One-Hour Ancient Skirmish

[has.been]

Tried out the John Lamshead rules today.

Four of us played (two games, two Egyptians V two Assyrians.
Westbury Assyrian V me as Egyptian, the other game was
Flatpack Assyrian V Donkeymilkman as Egyptian.

First attempt for any of us, though I had read the rules.

As I have seen commented elsewhere, there is a certain sameness for troops.
A Nubian Archer gets more 'evade' cards than an Assyrian heavy Infantryman,
but the Assyrian gets more armour cards.
So shoot at an unarmoured target, he 'evades' with 3 cards. If you hit him
he only gets 1 card for his armour.
Shoot at an armoured target, he 'evades' with 1 card, but gets 3 cards for armour.
In other words it don't matter, you have to beat 4 cards to get him.

I know you can tweak the stats, e.g. make a figure 'Dead Shot', 'Strong Arm' but
the bulk of your troops are going to be battlefield similar.

That aside, I did enjoy drawing cards even though I was the worst player (3 out of 8
casualties when we stopped). It also encouraged me to paint a few Hinchcliffe figures
& get them onto the table.
Would I play again? Probably, though I would take Mr Lambshead's advice & go for a
scenario driven game.

I leave it to the others to add their own opinions.

[flatpack]

It was unusual not using dice, and using the pack of cards to decide results.


Here are my chaps, slugging it out with Sam’s boys.


Here are Ian’s chaps, slugging it out with Pete’s boys.


All in all, a very easy to pick up and understand set of rules, but with cards deciding the fate, instead of a dice roll.

[Westbury]

I came, I played some cards, I chatted.
No further comment.

[Westbury]

My photos.

[vodkafan]

It probably needs another couple of games perhaps with bigger forces?

[has.been]

I think a few more games is a good idea.
More troops would not make a big difference, IMHO.

[vodkafan]

So was this set of rules a hit or a fail? If the latter what didn't grip anyone?

[has.been]

I don't think it was wildly received.

As I previously said there doesn't FEEL like there is a lot of difference between troop types.
Either beat his 3 dodge cards, then his 1 armour card, or his 1 dodge card then his 3 armour.
There are differences, just not enough.

You can borrow my copy & see what you think.