Monday, September 14, 2009

My Ancient and Medieval Rules --

Peter of The Nyudrev Chronicles posted a list of his wargame rules. I thought that this might be a good idea for me too . . . but I own so many that I've decided to limit this first part of my list to my Ancient and Medieval rule sets only . . . and only to ones that I have published copies of (and not those that I've downloaded from the Net).

My very first wargames were with WRG 7th Edition "Ancients". Indeed, this was all that I played for a number of years (since that was all that my opponents played). I got pretty good with these rules . . . but I never really liked them. To me they were too much of a "thinking" set.

I ended up playing a few other rule sets (but not nearly as many as I own . . . not even close). And I still own a lot of full Ancients armies (big ones, not just DBA size) . . . somewhere north of twenty I fear.

And why do I "fear" it? Because I haven't played any Ancients in years . . . except for the DBA tourney that Murdock hosted a while back . . . and really only then in order to provide an even number of players.

Format of the following list will be Title, (Author), Date . . . and I will try to put them more-or-less in order of publication date. Note also that I will use "shortened" titles for some of the better-known sets (e.g., "WRG" in place of their much longer titles)
  • WRG 5th Edition (Phil Barker ?), 1976
  • God's Acre (Dave Milwood), 1976
  • Condottieri (Dave Milwood), 1976
  • Broadsword (George H. Schneider), 1977
  • En Garde! (Darryl Hany & Frank Chadwick)., 1977
  • Bireme & Galley (Jan Vrapcenak, Edward E. Simbalist & Terry Cheeseman), 1978
  • WRG 1430-1700 2nd Ed. (George Gush), 1979
  • Fire, Hack & Run (Mike Gilbert), 1979
  • The Shock of Impact (Ian S. Beck & Michael Bussey), 1981
  • Newbury Fast Play (T. J. Hutsall), 1985
  • A to Z Rules for Ancient Warfare (Andrew Zartolass, Jr.), 1985
  • WRG 7th Ed. (Phil Barker), 1987 & 1992 printings
  • Ancient Naval Wargame Rules 500 BC to AD 500 (Martin A. Johncock), 1988
  • Tactica (Arty Conliffe), 1989
  • Romans, Goths & Huns (Simon MacDowell), 1990
  • DBA and DBA 2.0 (Phil Barker & Richard Bodley Scott), 1990 and 2001
  • Shieldbearer (Michael J. Young), 1991
  • Knight Hack (The Jogglers), 1991
  • Classical Hack I (The Jogglers), 1992
  • Blood Axe Ancients (Lance Runolfsson * David Kaser), 1992
  • Legio (Simon MacDowell), 1992
  • Tactica Medieval Rulebook (Arty Conliffe & Ed Regendahl), 1992
  • Flower of Chivalry (Bruce McFarlane), 1993
  • Armati (Arty Conliffe), 1994
  • DBR (Phil Barker & Richard Bodley Scott),1995
  • Warhammer Ancient Battles (Jervis Johnson, Rick Priestley, Alan Perry & Michael Perry), 1998
  • DBM 3.0 (Phil Barker & Richard Bodley Scott), 2000 plus earlier editions
  • Warrior (Four Horsemen Enterprises), 2001
  • Battlestandard Ancient Rules (Jeff Stuckey), 2004
  • Warmaster Ancients (Rick Priestley), 2005
  • Impetvs (Lorenzo Sartori), 2008
Now besides all of the above rules, I have lots of army lists, battle books and army background books . . . and almost certainly more rules that haven't been unpacked yet.

And I really haven't played Ancients in years . . . because other periods have claimed my interest since.


-- Jeff

2 comments:

A J said...

You got me beat in the number of rules-sets, Jeff. I've played by WRG 3rd edition ancient rules but never came to like them. I wrote my own set to cover Early Imperial Roman vs. Germanic/Sarmatian tribes using 6mm figures, and they work to my satisfaction.

Currently I have just two sets of rules with me - Shako, and Warfare in the Age of Reason. The latter's siege rules look good, but I won't be using the main tactical set. 12 figure "regiments?!" Puh-lease!

A joke: Q - What is a savant? A - A person who possesses erudition.

Q - What is a wargaming savant?
A - A person who possesses 1st erudition, 2nd erudition, 3rd erudition...

johnpreece said...

Good to see you posting, I hope this means you are experiencing better health and weather.

Ancients are back on the table at my old group and old armies of Hinchliffe Lamming and Garrison have been dug out. Although we really started with the newly issued 5th edition they have now gone right back to using 2nd edition.

Last weekend they fought Hastings and they tell me the rules worked very well indeed. I do remember that when 5th came out it was hard to find anyone who did not prefer 4th but of course everyone had to use them to take part in competitions.

Look forward to reading your thoughts.