What are the differences between the Ancient system and the regular musket Pub Battles? Is there anything new?
- No map. This makes the moves much more quick and simple. No road column formation changes and tricky maneuvers to figure out.
- No FoF or disengaging.
- No formal Commands. Every HQ can command any troops in range.
- No waiting till the end of the turn to resolve combat. You resolve combat immediately after you move.
- Leaders can be killed!
- No Baggage Trains.
There are also some new rules that we plan on incorporating into our Musket Battles as we move forward:
- Unified point system that allows you to create your own armies and fight unknown battles. I really like this. That way you can march into a battle and fight a completely unknown situation. You have to deal with whatever you find and react accordingly. Much more realistic in many ways.
- We are zeroing in on a unified and comprehensive victory system based on points. We’ve been testing this in all the Pub Battles. It is the standard with these rules. Works for just about any battle. If this continues to work, we will be adapting it into all Pub Battles soon. We’ve been getting fantastic results with this when combined with the Baggage Trains in the musket battles.
- New 1 Step blocks: “Dispersed Troops”. This greatly ups the deceit and fog-of-war, especially with the unknown OB.
So one awesome thing with how ancient plays out is it starts and just in first turn or two a lot can happen, especially if both sides are aggressive. It’s strategic in setting up how lines will hit and how you’ll respond once they’re all broken up. But then from there the sides will start to lose a general or two and the game actually changes with it. Then it can come out to a fast paced tactical game towards the end that is unforgiving and intense. Very interesting system.
It is still a very good idea and a pleasant realization of commandpostgame that this game on the battles of the antiquity. I hope others will follow.
I just received the game and after a few games I have some questions or remarks or suggestions:
– the camp: the camp was fundamental at the time. It was the umbilical codon of the army without which an army blets than a lost horde. The strategy revolved around the camp that had to be protected or that could turn into a trap. Is it possible to add an optional rule about camps by physically positioning them on the map?
– the units of carthage: if some were in the form of pikemen, it was not the case of all, like the Spanish or Gauls. How to distinguish them?
I think originally we had a baggage train block. That functioned like the ‘camp’. Each side had 1, set a certain distance behind their front line. I think that worked fairly well but it required a bigger table size. Seems like it also resulted in some problems…. I forget what they were now. I remember we tried it but then ended up going to the boxing ring type playing area. Essentially this does the same thing but it resolved the issues we were seeing.