Hello there,

I want to get started with 6mm ancients (Romans vs Successors) and I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for the choice of rules. I have heard of Hail Caesar, Age of Hannibal, DBA, Warmaster Ancients... Any advice?

Thank you for your answers. :)

Hi Mark,

Just to be sure, do you mean that you are starting as a gamer and you have decided to go for Ancients first?  Or that you are an existing gamer going into Ancients for the first time?

If the former, I would start off with Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.  They are the best rules out there for a complete beginner.

If the latter, I like DBA and Polemos: SPQR.  I did a comparative review of them all here.  I also like Phil Sabin's Lost Battles, which I have recently started playing.  Well researched, and usefully they have a maximum of 20 elements per side, which his helpful for keeping figure counts in check.

Age of Hannibal, without a doubt - one of my favourite sets of rules. Easy to pick up on, nice, simple rules, you can't go wrong.

I would also go for Age of Hannibal - ideal for the 250 - 150BC period. I too am building Roman and Successor armies for it.

To The Strongest, but not for everyone, but worth a look.

I have heard good things about Age of Hannibal, but not really looked into them yet.

DBA is a really good place to start though, you get a game on the table really quickly.

Age of Hannibal to me are a very easy to pick up set of rules and appear to get the balance right between simplicity and depth. recommend!

I too would invest in Age of Hannibal. Excellent rules from a great rules writer.

Has anyone played Impetus?

Yes I have played both Impetus and Basic Impetus. The large bases look great. The first edition of Impetus gave some great games, but unfortunately it attracted the attention of the competition gamers who pressured the author to add more and more new rules and amendments and eventually I stopped playing them. The expansion was such that a second edition was produced. However, along with the second edition came the more streamlined, and for me the more enjoyable, Basic Impetus 2. Within the new BI2 were rules and examples for doubling and tripling the size of the armies by adding different combinations of the initial list. The large bases are still present, and in many ways it put the fun of Impetus First Edition back into the game. The other advantage of Basic Impetus 2 is that every army list, from Biblical to Renaissance, is included, which makes army building very straightforward and fun. Available to download from Wargame Vault at a remarkably good price.

I have played various Ancients rules starting with WRG 6th, 7th, Shock of Impact, Tactica, DBA, DBM, FoG, ADLG and finally To The Strongest. To the Strongest, IMO, offers the best balance between playability, historical feel, and speed of play. My group is busy building 6mm and 15mm armies because of these rules. Rules available on Wargames Vault as well as the authors site.