Ascalum - Using AMW

[Emir of Askaristan]

Here's some shots of the rather excellent Ascalum day 1 game we had on Sunday.

On the first day Pyrrhus was forced to fight on unsuitable ground and suffered for it.  The day hung in the balance until he was able to bring his reserves into action and drive off the Romans.  Day 2 was fought on better ground.....and we'll be playing that next week!


More on my blog.

Enjoy.

[Phil Robinson]

A fine looking game, AMW is such a versatile rule set.

[Emir of Askaristan]

Thanks Phil,
The terrain is probably a little out of scale for this battle - but it looked so good it was crying out to be used.

We've had Roman vs German games in snow and woodland and in more open terrain and now a couple of pike games and the rules have held up, despite our mods on top.  Next weekend we'll have the anti elephant carts and flaming pigs as well, for which we've made some scenario specific rules for.

I have an Achaemenid Persian army ready to go and John is rounding off one for Carthage, so we'll be sticking with AMW for a long time to come.

[TheBlackCrane]

Very nice 
Enjoyed the report on your blog, will keep an eye out for part 2.
I take it you'd recommend AMW then? The Pyrrhic War is something I'd like to do one day, I've never really been able to find a set of ancients rules I get on with though.

[Phil Robinson]

I certainly recommend AMW, not everyone's cup of tea but they are easily modified to suit your own take on your particular period.
I think some rules try to make ancient battles more sophisticated than they actually were with modern hindsight, no slight on other rule writers or ancient generals intended, I am sure they were every bit as good their future counterparts

[Emir of Askaristan]

Yep, what Phil says.

I use Neil Thomas's rules or at least my slightly modified version of them for most of the games I run, Ancient - battles against Rome, Medieval - Bruce's Campaign in NE Scotland (which ended up on film !), 18thC - Bier wars Imaginations, 19thC - Napoleonics and a couple of Garibaldi vs Naples games.

The basic mechanisms work, are simple to learn, simple to play, get a good result, don't need days to play and cope with most things the average gamer can chuck at them.  That ticks the boxes I need. The changes I've made have been to add my own flavour and viewpoint, nothing heavy - the obvious one being moving to single bases and using dice to record hits. 

Give them a go!

[Jeff965]

Neil Thomas rules are my go to rules for everything non skirmish from Ancients to WW2, we only game about once a month so we need rules you can pick up and run with  without to much effort and brain work. These rules are great for that.

[bigredbat]

A great-looking game!

[Emir of Askaristan]

Day 2

This time the Epirotes met the Romans on the flat. Pyrrhus sent his cavalry down one wing and drove off their opponents and the turned to detach the second rank of the legions.

On the opposite flank the elephants and lights managed to see off the velites and the anti elephant pigs and cart, with only minor scorching to one of the big grey beasts.

In the center some bad dice rolls meant the phalanx was more than able to hold its own, and this time no rough terrain to break it up.

Some pics below and more on my blog....

[Phil Robinson]

A grand finale, and bacon to celebrate the victory.

[Emir of Askaristan]

I'll now be ordering my elephants to carry a full trunk of water for future encounters.