Medieval Warfare, by Charles Sweet

 From  Jack Scruby's The Wargames Digest, Book I, Volume IV, published in December 1957.

Scan courtesy of Mike Taber, from the Tabletop Talk Facebook group. 

The ideas in this article are said to have significantly influenced the original CHainmail rules by Gary Gaygax and Jeff Perrin, the small Lord of the Rings fantasy section of which was the precursor to Dungeons and Dragons...

I don't recall every seeing Charlie's Medieval figures in action, but there was that famous Chainmail based campaign at UConn  in 1974 based upon the contenders to the French Throne circa ? 1200, featuring a certain gamer of Swedish descent as the Vikings and yours truly as the Dauphin, along with many others....

Charlie Sweet: "Confessions of a Long Time Wargamer"

    AS many of you doubtless know, Jack Scruby had a major role in the development of miniature wargaming as it stands today, both as a designer and manufacturer of wargames figures (the first armies that replaced my original flats were Scruby miniatures, augmented by a few Hinton Hunts  for specialty figures), and as the publisher of the first wargames magazine, The Wargame Digest, beginning in 1957. By 1960, there were 2 US editions per year edited by Jack, and 2 British editions edited by Don Featherstone and Tony Bath. By the end of 1962, as Jack says, "editorial differences" between the American and British edition ended The Wargames Digest, and lead to birth of Don's great Wargamer's Newsletter. The above was an attempt to restart WGD on a cash per issue basis, with no subscriptions. There was never another volume after this one, though. The articles, several of them reprints from earlier Scruby "House Organs" were all very interesting: Editorial, The Story of Wargame Digest, The Doublecross!, Lead Soldiers in the News, The Senegal Revolt, 1878, Part 1 *from a fictional campaign set in Scruby's "Mafrica"), From Out of the Past, All About Wargames: The Thirty Years War (rules set), Ancient Armies in Miniature, The Civil War - Men, Weapons and Tactics, Table Top Talk - Captain Sachs' Wargame, Last Minute Miscellanea, and Suggested Reading (other wargames periodicals). 

The final article was this one, written by Charlie Sweet. Indeed, the entire issue was dedicated to Charlie!

Little did I know at the time that in about2 years I would be meeting Charlie and playing in wargames at his house! As previously related, when I started at The University of Connecticut as a Freshman in 1973, that lead to meeting a UConn senior and fellow wargamer. Joe Fish. Joe was also from Bristol, CT; indeed Charlie's son, David, was a High School classmate of Joe's. Thus, through Joe, I met David, and then a group of us from UConn  were invited to several games at Charlie's home. Those games kindled my interest in wargaming with first Renaissance and then Ancient armies! 

    If there is interest in other articles from this magazine, I can probably post them as well. 

 

Influential Books

    Herein I am following a theme started by a blog post by Nundanket on his Horse and Musket Gaming blog  about 2 weeks ago, in which he cited two or three books that have been the most influential on his wargaming life. Since then, several of the blogs that I follow have picked up this theme, and I have found each and every post in this regard most interesting. This prompted me to add my own offering to the theme, which follows forthwith! 

   For as long as I can remember, I have loved books, and was a voracious reader. Similarly, I have always loved games and been fascinated by history. Unlike many others, I was never much interested in either modeling or playing with toy soldiers... until an act of serendipity! As I have related previously in my series of posts, "Of Dice and (Tin) Men", which starts here, I was browsing the stacks at our well stocked Public Library, a very frequent pastime of mine as a boy, when I came upon the book that changed my life, at least in the wargaming sense. I was an avid chess player as a boy, and was looking for books about chess strategy, when I chanced upon the tome below:

The Library copy was of course in pristine shape. I was thrilled acquire this copy form the library of a family freind, Dr. Edward Schortmann, years later. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, it has been well loved! 

    This book, published in 1962 and read by me circa 1966, revealed the world of miniature wargaming, of which I had previously been completely unaware. In simple but exciting prose, Mr. Morchauser set forth the background of wargames, their key principles, the types and kinds of miniature figures then available, and how to obtain them, and three closely related sets of rules for what he termed the Shock Period (antiquity up to about 1700), The Horse and Musket Period (1700 - 1914), and the Modern Period (World War 1 and beyond). I was hooked from the first pages, and have never looked back since then! 

