ANCIENTS VOTING RESULTS:
Rules Regularly Played - Archon

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]

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]

Archon: Rome vs Gauls. Got me interested in Ancients again after being "turned " off for many years by the ahistorical matchups and c competition styles of play. Not the way I like to play historicals. [14 May 1999]

I fought an ahistorical contest between an Early Imperial Roman force and Porus Indians. The battle was fought using the Archon rules and actually turned out to be rather exciting. The Indian cavalry nearly enveloped the Roman infantry, but failed to pass their courage tests at a most inopportune time. The Roman infantry then crushed the Indian infantry in the center resulting in the Indian army routing. [12 May 99]

My last game was a small one using the Archon rules - a battle between the Romans and Carthaginians. [3 May 99]

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]

My last ancients game was a solo playtest of my newly acquired Archon rules set-Romans versus Carthaginians. The game went smoothly and produced very historical results. The Roman cavalry on one flank got tangled up with Numidian light horse and never got into action, while the Spanish and Liby-Phoenician horse on the other flank made short work of the Italian horse opposite them and went on to strike the flank of the Roman infantry. The Roman infantry was winning in the center until the cavalry hit them, Although the Libyan heavy infantry had managed to fight them pretty much to a draw, the Spanish and Gallic infantry weren't doing so hot. [28 Apr 99]

Greek vs Greek, around 18 units and 2 players per side using Archon (Piquet) rules. The Spartans and their allies were fighting the Athenians and their Allies. The Spartans tried desperately to engage the left wing of the army before their allies were destroyed. The Athenian side jabbed with their cav & Lt troops on the left, keeping the Spartans away from their battleline for as long as possible. Meanwhile the Athenian right swept forward at a rapid pace as their cavalry overwhelmed their counterparts on the Spartan left. Then as their flank was threatened, the Spartan Allies were hit to the front by the Athenian Hoplites. As the Hoplites clashed the Athenian Cavalry swept into the flank. Meanwhile the Spartans were just coming to grips with the Athenian allies. They closed to engage, but before they could shatter the allied Hoplites, their allies on their left crumbled and fled. The army's morale was gone with their flank. The Athenians and their allies were victorious as they managed to delay engaging the powerful Spartiates while taking advantage of their superior mounted arm to aid their hoplites against the Spartan allied Hoplites. The cavalry turned what could have been a slugfest into a one sided affair.

I have played many ancient rules for many years. Archon is on a different level altogether, in excitement, playability and it absolutely gives the best feel when related to historical accounts. [28 Apr 99]

We fought an Archon game between a combined Greek force versus Persians and Mendizing Greeks. The Greeks won, but it was a very close battle. I can't remember all the details since it was about 3 months ago. You can see pictures of the battle at the following website. http://www.garrison-clubs.org/clubs/charlottegallery.htm - Eric Burgess [27 Apr 99]

I participated in a game of Classical Hack at Cold Wars. Phil Viverito ran a game of Romans vs. Dacians. [27 Apr 99]

Most recently was a game of DBA. A close game, played nicely and was quick enough not to take up the whole day. [6 Apr 99]

A typical forest action a depleted legion versus a Gallic Hoard. Nip and all the way with the Romans breaking the Gaul's morale at the very end and holding the ground. [3 Apr 99]

Late Assyria vs. Babylonian revolt. The Babylonians attempted to hold a stream line against the Assyrians entering at uncertain locations in column of march. The Assyrians came in at the far left flank among the low hills and got hung up against good mountain auxiliaries. The Assyrian cavalry commander overextended his attack and was taken in the flank by Midianite camel scouts. The cavalry broke and fled back through the non-yet-deployed archer line, which found its morale shaking. The Babylonian general then moved his reserve horse in against the weakened line and routed it with another flank attack. The Assyrian army then withdrew in reasonable order. If the Assyrian commander had been more patient in the advance and deployed properly on arrival, the results would probably have been very different. The best Assyrian troops, the veteran palace spear/archer units, never got into the battle. Cohort and Phalanx 0.5 (house rules). [31 Mar 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]

Subject:Wodenstag Ritter and Band of Brothers

Wodenstag Ritter met last Wednesday night at Jim Cocran’s new DBM center. Boy, Jim nice wargaming room, but just wait until your wife finds out that you remodeled your basement for DBM. I’ll keep silent for some more figures.

We had The ElephantSlayer Jim Cocran, Stormin Sam Salley, DeLaude Mike Barnes, Chris Cluckey as William Le’basturd, and myself play Stormin Normans vs Anglo-Saxons (Anglo-Danish list) at 400 pts. This was not Senlac hill, but nevertheless historical oppenents. Sam Salley, a friend of Mike’s, learned his name Stormin Sam by playing an excellent game. The battle terrain was largely open with a marsh on the right of the Anglo-Saxon lines, a road down the middle, a enclosed field to the left of the Normans.

