have impressed you the most for their overall 'look' and would be, in your opinion, an exemplar for others to follow.

Cheers
P.

Hi all

If you were to recommend one ancient and medieval ruleset for the clarity of it's presentation, layout and style, which one would it be?

I'm not after what you feel are the best rules, as regards playability, realism, etc., but those that have impressed you the most for their overall 'look' and would be, in your opinion, an exemplar for others to follow.

Cheers
P.

To the Strongest!

Warhammer Ancients.

Mortem et Glorium

Sword & Spear is pretty nice

Mortem et Glorium again.

Flames of War 3rd Edition
Fistful of TOWs III
Lion Rampant

"Ancient Warfare" by Arnold Hendrick.

Perhaps some elaboration would not be amiss.

I've always liked the Bruce Weigle rule books.
Ring binding, nice exterior and interior art, scenarios and plenty of historical background material to get you started.

youtu.be/tN88p__xsjU

* Mine have a ring binding, maybe it's changed.

** Oops, wrong book, was referring to the 1859, 1866, 1870 books which are ring bound and look thicker than the one above but in the same style.

Stupidity is a curse.

So, 2 votes for MeG, the leading candidate so far – can I ask the reasons for why this is suggested? I'd like some background info, if possible, peeps ;-)

Mortem et Gloriam came in a ring-binder. Nice interior and exterior art, lengthy introduction for non-wargames (which experienced gamers can remove). Lots of free supporting material online including over 620 army lists.

Tactica II needs a mention, if for no other reason because it is in such a stark contrast to the original Tactica.

The original Tactica was lavish for 1989. It was crystal clear on how to play, generating almost no errata over 3 decades.

Tactica II has no photos at all, but is full of b/w schematics that cover almost every conceivable issue. It and was edited and play-tested for several decades, and is almost nauseatingly cross-indexed.

Both have great presentation – it is a great contrast of two different ways to communicate rules clearly.

I would have to second Lucius's comments although I think the original Tactica was better presented. It set the standard for rules sets of it's day. Tactica II however, is the better rules set to play however, but could benefit from a bit of gloss(photos, color, etc).

DBA for sure. Rules are not cluttered with pictures, just the text presented in a simple straight forward manner. 600 army lists. So simple it has been played for 30 years in only 3 versions, with minor changes.

To agree with some of Bobgnar's sentiments, I don't particularly care for pretty pictures in rules to pad them out. I want to be able to find relevant rule during play quickly, and to understand it easily. If I want to see pretty pictures then I can trawl the Internet. Sometimes diagrams can be useful to aid understanding, though.

My personal choice for "clarity of it's presentation, layout and style" is for "Hordes of the Things". Have to admit that DBA v3 is quite well laid out, although DBA v1.1 is my favourite official version of DBA.

Age of Hannibal by Greg Wagman and Little Wars TV. The rulebook is coil bound, with simple, easy-to-understand rules for classical Greco-Roman era battles and sieges. The text is clearly written in plain English, with plenty of accompanying diagrams illustrating game mechanics and battlefield situations.

MeG is all colour, steps you through each process with examples and has great online support including all army lists.
I have Tactica II, but yet to play. They are well presented and illustrated although in B&W.

Full colour rulebooks are good for impressing me, but tend to be less handy to reference in the heat of battle.

Agreed that HOTT is pretty good.