Ancient Rule Sets

Well, what rules to use, what rules to avoid?

They range from something as simple as DBA (ten infamous pages of simple rules later clarified with a unofficial guide of only seventy four pages [yes that is sarcasm], or even BBDBA), then to as "mind boggling" a set of rules as DBM (for more, ahem, er competition orientated gamers), to what I consider as a cry for sanity and call for good gaming in DBMM (played in good spirit but still suffering from the rules lawyer issue, and its DBMM100, DBM200 variants - there is hope here) or to the still serious but strangely fun rules of Impetus to the novel simulation orientated rules of Strategos II (aka Lost Battles) and a few more in between (such as Armati) I could have mentioned.

I guess it all depends who is going to play them. For me my next task is to entertain an intelligent set of jovial beginners who want to play in a competitive but historically realistic fashion, win or lose. So ,,, Strategos II/Lost Battles gets the call (see below):

A grid based system that avoids most of the common or cunning wargaming wibbles. It is from the academic stable of Prof Phil Sabin from King's College and has playability and historical simulation at its core. Should be fun ;)

The battle I intend to play is The First Battle of Mantinea (418BC) in the Peloponnesian War.

Persian 28mm Spara Bara

Danger! Danger! Threat of "scale duplication" and a "shiny project" appearing from out of NOWHERE!

Literally "given to me as a present" as the leftover 'spares' from a small Impetus Army from "another wargamer" (with a cunning 'evil master plan' to get me hooked) these SparaBara are a tempting lure to get me disinterested in my 15mm metal Ancients collection and start 'scale spanning' into 25mm plastics.

Naturally I am treating it as a pure academic painting exercise. We will see how long before my resistance breaks and I start planning an "order of battle" (see below):

I took them on a recent family holiday to Norfolk, my night times were pleasantly passed comsuming a nice cold lager or brandy and lemonade, while assembling the Sparabara (see below):

Enough for two units of twelve figures each in Impetus or five double based and a single base in DBMM ;)

The good thing that I like about Impetus armies in 28mm is that it allows each unit to be a diorama exercise in its own right and if far less figure intensive than a DBM or DBMM equivalent army.

So there I have my dilemma, go the scenic Impetus route or the more standard and pragmatic DBMM 

DBMM: The Die is cast

Following my recent DBMM AAR postings, with clear head and happy heart I can make the following announcement (to myself) ...

After countless sleepless nights lost in deep, deep thought (or should I say months/years stemming back to my first encounter with DBA in 1994) about the "DBx family of rules" I have come to a monumental, nay strategic decision. Well monumental for me at least and strategic because it means no rebasing but still allowing maximum enjoyment in the ancient period of the Wargaming hobby ;)

DBMM (version 2) is  now my official poison of choice. (With the caveat that the figures based for these rules can still be used "with the aid of sabots" for Impetus)

So DBM is dead for me but in all honesty has been for some time (the phrase cutting my losses seems apt here). It was only ever a competition orientated system (IMHO) and evolved slowly into a Byzantine geometry form of participation art rather than a vehicle for historical gaming.

DBA was and still is a seductive alternative (or rather was) but the pragmatics of both learning two 'similar but different' rule systems and remembering the rule differences when playing is just self-defeating. It also has the famous "rule of twelve" that artificially gives battles of "even sized" armies. The smaller DBMM 100, DBMM 200 allows an army to slowly grow in size :)

Please note the above is just a personal choice ;)