Of Dice and (Tin) Men; "Something Sweet for Christmas!"

    I'm now going to back track a bit to 1973 -1974. As related in my previous post of this series, the unofficial wargames group from UConn was invited to the home of Charlie Sweet for a game there, by his son David. I know at least four of us made the trip there, including Joe and myself, and probably including Jim, Steve, and Rocco.  I think our first trip was over our Christmas break. Charlie was probably roughly the age I am now at that time (hmm, he was born in 1914, so roughly 60 years old at the time... I have a few years to go yet, but not many). Charlie was one of the true Old Guard of our Miniature Wargaming hobby. He was one of the original fifty or so subscribers to Jack Scruby's pioneering wargames magazine, Wargames Digest, first published in 1957. Charlie was a frequent contributor to the magazine, but never published any commercial rules sets. He holds an extremely important place in the history of our hobby none the less. In 1965, Sports Illustrated published an article "A Little War can be a lot of Fun", covering the hobby and Charlie's games with his brother. This was the first ever national exposure for the hobby, and was followed by additional coverage, including a spot on the television show, "Sixty Minutes". Charlie brought our hobby out into the open (at least in the US), and made it both visible and respectable.

Charles Sweet as he appeared in an article in Jack Scruby's "Table Top Talk" 1963  -picture from the Vintage Wargames blog (link below).



    Even at age 18, I already had some idea who Charlie was from the articles he and David had written for the original NEWA Courier, plus this well written article, "Confessions of a Long Time Wargamer", published in 1971 from Jack Scruby's briefly resurrected Wargames Digest (I still have my copy of it!). Visiting the Sweet home in Bristol, CT was a real eye opener for a young and avid wargamer. His basement was like a museum, with posters on the walls, cases displaying his best soldiers, and an anteroom storing thousands more, many of which he had designed and cast or converted himself. It was impossible not to like Charlie almost immediately; he was un-pretentious and genuine, and his enthusiasm for the hobby was utterly infectious.

    I'm pretty sure our first game there used their Ancients rules. There were three of us players on each side, each commanding a set army composed of 20mm figures, I think  many of them by Alymer. If I recall correctly, these included Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, Macedonians, Carthagenians, and Persians. I have given my best attempt to reconstruct their rules below. Anyway, we all had a blast, even though I think almost half my Catapult shots hit my own troops instead of the enemy! we were invited back several more times, playing their Renaissance/TYW rules, featuring the famed Polish Winged Hussars (which Charlie had in 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30mm, and 54mm!), Dutch Spanish, Imperialists, etc. That game  triggered in Joe and myself an ongoing interest in the era, as well as a search for rules that we liked, that really only ended 30myears later with Band of Brothers by Piquet; I wrote the second edition of these rules with inspiration from my coauthor, Ken Baggaley, and much playtesting and brainstorming assistance from Joe. Another visit to the Sweet household was spent playing their American Civil War Gap Game, in which the forces of each side advanced through three "gaps" in the mountains on each table edge, the troops being allocated (in advance) secretly, each unit to to one of the three gaps. The cavalry at each gap had to enter first, followed by Infantry, and last, the artillery.

    When the seniors at UConn moved on to other things, in the following several years, my hometown gaming group and I were invited to Bristol on several occasions, and we played a similar selection of Sweet rules, with Charlie, Paul, Chuck and myself making the trip. The Ancient rules were our favorite, and Charlie and I began to collect some Ancient armies ourselves for the first time.

Edit: March 8, 2012:  This post spurred a lot of interest, and that lead to Dick Bryant (by way of Bob Cordery) releasing a copy of an article in the original NEWA Courier from ? the late 1960's covering these rules. Using that information, there is an updated version of these rules on my blog here.

Reconstructed Sweet Home Rules for Ancient Battles:

    These are reconstructed as best I can from memory and the published Sweet House Rules for AMR and Napoleonic battles, found on the Vintage Wargaming site below. Doubtless I have made numerous errors, but the overall flavor of the game should be more or less intact. To my knowledge, David doesn't generally spend time on-line, and I don't believe they ever published their Ancient rules.

   Their wargames table was actually a Pool table, with a thick, gridded board (marked off in 4" squares) overlaying it, and very simple, basic but functional terrain set out upon it. Charlie was a big proponent of using gridded tables for wargames. I was very receptive to that idea, as we had already been using a 3" hex gridded table for years as well.

    The basic troop types were Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy cavalry, and... Catapults. Ah, those catapults! Each army, I think, had six units of Heavy Infantry and three of Light Infantry, four units of Heavy cavalry and two of Light Cavalry. Heavy units had four stands (3 figures each for infantry, 2 for cavalry), while Light units had only three stands (2 figures each for Infantry, only one for cavalry); I think a catapult had two stands of 2 figures each. Thus an entire army would have 72+18+32+6 +4 = 132 figures in 16 units.

