So... DBA, DBM or DBMM? Or FoG or HC???

[Too Bo Coo]

WOw, there sure are a lot of rule sets out there.  Any suggestions for favorites?

[Steve63]

Personal favourite is DBMM
The rules are pretty simple, Honest guv'nor and as long as you have a basic knowledge of the period tactics and a plan, you get a plausible result.  Word around the camp fire is PB is bring out the final book in hardback complete with lists some time soon.

[Jeff965]

My favourite is Neil Thomas rules, you can buy the books but the rules are free on their yahoo site. I don't remove figures and bases, I just keep a check on casualties on a piece of paper listing the units as I feel it adds to the fog of war.
I tend to only game once a month so the rules have to be simple enough to pick up in an evenings play, and these are ideal for that.

Jeff

[Emir of Askaristan]

I second the Neil Thomas set. Nice and simple, easy to get to grips with, friendly usergroup with lots of resources and a few followers on here too it seems 

I've been using them for Romans vs German games and, on the strength of those battles decided to take the plunge and get a Pyrrhic army and an Achaemenid army too, whilst mates have gone for hoplites and early romans. We also play using his napoleonic set too. Simple concepts which are explained and are aimed at "Club night" games as Jeff's said.

The rules are available from Amazon as a paperback or kindle book.

If you want to know more, drop me a PM.

[Too Bo Coo]

Thanks Mates!  Interesting stuff!  I think like with most historical games, it's so easy to use minis from one game to another.  It appears that basing is all but interchangeable with most of these games.  I got HC for xmas and since they dont do hard and fast basing reqs, I was looking at other games that might.  So I stumbled on DBX and then FoG, etc I have a bunch of Corvus Gauls and Romans so most of these games seem perfect. 

How is the basing for the Thomas game in relation to the others?

[Dale Hurtt]

You can use anything you want for basing, as long as you are consistent. I believe it is four 40mm wide bases per unit (for 15mm figures) with somewhere between 8-12 units. (Sorry, I forget and I could not find my rules handy.)

The rules are now available on the Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Medieval-Wargaming-Neil-Thomas-ebook/dp/B00DAJ7NMG/

Dale

[pogo]

Sword & Spear, hands down

have played WRG rules from 4th edition in 1974 till DBM 3.1 in 2008 (about 10 competition per year all over Europe since 1984)
then some FOG and HC, now Sword & Spear
Looked at DBMM, War & Conquest and Impetus but never played

Alex

[1ngram]

By far and away the best set of ancient rules I have come across in over forty years of wargaming is the Impetus set.  I prefer Basic Impetus which is available free on the Net to the full set which has become too complex and fiddly for me. The rules and army lists are available free here: http://www.dadiepiombo.it/images/stories/dp/basic2.html  There is a lot of info not only at the new Forum (see below) but also on the old one here: http://impetus.forumsland.com/impetus-forum-4.html  There is even a series of Youtube videos explaining the Basic Rules - well worth watching.  They are here:

 All you need to add to the Basic set is a rule for evasion (and this is given in the relevant section of the Impetus Forum http://impetus.ativiforum.com/ to get a rule system which has a supremely elegant solution to melee.  Try them.

[Polkovnik]

Sword & Spear, hands down

have played WRG rules from 4th edition in 1974 till DBM 3.1 in 2008 (about 10 competition per year all over Europe since 1984)
then some FOG and HC, now Sword & Spear

And if you want to find out more about my Sword & Spear rules, you can see a summary of reviews of them on my website:
http://polkovnik.moonfruit.com/sword-spear-reviews/
There are lots of battle reports on my forum, so you can get an idea of what it looks like and how it plays:
http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/battle-reports-f9.html

[Too Bo Coo]

And if you want to find out more about my Sword & Spear rules, you can see a summary of reviews of them on my website:
http://polkovnik.moonfruit.com/sword-spear-reviews/
There are lots of battle reports on my forum, so you can get an idea of what it looks like and how it plays:
http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/battle-reports-f9.html

Thank you so much!  I was just looking at your rules and for 6 GBP how can I go wrong?  I have Romans and Brits, just read the AAR, very interesting.  The great thing is I can play so many different sets of rules with the same minis.  Basing does not seem to be the biggest issue as I feared at least.

[A Lot of Gaul]

There are indeed many different Ancients rules sets available, for many different players and playing styles.  

Hail Caesar is my personal favorite, by far. The rulebook is written to be a 'toolkit' for light-hearted, 'gentlemanly' games amongst friends, and IMHO plays best if some time and effort have been spent in preparing the battle scenario and forces beforehand.

I have played most of the other rule sets mentioned, and each has its own set of strengths, weaknesses and adherents. My best advice would be to read some online reviews, find one or two others that interest you, and then give them a try to see which best suits your own wargaming tastes and playing style.

Cheers,
Scott

[A Lot of Gaul]

Duplicate post - my apologies.

[Golgotha]

Did get a renewed interest in Impetus when I saw this http://leadhatter.blog.com/2012/03/04/a-horse-a-horse-my-kingdom-for-a-horse/ chap does a Medieval Perry army in 10 days. A 10 day army challenge and trying a new rule set sounds to me like a good challenge.

[A Lot of Gaul]

Deleted.

[Too Bo Coo]

There are indeed many different Ancients rules sets available, for many different players and playing styles. 

Hail Caesar is my personal favorite, by far. The rulebook is written to be a 'toolkit' for light-hearted, 'gentlemanly' games amongst friends, and IMHO plays best if some time and effort have been spent in preparing the battle scenario and forces beforehand.

I have played most of the other rule sets mentioned, and each has its own set of strengths, weaknesses and adherents. My best advice would be to read some online reviews, find one or two others that interest you, and then give them a try to see which best suits your own wargaming tastes and playing style.

Cheers,
Scott

Thanks Scott! Luckily I got HC for Xmas and my club has a few players.  But they seemed to have loose basing reqs, so I was looking at other games that might be fun to play as well and has stricter basing reqs. 

Looks like a great game, can't wait to get stuck in!