"You've never heard of Lost Battles" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Do you play Lost Battles, Phil Sabin's ruleset that claims to combine "academic rigor with the interest and accessibility of simulation gaming"?

72% said "I've never heard of Lost Battles"
14% said "I've never played Lost Battles"
7% said "I own Lost Battles but haven't played it yet"

I've read the book, and frequently incorporate one of Sabin's scenario tools into my convention games. Use a points scoring objective to motivate players to duplicate an event in a historical refight.

Example: at Hastings, the Saxon flak chased the Bretons down the hill. And then bad things happened to them. No player is going to take the bait and send units down the hill. Unless the scenario rules give the Saxons victory points for taking an objective at the bottom of the hill. Then the player will be motivated to break the shield wall and move down the hill.

I must have missed this one. I own and played both editions of Strategos, and the book version, Lost Battles. Even if the rules don't grab you, the OBs are great for setting up historical battles.

Ran – in many ancient/medieval rules we have played you can be forced to pursue a defeated enemy, even when it may not be to your advantage.

Great book. The game looks interesting but have not played.

There's LB's elder brother, Legion, one of my favourite Ancients rulesets. You can get the game here and the VASSAL module here.

Have the book. A good read. Got the boxed game. Need to get it out for a play through again.

Many rules incorporate rules that 'shock' or impeteus troops have to pass a test not to charge enemy in range, even if they are on a hill. Hence if they fail the test, they charge. This would replicate Hastings for example.

it is a very well researched and tested set of rules

Have the book, have played some games. I feel it falls into the category of fixing the rules to produce a historical result, and then using that to argue that the rules must be right! A bit of a self fulfilling prophesy rather than a game.