ANCIENTS VOTING RESULTS:
Rules Regularly Played - De Bellis Multitudinis

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]

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]

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]

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]

A DBM match between my Middle Imperial Romans and an Ottoman Turkish army. Although the legionaries annhilated most of the Ottoman's Serbian Knight allies, the Serbian ally general managed to break through the ROman line to cause considerable damage, leading to a loss for my Romans... [29 May 1999]

Malaccan infantry defated Assyrian chariots and veteran infantry while the Malaccan archers and elephants held off and then defeated Assyrian cavalry and light infantry. [23 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]

In our local tournament I deployed Graeco-Bacttrian facing Yuan Chinese. I lost after 3,5 hours. My opponent was superior with experience of years. But I went good too. I wanted to get 1/2 element from his C-in-C command or 1 element from his second command to get the victory. [21 Apr 99]

We played a campainge around the first Punic War. We used DBM for the major battles, an changed version of Tactica for siege and Naumaichae for the sea battles. It was great and lasted 2 weeks. Funny was that Rome was besiegned and conquered in 240BC. [8 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]

Seleukid vs. Romans I lost. We used DBM rules. [4 Apr 99]

My last Ancients game was Early Imperial Roman vs Marian Roman. It was 400Pts, pre-set terrain. I chose Western Roman with Sarmation Allies and 4 commands. My opponant had 3 commands. Simply I was able to hit my opponants line of blades with the Sarmations which were supported by Light horse, Cavalry and Auxilia infantry. The

Sarmations then proceded to destroy every element which they contacted. I was very lucky with pip and combat die rolls and destroyed 20 elements wich demoralised 2 commands for the lose of 2 Light horse elements. Basically I was very lucky. [4 Apr 99]

Using Warhammer Ancient Battles at club. Imperial Romans vs Byzantine. [3 Apr 99]

the dread Visigoths had the termidity to attack the feudal French forces. The french had them right where they wanted them, when, the visigoth Horse overran the weak French Foot, demorlaizing the entire army. somuch for the power of the pike to ward off mounted attacks. [2 Apr 99]

I played in a DBM tournament. Did not play very well at all and lost all three games. A perfect day! [1 Apr 99]

DBM - 400AP - My Patrician Romans versus Tang Chinese. I over-committed my Fast Knights, trapping my Hunnic allies and messing up my own command and control. This lead to a disappointing 10-0 loss. My PRs are now hold a 1-1 record in this incarnation.

I am familiar with a number of rules sets - and am not particularly fond of any. The best - with reservations - is DBA. The worst are Tactica and the pre-DBA WRG offerings. Right now, I am in the process of analyzing GLUTTER OF RAVENS and MIGHT OF ARMS. [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]

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]

Warhammer Ancients: Roughly 3000 points Normans vs. Later Sassanids.

WAB was selected as my favorite largely because of the numerous problems with the remainder of the rules currently available. The ideal set of rules for me would combine the best elements of WRG 7th and DBM. WAB is not ideal, but at least it is enjoyble to play. Overall it it probably too much of a step back in terms of simplicity, but as said, it is fun. The ideal set of rules should be unit based (not element based), incorporate fatigue into shooting and combat, and have some limitation on command and control (DBM does a good job at this). The rules in turn should not require a fixed number of units per army or a fixed army list per army. Finally the ideal rules should be clearly written (i.e., not written by Phil Barker), and have a well organized index that allows quick resolution of questions as they arise, and should not have an excesivley complicated series of modifiers to any combat, shooting, or morale resolution. [30 Mar 99]