When all those altakaka's gather 'round the faded Panzergruppe Guderian mapsheets and begin to wax nostalgic about the "Golden Age" of wargaming, don't believe it. What they're really talking about is the golden age of TANK wargaming. Throughout the 70's and much of the 80's, games on WW II and III dominated the market. One irascible reviewer called it the "Curse of the Three N's: Nukes, Nato, and Nazis". (Ed. See, Ty! So where's that royalty check?) Endlessly dreary games on obscure East Front battles sold like latkes at a klezmer festival, while 3,000 years of history got the back of the industry's simulated hand. Well, that was then, and this is now. Today, Ancients is hotter than Madonna at a photo-op, and every game publisher this side of Nineveh is cranking out something for the spear and sword set. The foremost producer of pre-Napoleonic games - at least in quantity, certainly not in quality - is 3W. Keith Poulter's lust for new titles (a passion that seems to spontaneously generate somewhere in his rear pocket) is so all-consuming that he now appears intent on re-doing every Third World game from the 1980's, to which over-heatedness we are now indebted for a remake of Bill Bank's Ancients: Ancients I. Given the stunning sales and design success of the Great Battles of History series from GMT, one wonders exactly at what market 3W is gazing. SPQR featured state of the art graphics and design; the ambition and achievement of Ancients I is rather more limited. GBH is like a high-performance sports car: powerful, smooth, but somewhat intimidating to the first time user. Ancients I is the family hatchback- simple yet reliable. Then again, why do I want a Honda Civic if there's a Maserati in my garage? Ancients I comes in the familiar 3W box, compliments of the Osprey Men-At-Arms series. It still looks nifty, but with the seemingly endless number of Markham spin-offs ("The Black Prince Goes Hawaiian"), the shtick may have gotten a little stale, consumer-wise. This latest cover features some Parthian/Sassanid cavalry-types, including a Shirley Temple look-alike riding a horse decorated with Shell Oil logos. The inner components are workmanlike, and, if not exactly inspiring, a far sight better than what we're used to getting from 3W. It ain't DaVinci, but at least it's no longer the Stevie Wonder Paint by Numbers Kit. The rules book is clear, well laid out, and easy to follow … which is more than one can say for its sibling Scenario tome.Unlike most games, reading the rules is the easy part of Ancients I. Get ready for the Scenario Book From Hell. At first glance, it seems innocuous enough: a nice layout, 32 juicy scenarios ranging from Kadesh to Issus to Adrianople to Agincourt. A closer look indicates that the infamous and overpaid 3W "Glitch Detectors" fell asleep at the chariot wheel again. There are a depressing number of typos and errors of information, such as: At Mantinea, Epaminondas has been promoted to "Theban King" (… with the thanks of a grateful city-state, we presume). General Theagenes gets similar treatment at Chaeronea At Issus, Darius is told that, "A mere boy has invaded your empire and routes [sic] your armies." The Macedonians are now telling the Persians where to go physically AND metaphysically! In the "Historical [Hysterical?] Notes" for the same battle, we read that Darius' "...army is caught in a vice [sic] and his family is captured". So much for Persian Family Values. Aesop says: "A Punch of the Spellchecker Button Does Not a Proofreader Make." Well, we all have our "Days á la Decision". But, unlike the latter company - and their heinous Ancients in the Bag Quad - 3W's Ancients I attempts to combine at least a modicum of flavor and creativity with its simplicity, synthesizing familiar rules into an enjoyable and eminently playable system. This is no mean feat. Not too long ago, no less a designer than Jim Dunnigan tried and failed with Men-At-Arms. Where Ancients succeeds is in the smooth and natural flow of play that characterizes the game. The sequence of play is the old, reliable "Va... vadis - Latin for Igo (the Caesarean version of Igo-Hugo). The Phasing Player removes his leaders from the board, checks for army panic, brings on any reinforcements, moves, and places leaders back on the board. Mr. Non-Phasing Player gets a crack at fire combat, whereupon the Phasing Player resolves melee on a standard odds combat table. Finally, the Phaser rallies any disordered units that are stacked with leaders. Leaders are abstract representations of an army's command capability, hence their ability to appear at any location a player desires. The game offers a respectable spectrum of different kinds of units at a scale of 500-6000 men per unit: light, heavy, and phalanx infantry, light and heavy archers, "mixed-missile" (skirmishers with bite, like peltasts), light and heavy cavalry, knights, chariots, and the ubiquitous elephants. Units are rated for combat strength, movement, and missile ability. Some units, such as phalanxes, have a special ability noted with an asterisk (the big-stick boys are doubled vs. cavalry). All counters have a reverse, or disordered side, generally with a lessened combat factor. Attacking is voluntary, but if a unit attacks it must do so individually. This is a nice touch, as it prevents a bunch of light troops from ganging up on a heavy infantry unit to get better odds. Shock combat uses an odds-ratio table, ranging from 1-2 to 3-1, which results in either eliminations or disorders. Missile units use a chart that cross-references missile ability, range, and target type. This is basic stuff, to be sure, but it works - albeit with little subtlety. The handling of command, though, is less felicitous, as all leaders do is double unit strengths - with up to three leaders allowed in a stack, this means you would increase a 6 SP phalanx to a strength of 48! - and rally. Even early tactical games, like SPI's old PRESTAGS, had a better feel for