An Old Midlish Rhyme
The wind from the North sings of heroes of Olde
The wind from the East makes our blood run Cold
The wind from the South smells of Spices and Gold
But the wind from the West tells of warriors Bold.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

A new year, a new version

The 1st draft of the revised Gathering of Hosts has now been uploaded to Google docs.

In brief, having decided to drop WHAB, a decision to reverse the slow process of converting to single figures and movement trays was not long in following. Despite having various Old School leanings, and despite the potential flexibility, the awkwardness of the single figures and the rules advantages of basing the rules on elements   have swung me back to how I have tended to approach ancients for 25 years, with a few twists.

I have not pursued the grid option but the changes were strongly influenced by Bob Cordery's work with chessboard wargames.  Essentially, the rules are now close to being an ancients version of the phantasm called the Square Brigadier (which rapidly turned into the latest version of Hearts of Tin).  The troops types are those already laid out in Gathering of Hosts, with the orders dice system, initially inspired from DBA though somewhat different in application and a simple hit system inspired by Morschauser, with my own twist on it all.

I am now chomping at the bit to get the Persians on the table. I want to start with something different but a refight of a Greek& Persian wars battle will have to follow soon as a benchmark test.
 

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3 comments:

  1. Ross Mac,

    Ancients were never something I ever got excited about ... but I having read your blog (and rules) I am beginning to see its fascination.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ross
    I have downloaded these to use with my element based Early Imperial Romans...
    I look forward to using them sometime. Thanks for the inspiration that your blogs give me. Even when too tired to game they are a joy to behold!
    best wishes
    Alan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ross
    Am I mistaken or are there more rules to be added to this document? I have read so far and then,half asleep, wondered...
    thanks
    Alan
    p.s they look a real tonic by the way and just what ancients need!

    ReplyDelete