Period: Ancients (Biblical to 15th century)
Author: Bob Bryant
Publisher: Colonnade
Publishing Distributor: Viking Forge
Cost: $18 (I think?)

Might of Arms is a glossy cover, 8.5" X 11" set of ancient through medieval period rules developed and tested over six years by Bob Bryant. I first encountered the game at Historicon in 1992, if I recall correctly. Bob was running a demo game of his rules and it looked quite entertaining. The game played fast.

Also, the players, who started the game unfamiliar with the rules, seemed to be playing well with only minimal references to the pullout chart or questions for Bob, and of course the terrain and figures were very pretty. I picked up a copy of the rules then and took them home and played a few games with my local opponents, but WRG was just too hot so I had to set it aside. I picked up a second updated copy at Historicon in 1994.

This time I got to command the Roman right wing against the Carthaginian hordes. We thrashed them soundly, but more importantly, I really liked the feel of Bob's rules. All you really needed was the pullout chart to play if you had any previous experience in ancient wargaming.

When Hal asked me to review the published version I was quite eager to see Bob's final product, especially after I ran into Bob at Cold Wars this year and got to see the play of late medieval troops. Enough gabbing, let's get down to details.

The rules are similar to many of the best ancient and medieval products currently available. As I play and read them, I get the feeling Bob has played WRG 6th and 7th, Tactica, Armati, and DBM, incorporating many of the good ideas into a synthesized product that well demonstrates the principles of ancient and medieval warfare. In addition, Bob included flexible army lists for designing 150 different armies spanning the rules period.

The lists are similar in use to the WRG army lists, though formatted somewhat differently. All the perennial favorites are there, Hittites, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Macedonians and Successors, Byzantines, Gauls, Numidians, Romans, Franks, Saxons, Huns, Vikings, English, French, Teutonics, Burgundians, Swiss, Ottomans, and many more. He also included an excellent section detailing tournament formats, victory conditions, campaign casualty recovery, and terrain placement rules.

Rule Specifics

Getting on to the rule's specifics, first, you do not have to remount your figures if you play WRG or DBM--it's compatible. Actually, as long as your basing is consistent and you move figures in set blocks, any basing can be used though ground scale might be off. Second, you really can start playing using only the pullout reference card and an occasional reference to the text.

That is not to say this is a beer and pretzels set of rules. It is not. Bob just put all the critical information on the card. Third, the text is chock full of illustrations that clearly depict the rules, showing what is legal and what isn't.

As in any good set of wargame rules, the key to victory is the morale system that is relatively simple and effective. Figures or stands are not removed from play except when whole units rout. Units that suffer hits keep track of them via casualty caps (or other markers or a roster) until they have one hit per stand, then replace it with a fatigue marker.

Each fatigue marker affects morale rolls when called for, such as charging, countercharging, receiving a charge halted, evading, melee or shooting damage, leader wounded, or seeing a friendly rout. Two six-sided dice are rolled for morale against a set morale level modified by the fatigue points and other factors. Troops can be in good morale, worn (fatigued in WRG), shaken (combination of disorder and shaken in other rules), or routed.

There are 29 troop types, although five are just distinguished because they are elite. All the unusual troop types are included such as elephants, scythed chariots, wagons, and camels. Units are organized into multi-stand formations similar to most rules, with a variety of depths and widths allowed. Movement is more liberal than many other systems, in both distances and maneuvers allowed.

There is provision for units outside a certain radius from the enemy to double move similar to WRG march moves. Oblique, multi-wheel, and other maneuvers are allowed to most troops, which is one of the few things that some of the more scholarly in our midst might object to. However, Bob tried to focus on playability and a certain freedom to ebb and flow on the battlefield which some rules do not really allow. However, knowing some might object, he covered this and many other time-period or army related special situations in the 21 optional rules.

Shooting and combat are straight forward. For missile fire, look up the shooting weapon and target on the chart, find the "to hit" number and any modifiers, and roll a six-sided die for each firing stand. If the roll is less than or equal to the required number, the target suffers a hit. For combat, add up the number of stands fighting, look up the combat factor on the chart by troop type (not weapons as in WRG), add any modifiers (pikes vs. mounted, charging, shaken etc.), and roll a six-sided die.

Reference the Hit Chart to find the number of hits. Units of similar size and type will grind on each other for several turns before one breaks, and big units will tend to hang around longer. Troop distinctions that make a difference other than type are elites, fierce troops (targets check morale on first charge), and morale state. Leaders play a role by improving unit melee and morale. Optional rules allow for Inept, Rash, and Cautious leaders and an effect on initiative each turn.

My overall impression of the game is outstanding. Bob has not left anything out of the rules which gamers need or want. The game plays quickly and is well suited to multi-player and new-player games. The battles give historical results, forcing you to follow historical precautions: screen your heavies with skirmishers from massed missile fire, protect your missile units with heavy troops, cavalry generally will not win head up with infantry unless it is massed, charging in the open, and very heavy (knights/cataphracts), don't fight with close order troops in bad terrain, and don't fight elephants if you don't have to.

There have been numerous improvements in the final set that were not included in previous pre-publication editions, many of which I have mentioned and lauded above. The complaints I do have are very minor, i.e. the rule stating that routed units are removed from play is located under Movement instead of Morale in the rules.

Also, I would have liked to see a key word index at the back, though the Table of Contents is very thorough. However, none of these significantly detract from this excellent set of rules. And at $18 it's very reasonable considering you get the rules and the army lists in one volume! Bravo Bob!

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