I have been rather inspired by Shaun Travers refights of numerous Ancient battles based on Peter Sides 'Ancient Historical Battles' series. I've got loads of scenario resources on major Ancient battles already with the huge number of Command and Colours Ancients scenarios and the possibly more accurate ones in Strategos and Lost Battles. It is easy enough to convert these to simpler game systems, I did quite a few historical scenarios for 3x3 Portable Ancients, some of which were published in the first PW Compendium.
However Ork Publications took much of the effort out of it by publishing a Historical Battles supplement for Dominion of the Spear. 36 Battles spanning a couple of thousand years of history, converted into DotS format, which saves me the bother of doing it and covers some later periods about which I am singularly ignorant.
This is the sort of thing, the Battle of Megiddo scenario. Very cleverly any key terrain is incorporated into the unit ratings, and therefore also reflected in the points values, so eg Auxilia in a historical wooded area might be rated as 'armoured' instead of just infantry.
These scenarios are a very similar in layout to the old Peter Sides scenarios which Shaun uses a lot. I was trawling around the Interweb to see if I could find any of the original Peter Sides books, and came across some scanned/pirated copies on Scribd. Looking at the cover art I realised I actually have two volumes of them already!
The cover art is very distinctive and quite typical of the early 90s. Volume I.
And Volume II.
I picked both of these up from a second hand rules box in the Wargames Emporium many years ago for about 50p each. They are such slim volumes they were shoved in with a load of other very old scenario books of varying quality and I'd quite forgotten about them.
With all these resources I've got enough stuff to play scores of historical Ancient battles solo, as tbh I much prefer historical to hypothetical stuff (even if our historical knowledge is limited to 'a battle took place between X and Y'). I don't have any ancient Egyptians, Dark Ages stuff etc, but I do have a bunch of suitable counters in some of the Society of Ancients games, and various figures I could substitute. Persian Cataphracts as Normans? Well, lets see.
You have just proved the point that Old Stuff can still be Good Stuff - especially when a lot of old stuff was pre-internet so the original exposed audience might have been relatively small.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm sure there are vast treasure troves of pre Internet wargaming resources around. I guess that is partly the point of the History of Wargaming project. At least some brave soul managed to scan all the copies of Mecca no Magazine with the original "Battle" articles in. Scribd is awash with scans of Wargames stuff.
DeleteHi Martin,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I have been deeply inspired by the Peter Sides books for a long time. He wrote five in all - two Ancients, one Medieval, and two Renaissance all available from Caliver Books. The 36 Battles supplements were very much inspired by them!
Steve
I hadn't realised he had written some later ones. Although I studied the Renaissance, we always rather skipped over the details of actual warfare, and it is a period I'm very ignorant about from a gaming pov apart from broad brush stuff about the development of warfare. The Sides books might be a useful primer on some of the battles.
DeleteHello Martin,
ReplyDeleteI picked up the first 3 Peter Sides books in the late 90s. I have always wanted to play out the battles and playtesting my own rules using the battles seemed like a perfect excuse. However, I have found that the rules have taken second place as it is researching and reading up on the battles and playing them out (regardless of the rules) that is more interesting. DotS is such as fast play set, I am seriously thinking of using them to play out the battles I haven't yet played. I have a draft blog post where I have a few minor changes and a decent 6x6 variant (that could be extended to 8x6 or 10x6) that could easily be used to translate the Peter Sides scenarios into a easy fast grid game. The 6x6 variant uses the same forces from the DotS 35 ancient battles book. I find DotS is much fun as is, using a 3x3 grid or a 6x6 grid. All are different, although the 6x6 is closer to the Peter Side's scenario "feel".
Ooh, 6x6 sounds interesting. I think the horse and musket version is out now, but I'm not convinced the Dots system will stretch to battles where so much of the outcome is contingent on the arrival of reinforcements - pretty well any battle once armies started moving as Corps. Like you, I'm only really interested in historical engagements, and having them laid out so well in the Peter Sides books is just a joy. Similar useful books I've found are Pagets "Wellington in the Peninsula" and Brooks "Battlefields of Britain".
DeleteHi Martin,
ReplyDeleteThe Renaissance version is out already - Dominion of the Pike and Shot - along with the 36 Renaissance battles expansion. This covers 1495 - 1660 AD and I did not encounter any problems with modelling the battles, apart from conflicting or confusing accounts of the battles! The Colonial version 1800 - 1900 AD Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet will be out in a week followed quickly by the 36 Battles expansion. Again, no issues encountered. I have just started modelling the battles of Frederick the Great, 6 battles done so far with no issues. I will very much bear your thoughts on Corps movement and reinforcements in mind. So far, so good though!
Cheers
Steve
Thanks, I've got the Pike and Shot one too,, my blog posts lag a couple of months behind real life. I guess situations I'm thinking of of are where large parts of the engaged forces turn up later in the day, often on a flank, and completely change the situation. Eg Friedland, Quatre Bras, Eylau,, Aspern Essling and most obviously, Waterloo.
Delete