Above - glorious Atlantic & Airfix plastic figures, source of many ancient starter armies in the 70's
Went to the RAF Wargames Association annual day to play 2 days of Big Triumph, the Triumph ancients rules expanded for larger armies. This was played in 20mm which meant I could get out my old skool Atlantic plastic army, consisting of their Greek, Roman and Trojan sets plus Airfix & Revell Gauls - all modelled as that great "anything goes in it" of Ancient armies, the Carthaginians,.
The scenario was "Africa v Rome" - what would have happened if the African nations united against the Roman boot. This pitted Carthaginian, Numidian and Ptolemaic Egyptian Triumph armies against Roman legions, who also recruited a bunch of Galatian mercenaries for that phalanx cracking task.
Anyway, in an enjoyable series of 3 big games it was Rome 1, Africa 1, Inconclusive draw 1. For the Galatian v Phalanx action, it was 1 - 1. Whoever got the advantage early on won the fight, and getting the advantage early on was also a function of messing up the other sides' advance to contact.
So, for the Carthaginian general the fiery furnace was avoided for this campaign, and Roman strategy shifted to seducing the Queen of Egypt, which would turn out to be a winner one day.
The rules are fast play and on the surface very simple, but once the armies are large like the ones we used, the "simple" game becomes more about anticipation, moving reserves and - as always - throwing better dice when it counts ;) Net net, a good set of rules for playing the big games we like, we have found time and again that simple fast play rules are the best way of playing large games, the devil moves from the details to the deployment and decisions on the day.
