Ancient Rules: Ionia to Carthage – 546BC to 146BC

When I set out to write this set of rules I wanted to do something a bit different. I wanted to concentrate more on the men than the weaponry. So while equipment is important, drill and discipline can be equally important. Also I wanted to ensure troops couldn’t manoeuvre more than their historical counterparts. And I wanted rules where you weren’t faced with rebasing figures. All units are on an 80mm frontage. I tend to use two 40mm frontage bases on an 80mm sabot base. But provided both sides have approximately the same base size it doesn’t matter. Indeed 28mm on 120mm bases works well. Finally I wanted the rules to integrate into wargames campaigns. So whilst you can fight ‘one off’ battles, you will get more from these rules if you start with the wargames campaign and watch your armies grow and improve, Or alternatively, fail spectacularly as you’re forced to pad out the numbers with more and more poorly trained and inadequately remunerated levies. Because I wanted to provide a full campaign background, the rules include a section covering naval warfare as well. The rules have a nominal start date of about 540BC when the Achaemenid Persians conquered Ionia, and have a nominal end date of 146BC with the fall of Carthage. I confess to having concentrated on Achaemenid Persia, Greece, the Roman Republic, and Carthage. But there are enough troop types described to field Macedonians and the various Hellenistic successors. This rule set itself isn’t particularly long. The rules are about fourteen pages, the galley rules about ten. But the campaign rules are just over twenty pages, and the campaign itself, which is designed for solo play, is about thirty. Perhaps there is a hint in that? —description from the designer