"That time again - rules recommendations" Topic

Age old question.
Thinking It might be time to look for another ancient/medieval rules set. I've played WAB and its child War & Conquest for many years and liked them well enough. But I think I am getting tired of removing individual casualties. In order to hopefully narrow down the focus a bit, here is what I am looking for.
1. Has to be suitable for 28mm figs – because that what I already have.
2. No individual casualty removal. I already have rules I like that do that.
3. Speaking of which, I have four armies: Carthaginian and Republican Rome and Macedonian and opponents; I need something that works well for those armies.
4. I am a soloist, so don't care about tournaments, competitive lists and the like.
5. I like big battles. For example, my Carthaginian army has 5 regular infantry units (18-24 figs each) skirmishers (10-12 each), 4 regular cavalry (8-10) and light cavalry (3-6 each).
6. Includes some kind of command control issue or problem (I don't mind cards and the like), as it keeps things from getting too redundant

Sometimes the most obvious answer is the best…

I'd suggest giving Hail Caesar a serious look.

It ticks virtually every box on your list:
No casualty removal. Units fight at full effectiveness until they accumulate enough stamina markers to become shaken or break.
It was written with large 28mm collections in mind, so your existing armies would fit in perfectly.
Republican Romans, Carthaginians, Macedonians and Successors are exactly the sort of armies the rules were designed for.
It shines with big battles rather than skirmishes.
Most importantly, the command system is one of its strongest features. You issue orders through commanders, but there's no guarantee they'll be carried out exactly as planned. Sometimes a brigade surges forward, sometimes it hesitates, sometimes it just refuses to cooperate. That friction creates interesting decisions without becoming overly complicated.

It's also an excellent solo game because that uncertainty means you can't simply optimise both sides. The command rolls constantly produce unexpected situations, making each battle develop differently.

Is it perfect? No. Some people dislike the abstraction, and if you enjoy counting every individual casualty you'll probably miss that level of detail. But if your aim is to recreate the feel of commanding an ancient army rather than captaining individual units, it does a remarkably good job.

After many years of playing other systems, I found Hail Caesar simply works. It gets a lot of troops onto the table, produces believable battles, and lets me spend my time making decisions instead of puzzling out rule mechanisms.

Mortem et Gloriam is worth a look.

mortem-et-gloriam.co.uk/meg

Also L'art Da La Guerre

artdelaguerre.fr/adlg/v3/?/en

We have a several hard core ancient players and have played this and Hail Caesar.

I've been currently enjoying Midgard Heroic Battles and while I'be been using fantasy figures, it will work with historicals just fine (I don't bother with magic and you can "reword" some of the upgrade abilities). Once you get a feel for the rules under your belt, it handles big multiplayer games just fine.

Using Command & Colors with miniatures might be a bit simple but I and my friends have done quite a few battles in those exact settings you mentioned.

HC, Impetus and DBMM.

Our club tried Hail Caesar but found it really dragged with large battles. Not a fan.

Take a look at To the Strongest. It plays in a grid which I normally avoid but for ancients it works quite well. It uses playing cards rather than dice. Units take hits then are removed en masse. It is basing and figure scale agnostic.

It is IGOUGO. Units activate by card ala Warmaster. You need a 2+. After that, you need to beat your prior activation card. If you fail an activation, your turn ends. Combat is a hit/save, again with cards. Units take 1, 2 or 3 hits and are then removed.

Rules are modestly priced and there are shedloads of free army list downloads.

To The Strongest. Has plenty of mechanisms that suit the soloist.

Another vote for To the Strongest. As Philllius says, it should suit solo gaming well.

We've tried many sets since abandoning WRG 7th. Played Impetus for a decade. We've been playing Sword and Spear for the past 5 years. It really produces the best games I have ever experienced. It gives players really interesting choices to make in allocating limited command resources. The melee system is quite brilliant and diminishes the effects of one critical role. I also like the fact that the point system is very accurate to the value of the units on the table top. While you might not be interested in tournament gaming good pointing systems help you balance the games in a manner that makes them interesting.

To the Strongest is great, and works very well solo