ANCIENTS VOTING RESULTS:
Rules Regularly Played - WRG Ancients

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]

Roman Civil war with 3 legions per side (25mm) legions being about 150 figures strong in a fairly rough terrain with key objectives set for each side to obtain by set moves. A very hard fought battle over about 6 hours one Saturday. Result I acheived my objectives but suffered very heavy casualties so really a pyrric victory in that sense. My opponents failed to hit their objectives and also suffered heavy casualties (we only had about 2% difference). Using Athena ancient rules [19 May 1999]

Roman vs Egyptian/Roman in a semi desert battle with low hills and asingle oasis. The Egyptians were flanked and crushed by two chorts before their Roman alllies coud interven. [03 Jun 1999]

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]

The last game wasn't Entirely Historical. I pitted my Late Roman Army (15mm) against my friend's, Rick's, Early Imperial Roman Army. We played using Warhammer Ancients Battles. It looked as if I might have an easy victory (with the use of Hun allies; they are great in this set) until one of my legions failed moral. At that point most of my army followed. [4 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]

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]

persian vs indian. that persian 'spara' formation is formidable! a few people (including jervis) have said they think elephants are too powerful, i disagree my ellies suufer badly from massed bow fire and tend too run, sorry 'stampede' off the table carrying my boss with them argh! [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]