Ancient or Medieval Battles Wargame?

[Nefaro]

I've been keeping an eye out for some fairly inexpensive wargame of tactical battles. 

What are your current favorites?  I know that the Great Battles of History and Command and Colors series are popular but I'm looking for other suggestions too. 

I'm a bit familiar with the GBoH system and was looking for something a bit different.  I'm still keeping C&C: Ancients on my want list but .. oh my god the sticker & block hell!  I'll keep watching for deals on used copies of the latter in good condition.

There is a ziplock game at GMT called Swords & Sovereignty I'm curious about. http://www.gmtgames.com/p-431-swords-sovreignty.aspx

I believe they also just released a new Men Of Iron series game, Blood & Roses, but I'm not familiar with the system.  http://www.gmtgames.com/p-425-blood-roses.aspx


I'm kinda in the dark about such battle-level games these days, as I've not owned one since the 90s.  I think that last one was one of the early Great Battles series and I didn't even get it on the table.  Pretty sure I still have one or two wargames of the type packed away but those are 18th century stuff (like Zorndorf and another set in the Spanish War of Succession) so they don't quite fill my spear, armor & shield needs.

Recommendations?

[weateallthepies]

My favourite of those I have tried is Infidel from the Men of Iron series. I'll almost certainly get Blood & Roses when it is available in the UK. Blood & Roses is likely to play a little differently from what I have read, and just from looking at the battles. Infidel however is excellent, epic, sweeping battles, lots of movement, I can get really into it like a good movie. Balance is way off from what I can tell, so almost preferable as a solitaire history simulation. Rules are way easier than GBoH, and less of the leaning towers of counters I saw when looking into that series.

I do like C&C Ancients, but it's a completely different beast.

Other than that I enjoy Philip Sabin's games...Lost Battles, and lately Legion. Lost Battles is out of print and expensive, though you can buy the book and just make pieces or use miniatures. Legion can be had from the Society of Ancients, though it's pretty much DTP style components, requiring mounting and cutting counters.

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Battles-Reconstructing-Clashes-Ancient/dp/0826430155

pricey, but well worth it

[Jack Nastyface]

FWIW...I recently played (and enjoyed) CC: Ancients but I do find the game system to be much less a "sim" than a good "beer and pretzels" game.  IMHO, MoI "feels" more like a wargame in so far as you need to consider formation, terrain, and unit strengths to win.  In some of my games of CC Ancients, I have witnessed more than a few "berzerker" charges at the enemy with elephants or cavalry in order to capture a couple of standards.

Of course, if you like your medieval war down-and-dirty and man to man, you can't go wrong with Cry Havoc!

[MengJiao]

I've been keeping an eye out for some fairly inexpensive wargame of tactical battles. 

What are your current favorites?  I know that the Great Battles of History and Command and Colors series are popular but I'm looking for other suggestions too. 

I'm a bit familiar with the GBoH system and was looking for something a bit different.  I'm still keeping C&C: Ancients on my want list but .. oh my god the sticker & block hell!  I'll keep watching for deals on used copies of the latter in good condition.

There is a ziplock game at GMT called Swords & Sovereignty I'm curious about. http://www.gmtgames.com/p-431-swords-sovreignty.aspx

I believe they also just released a new Men Of Iron series game, Blood & Roses, but I'm not familiar with the system.  http://www.gmtgames.com/p-425-blood-roses.aspx


I'm kinda in the dark about such battle-level games these days, as I've not owned one since the 90s.  I think that last one was one of the early Great Battles series and I didn't even get it on the table.  Pretty sure I still have one or two wargames of the type packed away but those are 18th century stuff (like Zorndorf and another set in the Spanish War of Succession) so they don't quite fill my spear, armor & shield needs.

Recommendations?

I did an AAR here about Bouvines last year.  that's one of the games in Swords and Sovereignty. 

[Nefaro]

Thanks guys.

I may give Blood & Roses or Swords & Sovereignty a try sometime.

[Nefaro]

I did an AAR here about Bouvines last year.  that's one of the games in Swords and Sovereignty.

I'm gonna add this series to the top of my list, after seeing one of Marco's video reviews of this one and the other one with a pair of King Richard's battles.  I think The Lion and the Sword will be the first on my Wish List.  It looks beautiful for a ziplock bag game.

[MengJiao]

I did an AAR here about Bouvines last year.  that's one of the games in Swords and Sovereignty.

I'm gonna add this series to the top of my list, after seeing one of Marco's video reviews of this one and the other one with a pair of King Richard's battles.  I think The Lion and the Sword will be the first on my Wish List.  It looks beautiful for a ziplock bag game.

  I found it to be a fast-paced, but fairly subtle game system.  Things can change pretty fast -- which certainly happened pretty often in Medieval Battles.

  For other ancient and medieval games -- all the layers of morale and what not just seem to slow down and homogenize these battles, which were really pretty fast and brutal see-saw contests.

  On the other hand I like the layered treatment in the GMT musket and pike series.

[calandale]

I prefer GBoH to the lighter treatment in MoI.

A nice compromise though exists with Guelphs and Ghibellines (coverage here).
The core is the MoI series, but with some changes to reflect something more like GBoH cohesion hits, which feels a lot better to me.
Some have also enjoyed Simple GBoH as a good middle ground.

As to the GBoH stuff, I'm finding I really like the chit pull change to the system in Chariots of Fire (covered as well), and Hoplite.
I also like the Hoplite charge momentum: something like that probably belongs in most ancients/medieval games really, but it's
very appropriate in this one.

If you want very competitive-minded games (which are still good for historicity), I'd suggest Ancient Battles Deluxe. Nice
short playing, head to head action, without a lot of overhead. Probably ends up at least as realistic as the more detailed games.
I've also covered that, though it's not my taste really.

[Nefaro]

I've still not even put Le Lion L'Epee on the table yet.  Been buying new games faster than I can play them!  :D

[calandale]

I've still not even put Le Lion L'Epee on the table yet.  Been buying new games faster than I can play them!  :D

Tell me about it. I've managed to get to a pace where I can play about what I'm buying, but it looks hopeless
to even get everything played nowadays.

In some ways, I miss when the hobby seemed mostly dead.

[MengJiao]

I did an AAR here about Bouvines last year.  that's one of the games in Swords and Sovereignty.

I'm gonna add this series to the top of my list, after seeing one of Marco's video reviews of this one and the other one with a pair of King Richard's battles.  I think The Lion and the Sword will be the first on my Wish List.  It looks beautiful for a ziplock bag game.

  I found it to be a fast-paced, but fairly subtle game system.  Things can change pretty fast -- which certainly happened pretty often in Medieval Battles.

  For other ancient and medieval games -- all the layers of morale and what not just seem to slow down and homogenize these battles, which were really pretty fast and brutal see-saw contests.

  On the other hand I like the layered treatment in the GMT musket and pike series.

  After Hoplite, I'm changing my mind on this one: ie, the Hoplite-style systems seem better to me than the "layered treatment" of M&P.

[Nefaro]

I also want to check out Hoplite sometime.  But.. omg.  I've been picking up approximately four new games a month lately.  Sometimes more.

At least my PC game purchasing has seriously dropped off.