My 25mm Minifig Late Assyrian Army, deployed in a fashion somewhat like the same army would be using the Sweet House Rules for Ancient Warfare.

    As best I recall the Movement rates were;

TYPE	Move Distance	Face on Diagonal?
Light Infantry	3 squares	yes
Heavy Infantry	2 squares	no
Light Cavalry	5 squares	yes
Heavy Cavalry	4 squares	no
Catapults	2 squares	yes
Commanders		yes

* Add one square if the move starts ends, and travels entirely along a road.

  Moves on the diagonal cost 1.5 squares. All troops could change face at the beginning and/or end of their move without penalty, IIRC. The two sides alternated, with the side having the first Move of the game being determined by a D6 roll off - suitably enormous ceremonial dice were used for this one roll. Only one unit could occupy a square at a time, except that Commanders could be placed with any friendly unit (or not), and could attach and detach freely.

Another shot of my Assyrians deployed a la Sweet.

   Only the Catapults, Light Infantry and Light Cavalry could shoot. Shooting (by both sides) *preceded* movement, and shooting by Catapults of both sides preceded other troops of both sides.  Aside from the Catapults, I'm pretty sure that maximum range was 2 squares (an adjacent square was a range of 1, 1.5 if on the diagonal, with a +/-45 degree cone of fire.. Fire was by units, and each stand rolled a D6.  Scores needed to hit ranged form a 1,2, or 3 against unarmored troops at a range of 1, to triple 1's to hit a commander. Something like this:

Target	1 square range	1.5 - 2 square range
Light Infantry, Catapults	Hit on 1,2, or 3	Hit on 1 or 2
Heavy Infantry, Light Cavalry	Hit on 1 or 2	Hit on 1
Heavy Cavalry	Hit on 1	Hit on double 1’s
Commanders	Hit on Double 1’s	Hit on triple 1’s

+1 die per unit if Elite
+1 die per unit if Commander with firing unit
+1 die per unit if firing at the same target as last turn.
-1 die per unit if firing into a Protected Square (cover)

    The Catapults had 2 shots each, but no more shots than they had crew. Actual firing catapult-like devices were used! These fired clay discs in a high arc, with a mark in the center of the disc. Range was unlimited, but filed of fire was still +/- 45 degrees. If the disc landed within 1" of troops, friendly or enemy, all such stands were hit and removed (I hit plenty of my own troops the first game!).  EXCEPTION:  for troops in a PROTECTED square, the center of the disc had to be both within 1 " and within the square itself, otherwise no stands were hit. Overhead fire was routine. The firing device could be placed anywhere behind the tabletop model when shooting. Needles to say, shooting with these was a lot of fun!

The number of units is correct, but these are 3" squares and the numbers of stands per unit would be different; actually, I think Charlie and Dave Sweet used 6" squares for 25/30mm troops. My own Sweet-inspired rules use 2 stands per unit and the 3" squares seen here.

    After Movement, if you moved had your troops into the same square(s) as an opposing unit, a Melee would be fought. The troops in the contact square would automatically be involved, and other troops of both sides might also be involved. Supports were indicated by facing the unit into the contact square, but note the restrictions in the table below; additionally, the defender could only face +/-90 degrees, not 45. The attacker had to indicate and face their supporting units first, then the defender. No unit could fight in more than one melee per turn. Commanders could be placed in the same square as another unit and still participate in melee. There was no penalty for the loss of the commander, if I recall correctly.

UNIT TYPE	Melee Value	Support 90 deg	Support 45 deg	Support ahead
Light Infantry	0.5 point	yes	yes	yes
Heavy Infantry	1 point	yes	no	yes
Light Cavalry	0.75 point	yes	yes	yes
Heavy Cavalry	1.5 points	yes	no	yes
Catapults	1 point	no	no	no
Commanders	3 points	yes	yes	yes

 Elite units add 0.5 points per stand.
* Only if on their own; if in the same square as a friendly unit ("attached"), Commanders support in the same fashion as the unit they are attached to.