    It turns out that Joe was the editor of LOOK magazine, a major US magazine published in large format that used striking pictures to covey much of its stories. Its coverage of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War was particularly influential. He even managed to get an article published in LOOK about Wargaming in 1960There are a number of articles by and about Joe on the Tabletop Talk site (TT was the title of one of Jack Scruby's several wargames publications). Joe attended Bard college in Dutchess County, NY, and settled in Puoghkeepsie,NY; both of which are within an hour or so's drive from both where I grew up and where I have worked the past 36 years. While at Bard College, Joe was exposed to Professor Gerard de Gre, another of the "Old Guard" of  Historical Miniature Wargaming, and that ingirted his interest in the hobby. It turns out that Gerry became the regular wargames opponent of Charlie Sweet, who I was privileged to meet at the end of 1973, courtesy of my (then new) wargames freind, Joe Fish. There is more about Charlie in the "Of Dice and (Tin) Men" series, and an upcoming blog post. 

    Curiously, I have never played a game with Morschauser's rules. Considering their pivotal role in my personal wargames history, this is a deficiency I plan to remedy shortly. Stay tuned to these pages; I have at least a couple of such games in the pipeline!  :-)

    The second book was also a somewhat chance encounter. Not long after discovering How to Play Wargames in Miniature, I was reading the Book Review section of the Sunday New York Times. At the time, the entire Sunday Times weighed about 5 pounds, and unlike most guys, this was my favorite section; I never even looked at the sports pages, LOL! This particular Sunday, there was a review of a book about Napoleon. I realized that I knew next to nothing about the man; in US schools, he receives brief mention as the successor to the French Revolution, his involvement in the Louisiana Purchase, and the background to the War of 1812, and that's about it! It is little wonder that Americans in general are famously ignorant of World history. In any event, my next trip to the Library resulted in my taking out several books about Napoleon, but the key one was The Campaigns of Napoleon, by David Chandler.  

Another find in the Public Library; this is my personal copy, acquired many years thereafter.

    This book of course requires no real commentary when talking to any wargamer with even a passing interest in the Napoleonic Wars. I read the book from cover to cover (1,000+ pages) in less than a week. After that, I checked it out of the Library at least a dozen times over the years, probably more! I was fascinated with the man himself, and the incredible scope of the Napoleonic Wars, and the countless nations and personalities involved. It certainly cemented a lifelong focus on the Napoleonic Wars for my Wargaming activities. My current Napoleonic Collection is nearly 8,000 figures, and  will top out well over that in the end. I must have over 100 books related to Napoleon, the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic Uniforms, etc., but if I could keep just one, it would be this one, ands down!

   My first armies were 25 mm painted flats from Aloys Ochel in Kiel, Germany. I found the black and white pictures of the flats in Morchauser's book very appealing, and had little confidence in my artistic abilities. The cost of the figures was very reasonable as well, and the catalog was reasonably easily understood with teaching myself a bit of German. However, over time I wanted more control of which regiments were depicted. That was fueled by the next book.

My copy, acquired circa 1970. The quality of the bindings wasn't great, and there are inaccuracies, but the volume of information and the artistry were and are superb for the price!

    One of the great things about Joe's book was the listing of manufacturers and wargames periodicals. I quickly subscribed to the old NEWA Courier and Don Featherstone's The Wargamer's Newsletter, as well as Jack Scruby's on and off again publications. In one or more of them  there was a review of this book, which I purchased immediately. The variety and color of Napoleonic uniforms depicted was astounding!  I sold all my flats and started building and painting armies in 25mm, chiefly wargames figures by Jack Scruby, augmented with a few Hinton Hunt figures. 

This second volume came out a year or so after the first. 

