Simple Hordes of the things

[Chillyray]

I have been trying to make some of my games a bit easier to play. Getting on a bit and playing mostly solo. There is a great post on Fanaticus about just that. Written by someone called Stevie (my hero!), it is called Simple ancient Battle Rules and is available as a free download. It is written for the DBA system so I thought that I would try it out  with Hoards of the things. It`s central ideas is that all units are based the same, one base width and the same for depth...square  bases for all! This simplifies all movement as base widths and one is imagining the board as a virtual grid. I doubled up my Warmaster 10mm units, both cavalry and infantry onto square bases and they look great. The new bases handle very well, solid playing pieces in the hand, and also give a nice mass battalions look. The heroes and monsters are on the same size and the extra bit of space gives an opportunity for a bit of artistic basing. I might try this out also for DBN, it should work. Most measuring is elimated for a much simpler game. Hoping to do some Lord of the Rings battles with this system. Here are a few pics of my trial battle and some units.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

I always thought having different base depths was pretty daft.  It also got me quite yelled at once by an overly competitive opponent who saw my heavy swordsmen (AdLG) as mediums and had sent the wrong matchup against them because he had forgotten that I had already notified him of the use of substitution stands at setup (which is legal).

Too much palaver for very little return in gaming.  Adlg uses mostly square basing, although some are more rectangular.

[fred]

Great looking figures.

I really like 40mm square bases for 10mm figures

[Hobgoblin]

Great project! We usually play HOTT with movement in base widths; it's suggested in the book, and as you say, it makes things so much easier.

I always thought having different base depths was pretty daft.  It also got me quite yelled at once by an overly competitive opponent who saw my heavy swordsmen (AdLG) as mediums and had sent the wrong matchup against them because he had forgotten that I had already notified him of the use of substitution stands at setup (which is legal).

Too much palaver for very little return in gaming.  Adlg uses mostly square basing, although some are more rectangular.

Ha! Yeah, non-standard depths are permitted in HOTT and DBA too (just as well, as the HOTT hordes' depth changed between editions!).

I think there is an aesthetic argument for the differing depths in HOTT, etc: it does give formations a different look. So blades look different from warbands, and doubled warbands look nicer when they form a square (on standard bases) rather than a column (on square bases). And doubled spears then look denser than warbands, and so on.

That said, I'm basing all my 15mm stuff on 40mm squares on the grounds that it's permissible in HOTT/DBA and essential for other things. As I've got lots of HOTT/DBA stuff in 1/72 on 60mm frontages, I'd probably double up with 80 x 40 for everything if I was going to play HOTT in 15mm (masking tape along the bottom of bases to keep elements together invisibly), to give more of a massed-battle effect with the smaller figures.