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Ancient wargames
#16
I don't think you're going to have that problem with your icon anymore, Speculator 'Section.<br>
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I use Honesty.com for all my image hosting; as long as the image is accessed once a month, they never delete it, their servers are rarely down, and best of all, it's quite free of charge! <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#17
Does anyone have "Cataphract," one of the new modules that GMT Games put out for the SPQR (GBOH) series?<br>
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I haven't bought it yet and was wondering if I ought to. <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#18
I've never found a good 'Ancients' game, ever. Having said that, Brittania, a board game by AH, was a fine strategic level game based on the various invasions of Britain. Players controlled invaders thru Britain's history and won points for holding out as long as possible with each successive group. As a multi-player game it was very interesting. You always wound up losing with a given group (ie:Romans) but it was fun trying to stave off each barbarian horde as it came historically. It was interesting to first BE the barbarians and then become establishment and fight off the NEW barbarians. <p></p><i></i>
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#19
Hey, I like this discussion group! I'm a big historical wargaming afficianado, when I can find the time, that is. Another big wargaming discussion group is www.consimworld.com .
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I've been playing Shogun: Total War for a while. Nothing beats several thousand howling Japanese warriors after a hard day at grad. school! After several months of monkeying around in the custom army setting, I figured out that cheap and dirty Ashigaru spearman armies give you the most bang for the buck. Any other tips on effective army recipes?<br>
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A sure-fire way to defeat the computer army when it's defending a river crossing involves using classic bait & lure tactics. First, fill your army with archer or gunner units. On the battlefield, march your army up to the river bank at the bridge crossing. Line the river bank with your missile units, packed together as closely as possible. The computer army will be several hundred yards away, watching you from across the river. Send out your lure - preferably a light cavalry unit - across the bridge into enemy territory. The AI will inevitably attempt to attack with a few of its own units. Right before the AI units close with your lure unit, recall it across the bridge on the double, and pour arrows and/or lead into the foolish enemy units. The frustrated computer units will retreat, but not before they take some serious casualties. This rather silly tactic can be repeated ad nauseum, until your lure and missile units are exhausted and a heap of dead and dying enemy soldiers litter the opposite bank. Then you launch your fresh spearmen across the bridge to mop up the decimated computer army. In theory, that's how it should work, anyways. In practice, the AI army fights to the bitter end, despite the missile casualties.<br>
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A few problems with the game - the programmers should have made flank attacks and downhill attacks much more powerful. As it is, if you attack an enemy unit in flank, or on the run down a hill, the momentum of your attack is absorbed by the enemy units, who basically stand in place and stoically engage in melee, rather than breaking and running before your onslaught.<br>
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I also tried to form dense pike blocks, a la the Swiss, by moving two spearmen units together, but they didn't like that and wouldn't stay put. Too bad.<br>
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As far as boardgames go, and more on topic, I recently purchased the SPQR box set, a tactical boardgame published by GMT, using counters and hexmaps, which covers the major battles of the Roman Republic (Cannae, Zama, Magnesia, Cynoscephalae, etc.). There are also expansion modules for battles between Alexander's Successors, several 4th century Greek battles (Mantinea & Leuctra). GMT also publishes several other box sets - Alexander the Great's Battles, Julius Caesar's Great Battles, and a 16th century Shogun set (which includes Nagashino & Sekigahara). All sets use the same rules.<br>
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Looking at strategic boardgames, one of my favorites is Imperium Romanum II (unfortunately out of print, but ebay or a nearby gamestore may have some used copies for sale). This game includes a big fold-out hex map of the Roman Empire and a gazillion counters, plus a scenario book covering civil wars, invasions, and campaigns from the 1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D. Pretty cool! The rules are a little long, so beware. Currently I'm in the midst of rewriting some of the rules, based on my reading of Roman logistics. (I picked up a book on Roman logistics written by Jonathan Roth, which has the dope on Roman supply lines, pack animals, foraging, etc.)<br>
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Adios<br>
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- Robert <p></p><i></i>
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#20
Hi Robert! You look quite ready for a trip to www.totalwar.org the # 1 fansite for the game. We have great forums over there (myself and Catiline are mods there too) and we discuss tactics tips and all sorts of stuff. The forums are a little crazy right now due to the release of the Mongol Invasion expansion pack, but look in the strat archive and the history and you'll find some really useful stuff.<br>
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Hope Jenny doesn't mind me posting the link. After all, that's where most of the first people to come here came from. <p></p><i></i>
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#21
Not at all, Shiro, a little reverse recruiting never hurt anyone<br>
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A little ancient history for you all: I first met Shiro and Catiline at the Shogun.org fan board a while ago, before RAT was founded. I recruited them as moderators shortly after the board went up. It's strange and wonderful how much RAT has grown since then. Thanks to all of you!<br>
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And welcome, Robert, make yourself at home. If you enjoy Jon Roth's book, which I agree is great stuff, try Engels' book on Alexander's logistics, or Erdkamp's "Hunger and the Sword."<br>
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I invited Richard Berg to visit us -- SPQR was one of his many game inventions -- but I wonder, has he? The Gaming forum was established mainly upon his suggestion in an email to me a short while ago.<br>
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Cheers,<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#22
Hey all,<br>
I just stumbled across this website and it is awesome. Anyway I have been making a game for about 10 years off and on. It is ancient battle system for waging war.<br>
I have replayed the battle of Guagemela twice and the results are very promising.It came out identicaly with the historical outcome - I havent varied the beginning setup yet to see if the persians can win. I am going to start in on some battles of the Roman era next, notably Cannae , and Zama. I could never really find an ancient game that seemed realistic enough hence I created my own. I am in negotiations with a publisher to get it marketed soon-I hope. Shogun is pretty good as a board game .I have yet to play the computer version. I didnt really care for the GBOH series. Anyway if anyone wants to know more let me hear it. <p></p><i></i>
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#23
Welcome, Amaraii, and Robert, and all our new friends --<br>
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Would love to hear more about your game system, Amaraii, why don't you start a thread and tell us more about it?<br>
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Cheers,<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
Reply
#24
I also enjoyed the great battle games....although you are right...lot's of bugs..one time i actually managed to kill pompey with an archer...when his turn came round...game over...lol...can't go on till pompey takes his turn....and the hannibal game....sigh....everytime i got down into central italy...poof...crash...never did find a patch or any help...i would very much like to find a roman wargame with a similar format...but with the more up to date stuff...lol....i also loved all the caesar games..and pharoah made me late for work a couple of times...lol...anyway...let us know about zeus when you install it....i saw the trailer....looked kinda silly to me...hope i was wrong... <p></p><i></i>
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#25
Zeus, as cartoony as it looks from the game box, is actually GREAT! It's not really historical, per se, but set more in a mythological context. The religious aspects are better dealt with than in Pharoah or Caesar -- in fact, just as Greek mythology would have you believe, the gods walk amongst men and can intervene quite dramatically in the affairs of your cities.<br>
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I liked the fact that the original city does not change from one segment of the "quest" to the next, in other words, you don't have to start from scratch every time, which is refreshing. The quests themselves are quite logical, challenging but attainable (and there are tasteful cheats if one has too little patience) and most of all, FUN.<br>
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I'd highly recommend Zeus. It's the best of the series, IMO.<br>
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Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
Reply
#26
Nah, Zeus is very good, but caesarIII is still the king (if you'll pardon the expression )three years down the line, i'd not realised it was that old... <p></p><i></i>
In the name of heaven Catiline, how long do you propose to exploit our patience..
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