"LOST BATTLES" Topic

Phil Sabin's rules/book "lost battles"………

has anyone played them and can share their experience with them…are they any good?…what is the scale?…can you play them from 10mm on up…and so forth….

Thank You….

The mechanisms are largely those of his Strategos rules. The book is mostly analysis of the battles, the rules are an appendix.

The rules will work with any basing, any scale, and the opposing sides do not need to be the same scale or basing.

The game is played on a grid of zones, with actions being performed zone to zone. Troops are graded by quality and morale status.

The game engine is very good for recreating historical battles.

it is in many ways more simulation than game, or perhaps interactive model.

They are not as dry and academic as I may have made them sound.

What battles/era's do they cover?

I assumed by the title and cover , it's Alexander and Romans?

Lost Battles is Strategos III. It covers battles from the Persian wars, starting with Marathon, and ends with the battles of Julius Caesar, ultimately Pharsalus. Dave's comments with all due respect are slightly misleading. The entire book is about the Strategos battle simulator. The comments on individual battles are incomplete as analyses, and serve only to explain aspects of Sabin's battle simulations. The book is a gem as regards Sabin's methods for scaling OoB's and terrain for tabletop recreations, whether Strategos itself is your engine of choice. Strategos can be played with pencil or paper, or you can use the Cyberboard game engine and scenario files Phil provides for free on his web site. The game is not particularly interesting as such, but it is a very good tool to noodle around with Phil's battle analysis.

I have Strategos II and my copy of Lost Battles should be arriving soonish.

I like the idea of using zones, none of the measuring and micro-positioning of units. You certainly feel more like a general.

I'd like to know whether Strategos II (or I) is still available.
I'm sure the book contains excellent information, but the rules fall into the price band where I can afford a punt and won't feel too bad if they don't work out.
By contrast the book in in my "Gotta be sure this will get regular play" price range.

So any pointers to the earlier versions for sale would be most welcome.
Thanks

Steve Holmes

I got my Strategos 2 from the Society of Ancients. I believe they still do it but not sure. E mail them perhaps.

Strategos is an excellent ruleset and makes for an exciting game as well as a simulation. If you follow the player deployment system then it gives a chance to experiment with different strategies. There are a number of subtle rules often missed at first which lead to numerous 'Ah-ha!' moments.

I have posted a couple of reports on the boardgamegeek site if anyone is interested (these for the Lost Battles incarnation):

Pharsalus – link

Zama – link

Yes, Society of Ancients still stock Strategos II at £6.00 GBP including postage and packing.

Many thanks will05

Best Ancient rules I have played.

I'm halfway through it but they seem excellent, and the zone movement is a great and needed simplification compared to the geometric fiddleness (is that a word) of DBX.

A.

ganeshagames.blogspot.com

I've played a couple of games of Strategos II, and enjoyed playing them, but find the battles look a bit abstract for me, and I find that Command and Colors does a similar thing a little better for me.

However if I did't have C&C I'd probably play quite a lot of Strategos II.

Simon

Check out this review and be sure to have a look at the linked Lost Battles Aid Sheets, which summarizes the combat rules.

link

I have all his books and rules. Great reading and I have tried to modify for Medieval with littl luck. A must have IMHO.

Chris Parker