Ares battle report: Playing and falling in love with a classic

[The Bibliophile]

"Ares"--first published in 1999--is a great set of miniatures rules that have somehow fallen into obscurity. When I recently stumbled upon this rule set, they seemed quite intuitive, even elegant in the way it modeled things like combat. I was anxious to see if that translated to actual fun game play at the table. My group certainly thought so. In fact, I think these rules are some of the best I've come across, and I'm a little dumbfounded as to why they don't have a stronger reputation and a legion of loyal players.

I was excited to put the "Ares" rules through their paces, so I concocted the below scenario for our four-player game from this last Saturday.

THE LOST CITY OF AZERMATHY: A few weeks ago, the city of Azermathy suffered a mysterious calamity, leaving the once burgeoning trade hub abandoned by the men who inhabited it, streets and structures clearly ravaged by a torrent of unidentifiable violence. Situated in the oft-contested borderlands between several nation-states, the city’s neighbors have begun to send envoys to investigate Azermathy's fate.

Below are some photos from our game, though dozens more, along with my analysis of what makes the "Ares" rules so enjoyable, can be found at my blog, Scrum in Miniature:

https://miniaturescrum.blogspot.com/2017/12/lost-city-of-azermathy-ares.html










If I had created a more robust treasure table to roll against, we may have prevented two different warbands from acquiring Cloaks of Flying in our game, but then we wouldn’t have been blessed with this scene of a flying giant about to square off with a flying goblin archer.







A reviw of the "Ares" rules, home-brew scenario notes, and many more pictures can be found on my blog, Scrum in Miniature:

https://miniaturescrum.blogspot.com/2017/12/lost-city-of-azermathy-ares.html

[boneio]

A great read and an interesting set of rules, thanks.

But...what was the outcome? 

[DS615]

A fun looking game.
Ares is one of the "perfect" rule sets, together with Full thrust.  Fun, simple but not simplistic, and dead easy to tweak with any rules you need for your specific group. 
I actually compare all new rule against them.

I'm glad to see someone else playing them!

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I had a quick read through the demo rules.  They look good.  I know some people don't like different dice , but having been brought up with Dungeons and Dragons the polyhedral dice seem a nice idea.  I like how the rules handle morale for individuals and groups.
How much tweaking of the initiative rules would be needed to make these work for solo play?

[Bloggard]

looks fab - never heard of these rules before.

love the impromptu flying stands too.

[The Bibliophile]

A great read and an interesting set of rules, thanks.

But...what was the outcome?  

Funny...I realized I didn't really mention the outcome a few hours after posting that piece to my blog!

We had to end the game before anybody actually made it off the field of battle with their objective, though everybody had managed to find theirs. The corpses of orcs and ratmen were stacked pretty high on that long bridge, so they probably had little hope of getting across the field at that point with their loot. The dwarves, while slow, were also strong, and because they spent a fair amount of the game "turtling" in their starting corner, they had suffered no casualties, so we all concluded that they probably had the best chance of winning. The elves, however, might have been able to pull out a victory if they managed a lucky sprint across the battlefield. In the end, though, none of us cared much...we just had a good time pushing our lead men around the battlefield wreaking havoc when and where we could!

[boneio]

In the end, though, none of us cared much...we just had a good time pushing our lead men around the battlefield wreaking havoc when and where we could!

And that is the point after all! 

[The Bibliophile]

How much tweaking of the initiative rules would be needed to make these work for solo play?

I never play games solo, but I can't imagine it would take any more tweaking than other rule sets. You'd simply have to deal two hands of cards for initiative.