Hmm. No you didn’t. Having recently brought the Sumerians to the table for several BI games, a handful of the players said they bought “To Ur” as background material. The blog has been getting a steady stream of hits on my First Impressions post. I thought a jump into Top 10 was curious. They also expressed an interest in seeing “To Ur” in action.
Interesting. I haven't noticed an uptick in sales of TUIH in the last few months. They chug along at a constant level pretty much. I'm sure I could squeeze in a demo game in the next month or so, if people want.
I bought "To Ur is Human" during the Wargames Vault sale and am now seeking information on the size armies, (how many units of each type), that you'd recommend would be best suited for this game...but I suspect it's a bit like "how long is a piece of string"?
A good question. The truth is, to my mind, based on the evidence we have, it is really hard to say with any precision how the armies stacked up. Allied to that the fact that it looks like the leaders adjusted their armies to suit (no battle cars in steep hills) and the provision of detailed and precise army lists becomes questionable. There are battle reports on the blog going back a decade that'll show you the sort of armies I field. They tend to be 50-60% heavy spears to 10-15% battle cars and the rest mostly skirmishers with the odd medium infantry or massed archery unit. To be fair there's no reason why you couldn't base the armies on DBA, although I like an extra few units over the top of the 12, however looking back at my pictures, I can see that the army range I use is 8 - 20 units. The army lists like those in Basic Impetus for the Akkadians, or even Neil Thomas' "Ancient and Medieval Warfare" are as good a guess as any. Just don't bother with straddle cars (used for recce & messages not fighting).
I realise this may be a bit frustrating for you, but I've normally worked on the basis that I supply both armies and I put out whatever I like the look of, which is very, very, old school. I've run games with half the army battle cars and with none present at all. I've played them in forest with mostly auxilia, because it looked right.
TUIH as published is five years old now, and was my first ever commercial self-published set. If I were ever to revisit it (and I have no plans to do so) I would have to do what you have asked, as that's the most common feedback I get. But that would double the thickness and the price, which I think then puts them off the impulse purchase shelf.
Anyway, I hope that's helpful, and that you enjoy the rules. Once you've worked out what to do with them.
Thanks for this, you've given me enough guidance to go on with. Currently I'm reworking the old generic DBA campaign system to generate specifically Sumerian battles for TUIH, but being limited by DBA's 12 element restriction does not appeal to me either.
I've sent you an email with the campaign rules attached. They are merely the old DBA campaign set with a few changes intended to give them a specific Sumerian ambience and to dovetail in TUiH as the "battle set" - they are "old beer in new bottles" as the Sumerians might have said. Doubtless I'll try them out soon, but in the meantime please feel free to comment if you can see any improvements
Hmm. No you didn’t. Having recently brought the Sumerians to the table for several BI games, a handful of the players said they bought “To Ur” as background material. The blog has been getting a steady stream of hits on my First Impressions post. I thought a jump into Top 10 was curious. They also expressed an interest in seeing “To Ur” in action.
ReplyDelete
DeleteInteresting. I haven't noticed an uptick in sales of TUIH in the last few months. They chug along at a constant level pretty much. I'm sure I could squeeze in a demo game in the next month or so, if people want.
It would be great to read through a demo game of TUIH - please do.
DeleteI was thinking more along the lines of running one.
DeleteI bought "To Ur is Human" during the Wargames Vault sale and am now seeking information on the size armies, (how many units of each type), that you'd recommend would be best suited for this game...but I suspect it's a bit like "how long is a piece of string"?
ReplyDeletePeter,
DeleteA good question. The truth is, to my mind, based on the evidence we have, it is really hard to say with any precision how the armies stacked up. Allied to that the fact that it looks like the leaders adjusted their armies to suit (no battle cars in steep hills) and the provision of detailed and precise army lists becomes questionable. There are battle reports on the blog going back a decade that'll show you the sort of armies I field. They tend to be 50-60% heavy spears to 10-15% battle cars and the rest mostly skirmishers with the odd medium infantry or massed archery unit. To be fair there's no reason why you couldn't base the armies on DBA, although I like an extra few units over the top of the 12, however looking back at my pictures, I can see that the army range I use is 8 - 20 units. The army lists like those in Basic Impetus for the Akkadians, or even Neil Thomas' "Ancient and Medieval Warfare" are as good a guess as any. Just don't bother with straddle cars (used for recce & messages not fighting).
I realise this may be a bit frustrating for you, but I've normally worked on the basis that I supply both armies and I put out whatever I like the look of, which is very, very, old school. I've run games with half the army battle cars and with none present at all. I've played them in forest with mostly auxilia, because it looked right.
TUIH as published is five years old now, and was my first ever commercial self-published set. If I were ever to revisit it (and I have no plans to do so) I would have to do what you have asked, as that's the most common feedback I get. But that would double the thickness and the price, which I think then puts them off the impulse purchase shelf.
Anyway, I hope that's helpful, and that you enjoy the rules. Once you've worked out what to do with them.
All the best,
Trebian
Thanks for this, you've given me enough guidance to go on with. Currently I'm reworking the old generic DBA campaign system to generate specifically Sumerian battles for TUIH, but being limited by DBA's 12 element restriction does not appeal to me either.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Peter.
You're welcome. Let me know how it goes. My email address is in the rulebook
DeleteI've sent you an email with the campaign rules attached. They are merely the old DBA campaign set with a few changes intended to give them a specific Sumerian ambience and to dovetail in TUiH as the "battle set" - they are "old beer in new bottles" as the Sumerians might have said. Doubtless I'll try them out soon, but in the meantime please feel free to comment if you can see any improvements
DeleteCheers.