Each side then totaled up the points they had either in the contact square or in support. Then came the interesting twist. Each player had a set of six Melee Deployment Indicators (MDI); the Sweets used old Dominos, with the "spot" side filled and painted over, and labeled LINE, COLUMN, SQUARE, FLANKING, PINCERS, and WITHDRAWAL. Each side selected an MDI secretly, and placed it face down ion the table. They were then revealed simultaneously, and the choices compared according to the following table:

Deployment	Superior to	Superior to
Line	Column	Square
Column	Flanking	Pincers
Square	Pincers	Column
Pincers	Flanking	Line
Flanking	Line	Square
Withdrawal*	Line (Succeeds)	Square (Succeeds)

In the case of EQUAL deployments, Withdrawal succeeds for both, otherwise, each side loses stands equal to half the points of the weaker side. The weaker side then retreats 2 squares (counting moves on the diagonal as 1 square for retreats only). If both sides are equal, both withdraw 2 squares. However, if after losses are deducted, the stronger side is three times stronger (or more) than the losing side, then the weaker side is completely *destroyed* instead!

In the case of UNEQUAL deployments, a successful Withdrawal results in that side retreating 2 squares as above with neither side taking any losses; if it does not succeed then it is treated as an Inferior deployment.  The side with the Superior Deployment inflicts 1 point of losses upon the enemy for it's first point, and then points equal to half of the remainder of its strength. The side with the Inferior Deployment inflicts losses equal to half of its own upon the Superior side. The side then having the fewest points remaining retreats 2 squares as above; if the weaker side is outnumbered 3:1 or more in points, it is instead *destroyed* as above!

If the contact square is a PROTECTED square, the attacker eliminates 1 point less from the enemy than usual.

The first stand eliminated is always in the contact square, there after they are spread as evenly as possible, moving clockwise. For retreats only, diagonal moves are counted as 1 square instead of 1.5 squares.

I have used Chariots for one wing and cavalry for the other; IIRC, the Sweet rules really didn't distinguish between Chariots and Cavalry, just Light and Heavy. 

Morale was fairly simple; if a Heavy unit was reduced to 1 stand, it had to retreat on each and every move towards its baseline. It could support a Melee if otherwise eligible, but not initiate one.  I'd allow a single stand with an attached commander to carry on as usual, as long as the Commander remains attached.
.
Each Ancient armies had special features; For example, Assyrian (Heavy) Archers counted as in a Protected Square at all times, and as a Heavy target as well, but otherwise functioned as Light Infantry. Numidian LC were Elite, as were the Cartahagenian Noble HC, Persian Heavy Cavalry, Macedonian Companions, Spartan Hoplites, and all Roman Heavy Infantry. Balearic Slingers were also elite as were Egyptian (Light Infantry) Archers.

Imitation is the most Sincere form of Flattery

   My senior year at UConn, Chuck transferred from the Stamford Branch to the main Campus at Storrs; with a bit of heavy handed manipulation, we managed to get his room changed so that we could share my dorm room. We became very close friends over the course of that year; indeed, he would later be my Best man at my wedding 5 years later. Oddly, all three of my college room mates were also Eagle Scouts like myself. Now, you might think that with such an arrangement we were playing wargames all the time, but in fact we rarely did, although we talked about them quite a bit. One of the things we talked about was the Sweet rules, and especially those firing catapults!  Now, Chuck was majoring in Civil engineering, and as we talked about them, he sketched out an idea for building a prototype. It turned out some modifications were needed, but we were able to build two small working, firing catapults using just some Masonite, epoxy, coat hanger wire, balsa wood, the lids form two tins of Humbrol paints, and rubber bands.  That plus some plasticine clay from which to fashion, and we were soon shooting catapults all over our dorm room, LOL.

   That brought up the matter of the rules. It seemed Dave and Charlie never really got around to formally writing out their Ancient rules that we could tell. Besides, we were looking for some thing a little different, but still using a gridded table with one unit per square (or hex, in our case), plus the shooting catapults. Right around this time, the Legion! rules by Al Margolis, were published, predating DBA by roughly 15 years. These rules used uniform, 60mm frontage (for 25mm figures) "element" bases of troops, with 2 bases per unit. Those would fit into our 3" hexes.I liked the overall concept and mechanics of the rules, and with some significant modifications, these became the basis of our own Sweet-inspired Ancient rules.

Legion! wargame rules by Al Margolis. Published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1976.

   Over the next several years, we raised armies for Assyria, Carthage, Macedon, Mauryan India, Macedonian Successors, Republican Rome, Palmyra, Sassanid Persia, Byzantium, and the Teutonic Knights. We played games with these rules avidly for the next 15 years at least, and I even had Dave himself over to play them on several occasions, completing the circle. If there is interest, I can probably post them at another time. The same is true for the shooting Catapults Chuck and I built for these games.

*******************************************************************************

Sadly, Charlie passed away at the age of 87 in 2001; Bob Beattie wrote a nice tribute to him here. The Vintage Wargaming blog has a series of posts concerning Charlie and his games, figures, etc. here. Take a few minutes to look through some of the material; I think you will find it time well spent!

Peter