    With the help of these illustrations (and teaching myself to read some very basic French), I settled on the French and Austrian Armies as my primary forces, augmented by some Bavarians and Russians.  All manner of Confederation of the Rhine troops followed, along with Portuguese, Brunswickers, Danes, Swedes, Prussians and more. My original flat armies were French and British, but I didn't paint any British figures for almost 30 years after that! However, they were eventually added in due course, followed by my Spanish Napoleonics a few years ago. I still plan to paint hundreds more  Napoleonics in the next few years. Lead addiction is a real thing, as many of us can attest. 

My favorite centerfold.  Well, almost!  :-)

    Many other periods and armies have followed, as chronicled here on my blog, but Napoleonics have always been my first love. With the inspiration provided by the paintings of Fred and Liliane Funken, it is easy to see why! Thank you, Joe, David, Fred, Liliane, and countless others for the joy of this somewhat eccentric but glorious hobby of ours~!

HAVOC 2013 - Ancients battle with Sweet rules

    I really had been on the fence about attending HAVOC this year for personal reasons, but the organizers wrote to me and some other past GM's looking for additional games to be run, evidently due to some late cancellations. Well, ASK me to run a convention game that way, and... I probably will! From past experience, I knew that the tables at HAVOC are relatively small, and the 4 hour time slots allocated for games are a lot more like 3 1/2 hours as there is only an hour in between games - not much time to set up, run or take down a game of any size.So, the re-discovered Sweet Ancient rules came to mind. They would be easy to set up and take down, wouldn't need a ton of troops (by my standards at least), and the gridded board and relatively simple rules make for quick play.

    The only problem was that I really wanted to use an Egyptian army as one of the ones on the table, and as of committing to the game barely a month prior to the event, I didn't *have* and Egyptian army!  As explained in my Chariot post, I had bought the figures for such an Army 5-6 years ago, assembled them, primed them, and painted the dark flesh on some.... and then the project stalled, until last month. ( chariots and about 100 infantry figures later, I just finished them in time, but not enough to terrain the bases with sand as is my eventual plan. Still, I packed up the troops for six different armies, and the necessary supporting materials on Saturday AM, and made it to Shrewsbury, MA in just a little over 2 hours, which is very good time. I got their early enough to make a decent tour of the dealers there (didn't buy anything this time out, though), and chat with Carl out in the parking lot (it was cool but sunny) for about 30 minutes before going in to set up my game as the previous occupant of the table cleared their game off.  I used the heavy brown paper table mats I had made a few years ago, marked with a 4" square grid, which is just a bit small for 25mm figures in units of up to 4 stands of 60mm frontage, especially the cavalry, but it worked OK.

   I brought six armies (HAVOC events call for a minimum of six player spots) and had them deploy in reasonably historical match-ups, each on 1/3 of the table's width. Which one of each pair was on each side I determined more or less randomly. As it turned out, these wound up being Egypt-Carthage-Macedonian vs. Assyria-Rome-Mauryan Indian. This allowed a lot of different troop types and armies on the table, and it was they way Charlie and Dave did multi-player games at their home. So, enough background, on to some pictures:

This flank of the table had the newly painted (Old Glory) Egyptians against the (Minifigs - some of their best figures ever) Assyrians. I think the Assyrian player was Angus but I could be wrong, and although I sat next to the Egyptian player much of the game, I could never read his name tag!  I do wish the name tags had the attendees FIRST name in big, bold print; so much better for everyone! Please feel free to correct/update me!

In the center, Jams had the Carthagenians facing off against Carl with the Republican Romans. Ad we didn't have a 5th player, we left the other two armies on the table but didn't use them (I would have been the 6th player in that case).

The Egyptian player chose his moment  and then attacked with every thing he had. Prior to that, the armored Assyrians, many of whom have bows, had shredded the lightly armed Egyptian archers quite thoroughly!

Another view of the grand charge!

In the center, Carl pushed James back at first, but James was able to save his catapult by a successful "Withdrawal" on the MDI.

Hey Carl, we just read that the Romans have Pila! Chucking these weapons at a range of no more than 1.5 squares can really soften up the enemy - or disperse his Light Infantry!

James tries to figure out how to get the Elephants to Charge!

