Skirmish rules

[Saucy Jack]

I am thinking about getting into Ancients and while I would love to tackle a large army, my experience in wargaming is with skirmish games. This is what my gaming group will want to play as well, so are there any good skirmish rules made specific for the period?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

7th Voyage springs to mind, it uses Crooked Dice's Action: Engine rules mechanics.  Haven't played yet, but from reading through it seems pretty good.  It's definitely a more "cinematic" set of rules, though, and includes plenty of mythological elements.  Of Gods and Mortals is similar in setting/tone - mortals intermingled with deities and monsters - but based on the Ganesha "Songs of..." rules, and always includes a deity in every warband (to my knowledge).

If you're looking for something with a little less fantasy flare, then there's the quite recently released "Songs of Shadows and Dust," which is also based on the Ganesha system and depicts essentially street gangs in the ancient Mediterranean.  Civilians and mobs play a large role.  Furthermore, there is also a planned "Songs of Shields and Spears," which I think would be more military units rather than the political intrigue of urban centers.

There is an excellent modification of GW's LOTR skirmish rules on the Yahoo LOTR Rule Variants group that includes Early Imperial Romans (and many of their allies), Celts, Dacians, and Germanic barbarians.  There is also a Greek version, that has historical as well as mythological elements.

You could always use Warhammer Ancient Battles with the Warhammer Fantasy skirmish rules tacked on (may require some shoe-horning).

There are also a bunch of free rule sets, which I found here:
http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ancient.html

I think this one is supposed to be kind of popular:
http://phil-barker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/DBV%202003.htm

[AndrewBeasley]

if you want to move up from single figure being one man to small unit battles have a look at Mighty Empires from Rebel Miniatures http://www.rebelminis.com/miaranp.html Designed for 15mm but works well with 28s and great fun for a quick unit based game.

[Mindenbrush]

Pig Wars by Tod Kershner - card based and plays quickly without any odd 'events'.

[Saucy Jack]

Cheers for the replies guys, please keep the suggestions coming. I'm and will look into all the systems suggested on here.