After we'd played FWTDR we tidied away, and Richard produced "Dominion of the Spear", which is about £5 from Wargame Vault. It is a quick play ancients solo system, and it has created some buzz in the wargaming circles I move in. Bob Cordery first brought them to my attention on his Wargaming Miscellany blog, and then Martin Rapier used them for his "Alexander the Brief" participation game at Partizan. Bob's blog has a fuller review, and includes the historic battles supplement.
The base set of rules, which Richard brought along, has the rules and 196 army lists. Army selection is on simple points, and you end up with armies of 4 - 8 units, most likely, with the majority being at the smaller end. You play on a 3x2 grid. Figures are distinctly optional. There are no movement rules, other than replacing losses from reserves, and no terrain.
Chris later remarked that it was a game of seeing how quickly I could get figures out of their boxes. It is so minimal that we played two games simultaneously at first. I played Chris and Richard & Phil faced off.
I had Republican Romans against Celts. It lasted about a minute before I was thoroughly beaten.
Richard used Macedonians against Persians. They took slightly longer. Possibly up to three minutes. I can't remember who won.
Someone then remarked it was a game for those who think DBA takes up too much table space. I was beginning to wonder what the point of it all was.
Still, it turns round quickly.
Alexander now takes on Porus' Indians. It ended in a draw, with both sides down to a single base (you win by reducing your opponent to 1 or 0 bases left). We followed the Hydaspes scenario walkthrough in the rules for this one.
Chris and I then went into the 15mm DBA boxes.
A crushing win for the Khmer.
Overall we played about 8 games in 40 minutes, most of which was pulling figures out of boxes. As we never had an issue finding the troops types, my guess is that the 196 army lists are very heavily based on the DBA lists.
Yeah. Well. General feeling was that it would be great for a quick battle resolution system for a board game campaign, and also that Martin R is spot on in using it for an instant access game at a show. It probably passes the time as a solo game. I note that people are modifying the rules, which I guess is inevitable given the simplicity.
For us it was a poor choice as the second game of the day. It was like using candy floss for a main meal, which is on us, rather than DotS. Even so, I can't see me splashing out on these (even at the low, low, price) as I don't really do solo wargaming. There are versions for later periods floating around as well.
By now the rain was hammering down outside, and Phil was flagging. His stamina has dropped off alarmingly this year unfortunately. We had a table booked for 6pm, but Phil needed to head home for a lie down, and Richard had a long drive in weather scheduled to get even worse, so we packed up and called it a day.
I haven't looked deeply into 'Dominion of...' and I can't say the concept floats my boat. Its use to me would be to play out a large scale campaign or a whole war - and I see from some blogs that such are being waged. As a quick-play system for resolving small-scale action, yep, I can see my using such a system. But even then, I think I prefer the Fast Play 3x3 Portable Wargame (FP3x4PW for short), as having a little more meat. Even in that simple scheme events can take a narratable turn: a Bulgar flank attack rolling up the Byzantine front line until stopped at the other flank; the Byzantine counter-attack thrusting the Bulgars into the river; the kavkhan, unhorsed, rescued wounded from the stream; the Bulgars' final attack breaking itself on the spears of the Varangian Guard... With just 6 units the side, quite a narrative.
ReplyDeleteBut, having the kit, one is inclined to look to use it, which is why I have been looking to games on my 10x10 board. I can 'do' 8x8: my chessboard is nicely coloured with green and tan squares, but I can't get my head around 'it's a chessboard'. I guess it's because I actually play the game (on line, anyhow).
Early experiments with Byzantine vs Pecheneg games suggested something promising by way of a rule set (and I did use DBA listings as a guide). Considering the light weight of the bulk (?! 'bulk?) of their army, the Pechenegs did very well indeed! Much of that exploration I discussed in my blog several months ago. I should probably round that series of articles off with a 'definitive' rule set, and maybe a little campaign (or a revival of my 'Byzantiad' narrative).
It must be Monday morning...
Cheers,
Ion
The quick solo game battle gap is one I don't really have to fill. I don't really solo game these days as I have the luxury of real people to play with. If I do want a quick play set I have tended to use Neil Thomas' AMW or OHW, although both have their issues. Perhaps I should go back and look at Spartans and Successors to simplify them to solo play.
DeleteDominon is very much a quick solo game. I use it exclusively to refight historical battles and usually run the same encounter several times, having gone to the effort of getting the figures out. Obviously it works fine for quick combat resolution in a campaign setting too. It is pretty specialised though and won't float everyone's boat. I think the later much more period specific versions are much better developed. The Pike and Shot set in particular tries to cover far too much in one go IMO.
ReplyDeleteThe Ancients period covers a lot too, and makes the same false assumption as DBA that there are troop type equivalents across a wide historical period that perform in the same way. I had a read through of some of your P&S games but I'm still not inclined to buy them.
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