the importance of command. Still, the effect works well enough in game terms, and griping about a lack of complexity in a game like this is sort of like getting offended by nudity in Penthouse. I mean, what did you expect? And if command is a tad sophomoric, the rest of the game is not. With his simple little system, Banks has managed to paint some (but certainly not all) broad truths about ancient and medieval warfare. For example, phalanxes are the most potent units in the game. However, they are unwieldy (1 movement point), so committing them is a one-way street; there isn't enough time in the game to change your mind once you launch an attack. They are also remarkably vulnerable when disordered. In a well led and drilled army, such as Philip's and Alexander's Macedonians, they are easily rallied; without the leadership edge, they easily fall prey to the more mobile and durable heavy infantry. (Can you say "legions" boys and girls? I knew you could.) In addition to the basics, there are the de rigueur, optional rules, which run the gamut from "Why wasn't this included in the regular rules?" (ZOC) to "Whaaaaaaat?!!?" (Dice-free combat, wherein every 1-2 is an Attacker Disrupted. Any takers?). There are, moreover, naval rules … even though there are no naval counters! For that, you have to plunk down your dinares for the soon-to-be available Ancients II. Everybody has an angle, but Keith is a regular Pythagoras. OK, the rules are read, the counters punched … it's Show Time! You read through the scenarios, looking for a favorite battle, when you're brought up shorter than Herve Villechaize. For some ill-starred reason, the 3W Development Team - Team Bozo - decided to break with tradition (and common sense) and introduce a new "system" for setting up the counters. You know, essayist Fran Leibowitz said that, if you're the first person to ever sautée steak with limes, try and think "why". The original Ancients used nice little deployment maps, showing you, at a glance, where all the units were deployed. But the Cretins de la Cambria decided that was too obvious. We now get counter information and hex number written in Assyrian shorthand, to wit: "3A2 (G12)" (gamespeak for "a 3-point Heavy Archer in hex G12"). But, as Al Jolson said, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Unfortunately - and literally so - there are NO hex numbers on the map! Instead, you get a sample map with letters across the top and numbers down the side. You are then instructed, in best New Age fashion, to "imagine" these letters and numbers on your scenario map. Sort of like the bumper sticker, "Visualize World Peace". Maybe a phone call to Hunk-Ra would help? It would be just about as effective. Ancients I was designed to be a fast, enjoyable game. Setting the thing up shouldn't be such a bloody chore. Fortunately, the set-up problems don't seem to have percolated into the scenarios. The sole exception is Magnesia, which appears as if it were taken from Coleridge's "Kubla Khan". Antiochus' cavalry on the extreme right is separated from, and facing perpendicular to!, the main Syrian army. Even weirder, the cavalry must cross a stream to get to the Romans. I have never encountered anything quite like this in any ancient or modern accounts. It flies in the face of what little we do know about the battle. It would be nice to see where the designer/developer got their information (Ed. The developer's "stately dome" was probably under the influence of the same "inspiration" relied upon by the poet.), but, alas, there is nary a bibliography or reading list to be found. Inexcusable. Bibliographies are not pedantry; they're common courtesy. So, why buy the Civic when you can drive off in that Maserati?. If price is an object, you know that the Great Battles Series, like Advanced Squad Leader, is somewhat pricey. For $25 bucks, 3W gives you more battles than you can shake a sarissa at. Ancients I is also a relatively painless, fast-food supplement for those three-legged, "Tactical Resolution" dogs most designers, devoid of any creative inspiration, have tacked on to such strategic/operational games as Trajan, Alexandros, Hannibal, etc. Ancients I is also a pretty good way to introduce the uninitiated to our obsession. It's fast, furious, fun that ends quickly, and leaves you wanting more. Bill Banks has managed to keep it simple without becoming overly simplistic. It's no SPQR; but neither is it gaming's equivalent to Dan Quayle - The Old Bag Quad. It's a quick, satisfying bash for the veteran, and an appropriate starting point for the neophyte. A pretty fair addition to this, the Neo-Classicist Renaissance of Wargaming. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Acceptable, if not exactly cutting edge. 3W's starting to show improvement. Playability: Real slam, bam, thank you Mamertines stuff. All scenarios are limited to a maximum of 6 turns, so you can rate it in games-per-hour! Solitaire is good. Replayability: Because of high scenario content and rapid-play time, a major asset. Historicity: Understanding its approach, an acceptable feel for the period. It gets the results right, although it has less chrome than a '68 Volvo. Comparisons: We're starting to get some traffic here. If you want to understand the dynamics of ancient battles, get SPQR, et al. - the Rolls Royce leading the pile-up. It's probably not as good as SPI's old PRESTAGS - but who can afford one of those? Men-at-Arms was a reach, but it only grasped disappointment. The Old Bag Quad is cardboard-pushing at its most dismal. Overall: Ancients I is not the definitive treatment of classical or medieval warfare, but it doesn't try to be. It is a fun game that shows you some glimmer of what happened. from 3W Games Six 8 1/2"x11" maps, 200 counters, one 8 page rulebook,1 scenario book, 1 chart card; 3W, POB 155, Cambria CA 93428. $25. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 7 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com