Ancient & Medieval Wargaming

Mr. Thomas Ancient and medieval Wargaming is about as good as it gets in wargames rules. The general period is subdivided into 5 sub-eras, all of which share generally similar mechanical rules. Around this frame the real joy of the book is constructed - period detail that is sensible, and dozens on dozens of army lists. What makes this combination different is that the rules can be easily understood by anyone, and yet there is considerable complexity - a complexity that comes from decision making, not rules generated minutia. You may wonder about what to do next, but you'll have no problems with 'how to' do it next. Likewise the rules make it plain that these are game rules - not simulations. It is refreshing to have a specific and carefully defined victory, not a 'We'll play until we're tired, or until our wives clear their throats one time too many...' In these rules there will be a winner and a loser in about two hours.I've been a miniatures wargame for more than thirty years. This is the best twenty bucks I've ever spent!

This book is great, I have dumped all my old wargmes rules and now am using this one extensively, it is simple enough for me to remember how to play when I like, unlike all my other sets, which I seem to have to re-read over and over again before being able to play again but not with this book nor his previous book Wargaming and Introduction, which is a very good as well, hope to see some more from Mr. Thomas soon I hope. Get this one if your tired of re-hashing complicated wargames everytime you wanna game.

How's this for a criticism? There might be too much information here that results in a slower game. Still, I highly recommend Ancient and Medieval Wargaming for both the nubie and the hold hand.

Great introduction to Ancient and Medieval Wargaming, which continues to be a very strong topic of Miniature wargaming in general. There are a lot of rules already popular that have a large following, but not so much for the new comer, so this volume of introduction to the various sub-periods and rules and army lists for each is quite welcome. Plenty of inspiration for new comers, as well as a joy for old hands to read his design theory and army lists, as well as the history and coverage of tactics from a wargamer's perspective. A welcome addition to the shelf of any gamer interested in this period.

Excellent set of rules, simple and straightforward. Recommended!

I feel cheeted having bought this.This is NOT a set of wargame rules, but rather a game that uses war terminology to make it seem like one is going to expereince something about the four periods of warfare it includes.In order to understand the failure of this, and very many other sets of wargame rules going back to WRG in the 1960s, one has to look at the penultimate section titled Figure Sizes, Scales and Prices. This OUGHT to be in the introduction because for most wargamers the wargame begins with investment in the figures. However, the section doesn't deal with how the figure scales relate to the terrain and tme scales, the two factors that determine warfareWhile I understand the desire to keep the rules simple so they are enjoyable, but the elimination of basic references of figure scale to terrain scale and time scale lead to deformation of what the participants represent and view. The outcome is therefore no better than a chess board.For those interested, based on the given shooting distances and historical range of early composite bows, the GROUND SCALE for 15mm size figures (1:108) is 15 paces = 1cm (WRG 5th ed 37.5:1") (NOTE: 15mm is supposed to be the 1:100 METRIC scale i.e. 1 cm : 100 m, or 131 paces)This means the discrepancy between the ground scale of these rules and the figures is ~ x10, i.e. the terrain is scaled DOWN x10 vs the figure size to ~1:1080, i.e. closer to the popular 1:1200 naval wargame figure scale. It is no wonder that the rules say there are only three types of terrain, hills, rivers and woods.Based on the given movement of light cavalry, i.e. horses about 14 hands tall at a walk, the TIME SCALE is 2.5 minutes per turn. (WRG 5th ed. 0.5 min)With each infantry base being 60 paces x 30 paces or ~46m x 23m, each base in the unit represents a nice round number of 100 infantrymen in close order, and a 'unit' is therefore an arbitrary 400 troops, with the FIGURE RATIO of 25:1 (WRG 5th ed. 20:1)This lack of disclosure about what the wargamer's eye is about to be fooled in seeing when having a game is widespread in wargame rule writing, particularly in the Ancients to Medieval periods where many rules aim for the competition players rather than those who want to see some resemblance to history in their game. What is worse about this particular set is that it is really copied and pasted four times with monor tweaks, and sold as four times the pages. However, in reality it is not an inprovement on any other set of rules for any of these periods in any way shape or form.It is therefore a patent lie that using these rules one will expereince the warfare as paractices by the great military leaders listed in the last paragraph of the Introduction, because 'armies' are limited to eight units, i.e. 3,200 actual troops.These rules are therefore chess by another name.

Simply put, hands down my favorite book from Neil Thomas. Although I consider myself a fantasy wargamer first and foremost, I've always been interested in this broad historical period. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the rules that I've read for ancient/medieval warfare have seemed way too dense, fiddly, and cumbersome. There was never anything that really grabbed me and tempted me to branch out beyond fantasy wargaming; that is, until this book came along. Neil Thomas not only distills the history down into something enjoyable, but he provides an easy to understand and engaging set of wargame rules to play. Well done Mr. Thomas. Highly recommended if you're at all interested in ancient/medieval wargaming.

I have found Neil Thomas to be very divisive, his no frills basic warfare rules are often brushed aside as too simplistic. I have been watching for over fifty years, played all types of games including many that lists of modifiers and others where people spent more time arguing over meaning than playing.So what about these rules? Simply put they are straightforward, easy to reach and bring enjoyment back to the table and let you have fun. Yes they are not ultra detailed or come with a overload of army lists, but they absolutely give you a feeling of the period - note of you want list it is easy to use dba as a basis.Recommended

This book literally does what it says on. The cover.It provides a good selection of options for wargaming these periods.Whilst Neil Thomas's rules may have gotten flak from some sources for being too simple, they provide a good base upon which to experiment with additions, and when played straight from the book allow you to game out major battles in a reasonable timescale (and without having to have a maths degree or historical textbook handy).This book is a great resource to have as a base for other wargames for the periods, simply for the historical notes and army descriptions included.

I ordered my copy hoping for rules by a seasoned and experienced wargamer which provided some basis in reality; and I'm not too disappointed. Neil Thomas seems to have written a good book here, with each section providing sufficient historic detail to justify the general rules for each of his chosen periods (Biblical; Classical; Dark Age; and Medieval).It's good background reading too, when it comes to the development of arms from period to period. When you have done your research like I did for the Crusades and then came to this book I found that a little flexibility enabled me to find what I wanted from his rules.I believe it will be an excellent support to me as I start out.An additional word about the army lists in this book:If you've completed your own research into a period included in Neil's book then you will find that some are possibly shorter than you might expect, but this is because Neil Thomas has devised lists for wargamers so that they can fight an evenly matched battle (each army has 8 units) in the traditional manner for each national army (e.g., the English army of 100 years war has no mounted knights - they fight on foot). This is very fine for many players who want a fair fight.But nevertheless even if you're more advanced then there is still something to be found by raiding another nations army list if your military decision making warrants it - after all the Black Prince decided to retain a small cavalry reserve as well as remounting his men at the battle of Poitiers.Overall I'm very pleased with it.

Surprisingly fresh look at A&M wargaming. The authors philosophy on the period and the rules gives a good incite into the rules he writes. He breaks down the standard ancient period into more understandable eras with variations for the troops used. These rules strip out much of the complexity of rules in general and still give the flavour of the periods gamed..

Really well written loads of information worth having even if you don't use the rules themselves.