The Armies of Antiquity (AoA - a supplement for Ancient Battles) from Warharnmer have awakened my sleeping legions of ancients because I may finally get an ancient game at my local club, Wargamers of Ripon (WOR). That said it seems like I have had to drift back into 25mm to achieve my aim, which accounts for the title and my Samurai will have to be re-organized in order to comply with the lists. I am not a1ists' fan in that I much prefer to do my own research, which is why a lot of my gaming is done solo. I'd rather play a game than argue with some self styled military 'expert' on the correct shield designs of a particular force- if you have never met any gamer filling this description please feet to contact me and I will introduce to some of them. So why am I going on about AoA? Well, on the first read they seemed a bit tongue in cheek and that appealed to ne, so having enjoyed and agreed with the Samurai introduction I moved on to other armies in the list. I think the comment on the Ancient Chinese sums up the refreshing attitude these rules have to gaming: "It is highly unlikely that rockets were used during the period covered by the lists, but I've decided to include them anyway because (to me at least) a Chinese army without some rockets in it just don't seem right! To compensate for this blatant romanticism, I've made the rockets almost as dangerous to their own side as they are for the enemy., " (And that's a fact!) So back to the Samurai and the list covers 400-1250 AD and gamers are allowed sashimonos, or back banners, which is very liberal because they did not really come into operation until the 16th century but who can see a Samurai army without them? My original 25mm Japanese collection were the Bushi range from Village Green and I must admit it was not long before I was fitting them out with sashimonos purely for identification purposes. I often feel that the original back banners were invented with gamers in mind, in that they look good and really do aid gaming. Jervis Johnson's letter in Slingshot 201 was very interesting and it gives a good breakdown of the contents of AoA so I won't repeat that information. Peter Hall's article in Slingshot was excellent and I can't wait for the next part, partly because not at that time having a set of the Ancient Battles rules, it explained the abbreviations for me. Keith Stockburn was around the other night and he had previously stated he would be building a 500 point army for our planned AB games later this year. To which I replied that will give me 1 x Samurai General, 1 x Hero, 1 x Army Standard-bearer and a few of samurai on foot! Gave him a further look at the AoA and we have now decided to increase the points allowance for each force. Little did he know that at present I have 3,645 points and I still need more figures to finish off units! Gets out Dixon's and Village Green's catalogues! In summary AoA have revitalized my Ancient wargaming, as introduced garners Ancient battles at my local club and have finally made me finish off collecting and painting that New Kingdom Egyptian Army, that has taken longer to build than it did to a pyramid it seems! Personally I enjoy the lists because they appeal to my sense of fun gaming rather than trying to restrict a gamer to rigid boundaries dictated by serious academics. Recommended and I can't wait for the next supplement. Back to MWAN #102 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com