Tactica

Ancients Rules

By John Boehm

TACTICA by Arty Conliffe is billed as a new and historical approach to ancient wargaming. The author is to be commended for presenting us with not only a new set of ancient wargame rules, but also for successfully laying out and encompassing his view of ancient warfare in a plausible and easily understood manner. These rules contain new and interesting mechanics plus concepts which, while perhaps not entirely new, nevertheless are skillfully blended together to produce, in my mind at least, a much more historical perspective of ancient battles.

Equally or perhaps more impressive is the layout of these rules in a 90 page slick cover booklet chock full of color and black and white photos of beautiful armies. The reader should not be daunted by the size of the book, which includes 34 pages of army organization tables, because it is interspersed with diagrams and photographs illustrating the rule mechanics. The text is easily understood, well organized, and adequately cross referenced. Rules are repeated as necessary so that all relevant rules on any subject are all in one place. The author also does a good job at explaining how the rules relate to his concepts of ancient battles something that many rule writers could do much better. A two sided simple quick reference card is also included.

The author's approach is one of broad tactical concepts ignoring minutae and gimmicks. Key to this approach is the concept of the main battleline which must present a solid unbroken and unflanked front to be decisive, as opposed to the wheeling and freely maneuvering individual units often found in some games, which in turn bear little resemblance to ancient battles. The conflicting roles of depth versus frontage present realistic dilemmas for players, and depth of formations can play an important ro le. In this same regard the vulnerability of flanks plays a key role in a battle's outcome. The spirit, training, and armament of troops is represented in the simplified concept of a fighting value for each unit. Missile fire is not decisive but can play an important role in the outcome.

The game is designed for 25mm troops although it can be played with 15mm troops. Separate basing restrictions were given but it can be played with figures based for other rules. In this game skirmishers and light infantry should ideally be individually based. The figure scale is 1 to 100 and the rules are intended to be used with armies of 150 to 300 figures. The troop types include heavy infantry which encompasses all close fighting or "massed" infantry.

A special subclassification is also provided for phalanxes or pike or spear armed troops. Skirmishing infantry are just that, light missile armed troops, while light infantry represents troops like peltasts which can either mass in close formation or fight as skirmishers. Cavalry is represented by heavy and light classes. Elephants, chariots, and camels are also provided for.

The sequence is a move-countermove system followed by missiles, melee, morale, and post-melee bonus moves which allow exploitation of victories by massed units. One new idea is that of the deployment turn, usually the second game turn, in which battlelines and massed units must deploy in their intended combat formations. Once deployment is executed units are very restricted in terms of maneuver and movement other than straight ahead.

Missile fire involves primarily bows, slings, and javelins with a die roll of "6" for each firing figure indicating a kill. A simple and easy procedure to say the least. Pila are also treated as missiles 0 agree) and the effect is taken in the initial turn of a melee but before hand to hand combat is resolved. Missile fire essentially halts units, delaying and frustrating plans, and causes attrition.

Melee involves separate procedures for skirmishers and massed units. Skirmisher melees are a quick and bloody series of figure to figure combats or die rolls. Some types of skirmishers have bonuses to reflect their propensity for hand to hand combat. Skirmishers contacting massed units are simply dispersed and removed from play. Massed unit melees involve die rolls for front rank figures plus bonus dice for deeper formations, pikes, and spears. Casualties are inflicted based on the unit's fighting value. Special provisions allow formed light infantry to support or intermix with cavalry. Flank and rear attacks are very deadly.

Morale is checked for three occasions (missile losses, melee casualties, and being routed through) and is based on a unit's casualty losses plus certain bonuses for elite units. It is a simple procedure involving two dice. missile losses and the morale check may cause a unit to halt. Melee losses and the morale check may cause a unit to break. A unit in the immediate "6" rout path of a broken unit may be disordered by the subsequent morale test. Disorder may also result from terrain and elephants. Routing units and those falling below 25% of their strength are simply removed from play.

There are special rules for chariots and elephants representing their shock effect and their increased vulnerability. Routing elephants may disorder their own side's troops as often occurred. Special provisionsalso designed to represent the unique abilities of the Roman manipular or cohort formations, and the Carthaginian multiple battle lines. Terrain rules are limited but reflect the fact that most battles were fought in open areas. Special provisions for additional terrain are included to allow barbarians to fight more effectively against Romans.

The battles are intended to be fought between historical opponents with which I agree. To this end there are 25 army lists with "representative" and fixed army compositions designed to provide "balanced" opposition to historical opponents. In some cases the historical opponents are thus limited under this system as is army composition. This is where I take exception to an otherwise excellent set of rules.

As an historical gamer I am not particularly interested in competitive games between "balanced" fixed composition historical armies. I am interested in creating historically plausible battles and campaigns using all the diversity that ancient armies actually possessed. The system as designed does not lend itself to that aspect of wargaming. This, of course, appears to be the mainstream approach in most other periods except ancients which in turn has developed a large and visible subculture of highly competitive gamers. Apparently to appeal to that group of gamers the rules also offer a progressive system of awards for victorious generals.

Overall, I personally recommend trying these rules. My compliments to the author. I like many of the overall concepts and the visual display presented by the color photographs is almost worth the price itself. They sell for $20.00 plus $2.00 postage from Modeler's Mart, 118 Cedar St., Safety Harbor, FL 34695.

Reviewing Stand

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