Optio is a (nearly) diceless Ancients wargaming system I've been working on for ages and might even publish one of these decades. The chanceless nature of movement and combat means that everything depends on tactics, but also taking advantage of unexpected advantages that one can't calculate in advance. It is usually impossible to predict the outcome of a game until near the end.
Optio uses an operational game to determine terrain for the battles: a square grid map with miniature versions of the battlefields indicating terrain. Players each have an army cube, a scout cube and two dummy cubes. At the outset of the operational game the cubes are placed down one per map square. They move from square to square but not diagonally. Using a system of magnets, a scout can detect an enemy army without being spotted itself, and an army can detect the enemy army but is detected at the same time (magnets in the cubes that repel or attract each other).
When two armies meet in the same map square that square is used to set up the battlefield.
The operational game is extended into a campaign game, where the map represents states with a capital city and several towns. Each player starts the game with a number of prestige points, or kudos, by which he controls his towns. A town of doubtful loyalty needs 3 kudos to control, a town of average loyalty 2 kudos, and a town of fervent loyalty only 1 kudo.
As you can probably guess, kudos are won or lost in battles. A decisive victory gains you 3 kudos, and average victory 2 and a narrow victory 1. You lose kudos in the same way for defeats. If you don't have enough kudos to control all your towns you lose them, starting with those of doubtful loyalty. Towns supply troops, so losing them means a smaller army. You can counter this by handing in as many kudos as are needed to control a town and doubling that town's contribution of troops, but if you don't win the next battle you control even less and your situation becomes more desperate. Eventually it's time for hands up and a beer.
This is the first battle of a campaign between two Greek city states. The illustrious general Attalos, foremost strategos of Malis, plans to conquer Doris in the south, then all Greece, then the entire planet, for the glory of Malis. Only problem is that the prestigious general Ophonahos, prime strategos of Doris, has exactly the same plan – starting with the conquest of Malis. Enjoy!
Click here for game.