Chris was the C-in-C in the center with 13 Irr-KN(F). Stormin Sam had the left flank with 6 irr-KN(F)s and the infantry (X-bow, PS, SP) with BP of 9. I had Bishop OTTO and 6 irr-KN(F)s and the Breton Ally all on the right flank. The Anglo-Saxons line covered the whole field from the left of the marsh all to the left border. The right flank of the Anglo-Saxons beyond the marsh was covered by Viking Allies mostly IRR-BD(F). Poor, Sam, was left facing Vikings and Saxon Huscarls, until Chirs covered some the blades.

The Normen plan was to charge straight with the KN, no dismounting, but if they had it would be as Irr-SP(O). The Bretons on the right were to try get around the left flank of the Saxon Fyrd. Stormin Sam charged the Vikings with his KNs, the rest of the KNs moved forward until 200P outside of the Saxon lines. The Bretons were slow in trying to turn the left, allowing the Saxons to deploy all the Fyrd across the field. Bishop (me) had lots of pips, but could not use them, due to waiting for the Bretons to get into position. Wm Lebastuar covered the center and most of the Saxon blades.

The Saxon king Harold Godswine (Jim) and Erwin (Mike) moved forward trying to close with the KNs. Sam, as the Norman subgeneral Raymond, faced the Vikings and also King Harold’s mercenary Norman KN and Huscarls mounted as Cv(I). The CV(I) and Bd(F) popped two KNs of Stormin Sam’s. On the Left the Breton ally general died to the Fyrd SP(O) just before Bishop Ottos KNs hit the Fyrd, however the Bretons rallied to stay in the battle. Bishop Otto plowed into the left Saxon Flank, but within a hour Bretons broke fled the field without slaying any of the Fyrd. Bishop Otto later became a hero and slaughtered 4 stands of Fyrd, but he died surrouned by Fyrd. At this point we had two dead generals and one demoralized command.

On our right, a cheer went up, Stomin Sam has slaying vikings and Saxon huscarls. William was slaying traitous Norman Kn and mounted Huscarls, Cv(I). Another, cheer has heard from the Normans as Willy slayed the false King Harold Godswine.

The death of the false King was too much for the Saxon center and they started to flee the field. Jim had lost a total of 8 elements and could not rally the command. Then disaster struck the Normans as the “soon to be King” William was killed by the lowly knaven Huscarls. The Normans were staring defeat and death in the face, we had only one element to go before the Norman army was defeated. The Normans need 9 elements to defeat the Saxons and we had lost three of our four generals..

A loud cheer was heard from Mike as he proclaimed his general King of England. But Stormin Sam was not done. Stormin Sam proclaimed, “ Once more my dear Friends, Once more into the beach my Band of Brothers”. He was able to destory two more Vikings units, demoralizing that command. And suddenly the battle was over with the Saxon army fleeing the Field of Honor. Sam’s general Sir Raymond was proclaimed king on the battle field and the Norman conquest of England began. Lessons learned. 1. Do not crow before all your chickens are hatched. 2. With a large C-in-C command do not lead with the C-in-C, but use him as a reserve. 3. To the victor goes the right to write the battle report. [30 Mar 99]

Armati game: Rome vs the Carthagians. We played the same set up four times and the wins were enely split between both sides. [30 Mar 99]

My last ancients game was a hypothetical solitaire battle between four of Caesar's legions and a large German force under Ariovistus. I used the S & T boardgame Caesar in Gallia to set up a Gallic Wars scenario, and used Piquet/Archon to figh tthe battle. The Gauls drew a lot of the early impetus and charged all along the Roman front, but by judiciously exchanging lines, Caesar was able to withstand the initial onslaught and force the German warriors back. On the third turn Ariovistus drew a Courage! card, which caused no fewer than three engaged warbands to turn tail and run. This led to an overwhelming victory for Caesar, and insured that the Rhine border would be quiet for at least another year! [30 Mar 99]

My latest battle was part of a solitaire campaign using the S & T boardgame Caesar in Gallia for the strategic level, and Piquet/Archon for the tactical battles. My latest battle saw Caesar with four legions fighting Ariovistus on the German side of the Rhine. The battle opened with a furious attack by the Germans (they won the early impetus rolls). But by exchanging lines Caesar was able to keep his front intact, until three German warbands suffered a loss of heart (lost rolls after Ariovistus drew a Courage! card) and fled, destroying the morale of the entire German army. It was a total tactical victory for the Romans, and insured that Caesar would not have to worry about another German incursion - at least for this year!

I've wargamed ancients since 1979, and have played a number of rulesets, beginning with WRG 6th. By 1993 I had finally become so dissatisfied with the existing rules that I briefly dropped out of active gaming. Piquet and Archon have put the fun and excitement back into wargaming for me! BTW, the very complex ancients version of Empire is entitled "Ancient Empires" (plural). Thanks for providing such a great web site! [30 Mar 99]