ANCIENTS VOTING:
Voting Results

Friendly with my Ostrogothic/Gepid supported Huns versus Knights of St. John...we did a few rules wrong, as it had been several weeks since my last game, but we called it a draw after 3 hours. Next time Attila will guard the baggage with the Gepid Wb(S)... [3 Nov 1999]

My most recent wargame was a solitaire replay of the Battle of the Sabis (Sambre) River in 57 B.C., played with Piquet with its Archon supplement. In this replay, the Nervii successfully ambushed Caesar's legions, who were apparently too tired after their long march to organize an effective resistance. It didn't help that Caesar's allied Gallic cavalry routed right through the 7th legion! Caesar was forced to retreat into camp with the battered remnants of his five remaining legions (the 13th and 14th never showed up), his safety (and more importantly, his honor) in serious jeopardy! A real nail-biter of an Archon battle! [12 Oct 1999]

The last round of the BHGS competition in Leeds. Due to a lot of bad luck and some poor play I was in last place going into the last round. I was using a Hindu Indian army designed to beat the kinght armies that I expected to be there. Up till this point I had not me a knight army, this tine I did and the Feudal Spanish had no chance and what little they had was not helped by a late arriving flank march. The Hindu Indiand won 10-0 with the loss of 2 and a half elements [25 Sep 1999]

DBA: EIR vs. Galacians. EIR won 4-0 with a good terrain position and poor chariot play by the Galacians. [23 Sep 1999]

Camapaign game from the Antiquity Campaign I run at the Humberside Wargames Society. I take the part of independent provinces when invaded by players. Yesterday I was Rhoxolani Sarmatians against the player controlled Sarmatians. I lost.... [19 Sep 1999]

DBM Ch'in vs Indians at 400pts, Ch'in spear centre rolled over the Indian centre of Bows and Elephants into the Indian camp whilst Chariots and cavalry of both sides skirmished indecisively. [17 Sep 1999]

Phalanx & Legion. Club rules of the Bundaberg Wargames Society. Byzantines vs Arab Conquest. 15mm. Played on a 5' x 9' table. No terrain in the centre, but hills and some woods on both flanks. The armies are divided into 4 wings each, each moving when its card is pulled (like OTR). The terrain helped the Byzantines, since they had fewer, if heavier, units initially. By mid game, the Arabs had worked themselves around the Byz. left, allowing them to get behind that flank, which quickly collapsed. The Byzantine centre was unable to crush the arab centre before it also was engulfed, and the battle over. [15 Sep 1999]

I played a game of Legion & Empire against James Manto(rules designer) that involved a force of Sassanid Persians against a Late Roman army. Since I usually play the Sassanid persians, I decided to switch and try the Roman army for a change. The Romans were unlitmately victorious as the Sassanids over exteneded themselves after a successful carge against my line, they were surrounded and hacked down! Glory for Rome! [08 Sep 1999]

Played DBM Late Roman Eastern (me) against Horse Barbarians - I got slaughtered! He used heavy cavalry to punch a hole in my battle line splitting my right flank off from the rest of my army. My knights were on my left flank and they could not really catch his light cav - largely useless. My right flank consisted of cav - he killed these first! and aux supported by psiloi (later died fast); my general was the last to die of cav, whereupon the whole command became demoralized. He sent 5 elements into my rear and they killed by baggages, by which time I had lost one third of my command. I felt quite despondent!

