De Bellis Antiquitatis

[bob48]

<assumes 'ye olde wargamer' mode>

I'm often amazed to see just how many sets of table top wargames rules there are available these days covering just about any period that takes your fancy.

Thinking about it, the ones we used on a regular basis are maybe now out of fashion (or are they?). So, we had the above mention DBA, which we were able to use for a fairly wide range of periods ( I seem to recall that the last time we used them was for a 10mm Zulu war battle), since they are a very flexible set of rules.

ACW game in either 15 or 20mm usually utilised 'Johnny Reb', and I found my somewhat worn copy in a box of stuff not too long ago (along with a large number of unpainted 10mm Franco-Prussian War figures).

For ECW and 30 YW we usually used 'Tercio' - not the easiest rules to get a grip of, but full of nice period stuff, but often resulted in play grinding to a halt over interpretation of some strange occurrence, such as my kerns being attacked by a unit of Haselrig's Lobsters - I can't remember now why it was such a problem, which may be just as well!

WW2 mini tanks! I have load of stuff for a set of rules called 'Panzer Marsch!'. These were produced by a gaming group (North Hull Wargames Club, if I remember correctly) and professionally printed with lots of laminated data sheets. Good quality stuff, which I found hidden away the Johnny Reb. I was very enthusiastic about these rules......and never used 'em. I will donate them for free to anyone who cares to pay the postage. I very much doubt if these rules are known outside of the UK.

I know we have mention the Fletcher Pratt naval rules here in the past, and that was a set of rules that I did tinker with a lot, as the actual process of making the ships data sheets was very interesting. Unfortunately, I never really had room to do anything other than a few very limited actions with relatively small ships - destroyer and light cruisers.

Now, a quick search shows me that most, if not all, of these rules are still available at least in .pdf format, so it would be interested to know if anyone is familiar with any of these rules or perhaps has used them.

[bayonetbrant]

I think DBA is still very common at minis gatherings

I've seen plenty of folks using Johnny Reb, even if it's just the basis for some homebrew changes

The rest?  I don't know how common they are anymore


What's interesting is, going back and looking thru the old awards programs from the 70s & 80s, there were enough enough new minis rules, in enough different genres, to have multiple awards each year.

[bob48]

As it happens, I've recently been talking from a guy who is with North Hull Wargames Club, the founder members of which wrote the 'Panzer Marsch' rules. He was telling me that in September, they will be doing a 20mm Arnhem game using these rules, so they are obviously alive and well.

He said he would try and get some pictures for me to post up here - I also invited him to come and join us here.

[Undercovergeek]

Are they the guys that used to post pics of their games at the other place - seem to remember a gaming club in hull that bought their own venue

[bayonetbrant]

Are they the guys that used to post pics of their games at the other place - seem to remember a gaming club in hull that bought their own venue

IIRC, that guy's screen name was "nevermore" but hadn't seen/heard from him in a while

[Undercovergeek]

Fk me that’s him - you’re some kind of forum nerd

[bob48]

I'm not sure if they are the same lot, but I'll ask him.