ANCIENTS VOTING RESULTS:
Voters, By Scale - 15mm

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]

Last ancients game was a 25mm meeting between Carthago and Rome, and it was glorious. There were stampeding elephants, skirmishers doing "rude" things in the scrub, and legionaires who (led by their commander) stood in the line until the last man died of blood loss!! By the way, the rules used were Might of Arms, which I highly recommend as a very fun rule set.

Exploits of this and other battles can be seen at http://www.netcolony.com/members/odms under "After Action Reports". [03 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]

Might of Arms - a great game between carthagians and seleucids. The battle appeared to be a rout at one time. The game then swung back to the other side before eventually returning to the seleucids. As always, lots of fun. [17 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]

Early Germans vs. Traianic Romans, using Armati rules. After a lot of skirmishing, Roman cavalry managed to override my warbands... :( [31 Mar 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]

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]

British Celts v's Roman. Romans set up on a hill facing Britons across a clear vally. Britons had left their chariots behind but pushed on regardless. kept advancing then charged up hill. On the left flank the British cav outnumbered the Roman cav 2-1 but still went down in a screaming heap ruining the expected envelopment. In the center the impetuous charge of the warbands broke one cohort but couldn't catch in persuit the other cohort held firm. On the British right flank skirmishers kept each other busy. Next turn the Broken Cohort rallied only to be charged again, this time they held Roman cav returned to main battle charging a warband in the flank causing the warband to rout never to return. The skirmishers kept doing their duty however the second warband was surrounded and broken causing a general withdrawl. In the end more Romans than Britons died however the Romans were left holding the field. But we shall return thistime with ye olde British panzer brigade. [31 Mar 99]

Armati with 6mm figures. Gauls vs. Republican Romans. The Gauls hung back, trying to develop a left flank hooking manuever, but I was unused to how fast the Roman Triarii could redeploy themselves, and the flanking move failed miserably. Nevertheless, the brave Gallic charge nearly carried the day anyway. Better luck next time!

I'm more interested in results than processes, so for me games like Armati & DBM are superior to WRG 7th. Your mileage may vary. [30 Mar 99]

My last ancients game was about a year or so ago, just after I had finished painting my Foundry Romans and Dacians. It was a playing of a CS Grant Table top Teasers Ambush which was a great deal of fun.

I haven't got back into ancients mainly because I detest the De Bellis Moronicus series, and I am yet to find a set of rulesthat allow me to use my Romans and Dacians with the same ease as 5th Ed WRG [published before Mr Barker lost all semblance of coherency] I basically dabbled in ancients, preferring to use specific Medieval Rules for my armies of the Crusades, and the extension to overlap into Renaissance was a huge Mistake IMO. I played 25mm and 15mm Renaissance for 10 years using Gush's 1420-1700 rules and had a lot of fun games, free of the anorak wearing competition gamers. I game primarily for the aesthetic appeal and the social element, so billiard table terrain and ahistorical opponents are out for me. [30 Mar 99]