I could use some advice on how to play with a Roman army! [7 Sep 1999]

Aug. 20, 1999, Camillan Romans vs Early Seleucids, with 3 friends, using Might of Arms. It was a large game using units 2 stands wide. It was a classic setup with infantry in the center and cavalry on each wing. Each player took half the infantry on his side and the cavalry on one flank. The Seleucids weighted their cavalry on their right flank and swept away the opposing Roman cavalry after a few turns. The Seleucids also had two units of elephants mixed in with infantry to their right center. The Roman had terrible die rolls against them and they swept all before them--unusual for elephants. I was the Roman player on the right flank. The Roman and Seleucid cavalry on this flank neutralized each other. The infantry finally engaged in the center, but the Romans had lost too much on their left flank, so were outnumbered in the center. Most of the Romans routed, so we conceded the game. A twist for this game is that the Seluecids were stronger in Romans at the outset in points. The idea was that a Gallic flanking force would arrive and alter the balance. The Gauls appeared on the table but were too far away to get to the battle in time to help. [04 Sep 1999]

Played Might of Arms - Roman civil wars. Used many game options. [03 Sep 1999]

Fought my son James (12) to a standstill with my Byzantines against his Vikings using Warhammer Ancient Battles. A small encounter battle with no terrain, 1000 points, using the fantastic Gripping Beast figures. This was a major ploy by me to wean him off ridicuosly expensive 40K gaming (because I pay for it). He loves ancients now and we plan early Imperial Rome versus Ancient Brits armies next; now for his little friends.... [19 May 1999]

Got my Celts stuffed by Early Imp Romans, used a rosta system (archon) and felt that up until the last moment that my Celts were in with a chance, then it all went pear shaped, [2 May 99]

The last game I played was Sung Chinese against Burmese. I lost right from the set up. I focused to much on my opponents elephants and went for the large units of 48 figures. I did not have a long enough line to protect my flanks appropriatly and was quickly obliterated. [30 Apr 99]

We played an eastern Roman Legion against a western Legion using DBA rules. The more numerous cavalry in the eastern army was a definite advantage enabling an easy win, though not before the other side had wiped out one of the cohorts by some really hoy die rolls. [3 Apr 99]

Two days ago. I took my 6mm travelling DBA set (everything in a small toolbox) to visit a sick wargaming friend in the hospital. I'm sure the docs must have thought we were insane. Anyway, we laid it out on two hospital patient tables side by side and had a couple of rounds of Romans (Middle Imperials, but masquerading as Eastern Later Imperials) against the Sassanids, since I haven't had much of a chance to use the little elephants. I'm afraid that I couldn't manage to lose, though, even for a sick friend. [1 Apr 99]

My last game used Piquet/Archon and was a scenario in which a rebel Egyptian army with Athenian hoplite allies were attempting to break out of a besieged island in the Nile. Their opposition was a Spartan-led Persian army which started out in a scattered position. The Athenians easily over-ran the Persian infantry opposing them but harrassment by Persian horse archers and command indecision on the part of the Egyptians allowed the Persian heavy cavalry to hit the rebel flanks and a small unit of Spartan hoplites broke the Athenians. [31 Mar 99]

Polybian Roman (with celtiberian allies) against Later Selucid. DBM A perfect ambush broke my opponents mobile command. His scythed chariots got nowhere against the celtiberian caetrati. A fight for the wood in the centre was bloody and inconclusive (but almost cost me a command).

When we ran out of time, his C-in-C was attempting to take on an entire command almost single handed. A few more turns would probably have resulted in a 9-1 victory. [31 Mar 99]

We use set-up points and not historical armies, usually. 80 set-up points this time. It's larger than the 12-stand DBA variant but just about as quick. Terrain played a factor since a river of unknowable depth passed through three quadrants. Using an 8-sided die to see how many units could move/turn was appropriate for 80 set-up points, but don't think that it necessarily allows anything like an Ancients "blitzkrieg." In fact, the side that lost had difficulty in the mid-game moving more than two of his five units in any given turn. The "good guys" (i.e. me) won, killing off some heavy chariots (classified as knights) and taking the camp. Light horse on both sides did an impressive job. [31 Mar 99]

My ancient British took on a friend's Later Hoplite Greeks using WRG 7th edition rules. It was a nasty fight. I crushed his peltasts, but his hoplite ranks held off my charging warbands. [30 Mar 99]