Ancients

A two-player wargame by Bill Banks published in the USA by 3W
and now as freeware by One Small Step
These comments by Steffan O'Sullivan
This page last updated July 5, 2000

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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