It has long been my belief that “Gussie”, designed and developed by John Bennett, is one of the best campaign systems I have seen along side the late Tony Bath’ s “Setting up a Wargames Campaign”. The overriding point, for me, with “Gussie” is that it starts with mere tribal systems and develops into established nationalities each interacting with the other. It has long been my wish to attempt something similar but without the depth of calculating finances etc.
My main intention was to establish a set of countries wherein I could fight battles without worrying where the money came from and, initially, only dabbling with things like characterisation. My sources for ideas came from the many contributions to Lone Warrior (Whatever would we do without it?), such as the “Blobby” movement system, and Jon Laughlin’s ideas. Added to these are the 6mm Biblical armies produced by Irregular Miniatures.
Phase I was developed using the DBA system and creating 12 element armies from those supplied by Irregular. Initially I created a hexagonal map of 60 hexes and numbered them 01-06, 11-16, through to 91-96. [see map 1] By rolling a D10 and a D6 I was then able to identify a hexagon. The rest is explained in the rules and I have also added a specimen game in the hope that all requirements are clarified.
Phase I can be as long as the player wishes. In my case I decided to stop as near to 20 moves as practicable and, on concluding the phase, I classed each move as lasting 10 years. I was tempted to write out a “History” of this period but decided to leave it all to be referred to in later histories as a period of legends and heroes. At the end of Phase 1 you will have before you a mapped and organised area for campaigning. The initial phase will have given you targets for future warfare along with deep seated hatreds between countries and, with luck, you will not only have a reason for battles but also be able to justify them.
Ancient Campaign Armies
Army 1. Egyptian
Army 2. Hittite
Army 3. Hebrew
Army 4. Philistine
Army 5. Elamite
Army 6. Sumerian
Army 7. Mycenaean
Army 8. Assyrian
Army 9. Babylonian
Army 10. Midianite
Army 11 Nubian
Army 12. Old/Middle Kingdom Egyptian
Genesis Ancient Campaign
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