I was all set to write a review of Ancients by 3W, when I
did a little searching and found that Mike Nagel had done a much better
job than I was prepared to do. So I'll just give you a link to his Ancients
Support Site. This includes being able to download the game for
free, if you're willing to do some work to assemble it ...
Suffice it to say that I really like the game - or games, depending
on what edition you have. I have the early 3W version, which means
they're in two boxes, Ancients I and Ancients
II - that's all explained in the link above.
They're excellent low-complexity wargames, good for both introducing
newcomers to the hobby and entertaining old-timers like myself who can no
longer play the monster complex games of our youth. Even more amazing to
me is the fact that they're from 3W, a company which has largely produced
games not even close to my taste. In fact, I can count on one hand the
number of games from 3W that I consider to be above average.
Ancients includes many unit types common to armies all
over the world before the high middle ages. The rules for these units
are very simple yet workable. The game also includes many small maps
with varying terrain. And finally, you get 64 scenarios: army lists,
which map to use, starting set-up, and a brief overview of famous battles
throughout history, from the Pharaohs to Braveheart. Great fun!
So if a good low complexity wargame with lots of scenarios interests
you, check out the link above.
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