Mongoose / Victrix warband skirmish rules

[PaulJB]

Anyone know anything about the new Victrix collaboration with Mongoose, a 'skirmish' game, warbands up to 60 figures. Included lists seem to focus on the early end of the classical period. Greeks and republican Romans etc.

They have a demo at Salute, I might go have a look see.

[Momotaro]

From the "State of the Mongoose" blog post earlier this year:

So, planned for a grand launch at Salute in 2015 is Warriors of Antiquity: Warbands of the Ancient World.

The original design brief for this game was to take the current Judge Dredd rules (themselves a development of Starship Troopers and Battlefield Evolution) and turn them into a set of rules based in the Ancient world.

As it turns out, the saying that a plan never survives contact with the enemy was apt here.

Victrix was not after a set of mass battle rules for Ancients line. Rather, they wanted a focus on small scale skirmishes – the countless battles that took place throughout history but were never reported. All those fights along the border, the cattle raids, ambushes and sneak attacks.

However, as we worked on Warriors of Antiquity, pretty much throughout 2014, the setting started having an impact on the mechanics (as it always does) to the extent that while its roots in the Battlefield Evolution rules are still recognisable (four action system, traits and Talents, for example) it plays very differently, with more of an emphasis on heroes leading small units (5-30 models in size).

The real joy for me is that we have succeeded in having more models on the table than in Judge Dredd (a starting warband has about 40-50 models, depending on what you take) but an average game between players who know the rules still takes about 20-30 minutes. With the full campaign system included in the rulebook, this means you can get several games done during an evening and watch your warband grow and your heroes develop!

If you have any interest in the Ancient world, this is one to watch our for. The rulebook is a glorious full colour hardback which contains more than 30 different scenarios (many designed for specific warbands, so they will fight on the tabletop as they did in history) and a wide choice of warbands, from the Athenians, Spartans and Thebans, to Republican Rome, Carthage and the ‘barbarian tribes’ (separate warband lists are provided for Britons, Gauls, the Germanic tribes and Iberians).

Warriors of Antiquity will continue to be supported as Victrix release more of their miniatures, and we hope to have a free PDF available bringing an entirely new (but very familiar!) warband to the game soon after launch!

[Romark]

Interesting.

[angstpuppet]

If it is based on the SST/BF Evo system it should play pretty well.  I never really messed around with SST but BF Evo was a really fun game that did not really lag even when me and my friends were first learning it.  As to how well they will support it, that is a different question. 

[matiec]

I will be heading to victrix stand at salute to have a nose 

[Golgotha]

Sounds promising like to know more...

[olyreed]

Is there a release date for these rules. They sound very promising

[morrigan]

I'm looking forward to hearing more about these. I'm in the market for a set like this.

[Gibby]

These may provide the excuse I need to do the Punic Wars in 28mm at last.

[Agis]

I always liked the simplicity of the Mongoose rules.

(OK, I am biased since I wrote Evolution WWII)...

Will get it!

[NurgleHH]

Interesting. I hope they won't forget the sumerians, etc. Often Ancient starts at Greeks.

[olyreed]

Anybody see these rules at salute?

[Agis]

Interesting. I hope they won't forget the sumerians, etc. Often Ancient starts at Greeks.

I bet these rules will be very generic - good thing IMO! - and might fit more or less everything ancient.

[Carnyx]

An AAR from the presentation games at Salute would be great!

[craigjwoodfield]

Considering the rubbish job that Mongoose did on Judge Dredd, I won't be buying these rules.