Roman cavalry prepares to charge on the right flank!

An Egyptian Light Chariot slipped through and ran over a Roman Light catapult... and of course paid the price for the bold move on the next turn (the empty square was their location prior to the melee. 

Aerial view of the Carthagenian Left flank.

The Egyptians won most of the melees, and really blew a huge whole in the middle of the Asyrian army!

The Assyrian cavalry and Chariots rallied back...

and then launched their own big push!

Rome and Carthage continue to grind it out against one another.

A Roman Legion unit tries to help the shattered Assyrians... but in so doing leaves the battle against Carthage short of much needed troops. Final result was a convincing win by Egypt and Carthage. For once, newly painted troops gave Yeoman's service on the tabletop!

   So, how about the rules? Not surprisingly, everyone found the shooting catapults the most fun part of the game. These are capable of considerable accuracy, but it is definitely a learned skill to shoot well with them, and more than a few friendly troops died beneath the hail of plasticene clay discs! The gridded board greatly sped up play by making movement quick and precise, measurement of ranges a snap, and arcs of fire obvious. Charlie Sweet made convincing arguments for the virtues of a gridded table on this basis, and he was certainly right about that. The bow/sling/javelin fire was straightforward and worked fine, although I still find rules where rolling LOW is good unnatural, and would probably change that if I played them regularly The Melee Deployment Indicators are an interesting technique, but most of the players missed rolling dice in melee. I must confess that that was my reaction to the game years ago as well. f course, the fact that I *always* seemed to pull just the wrong one didn't help much!. James would agree, I imagine. :-)

  Overall, back 30 years ago I liked the gridded board and the shooting catapults, as well as the relatively small numbers of troops needed for each army, and the grand spectacle of the many troop types and armies, but wanted a bit more granularity, especially for melee. I would say about the same thing today.  Indeed, these factors where what led us to adapt the FGU rules Legion! to the Sweet grid and shooting catapult concepts, a hybrid that I have named "Legio Quaternarius" which we played avidly for almost 20 years. The additional complexity is not great, and less math skills are needed for the Melees as well, LOL!  Perhaps I will run them at Elliscon or HAVOC next year, or even Ross McFarlane's Morschauser inspired rules. 

Updated Ancient Rules - Charlie Sweet

    My late December post about Charlie and Dave Sweet's Ancient rules drew a lot of interest. In turn, Bob Cordery's post about these lead to Dick Bryant contacting him and finding an article in his files from the original NEWA Courier from ? the late 1960's which contained these rules, including the army lists for their special Ancient Armies. This can be downloaded directly from Bob's site. As a result I decided to place an updated version here; this uses the information from the old Courioer article, but reorganizes and paraphrases it somewhat, as well as adding a (Mauryan) Indian army to the Special Ancient Armies list. I also changed the Elephant Charge rule so that a low score is good, light everything else in the Sweet/Gerad de Gre rules; I hate it when rules sets have some situations where high rolls are good and others where they are bad!  So here goes:

Rules for an Ancient Wargame

 originally by Gerard de Gre, as modified by Charles and David Sweet

The wargames table uses a gridded board (marked off in squares - approximately 3" for 10-15mm figures, 4" for 20mm, 5" for 25mm, or whatever seems suitable)), and suitable, functional terrain set out upon it.  The two sides alternate, with the side having the first Move of the game being determined by a D6 roll off.

TURN SEQUENCE

1) Both sides  shoot with catapults (simultaneous).
2) Both side shoot with other missile armed troops (simultaneous).
3) Attacker moves and declares Melee supports
4) Defender declares Melee supports
5) All Melees are resolved
6) Next turn begins, with the Defender becoming the Attacker and vice versa.

UNIT TYPE	Move squares	Melee Value	Firing Range	Support Type	Points	Stands
Light Infantry	3	0.5	3	B	3	3
Roman Velites	3	1	2	B	3	3
Macedonian Peltasts	3	0.75	2	B	3	3
Heavy Infantry	2	1	-	A	3	4
Roman Legionary	2	1.5	1.5	A	4	4
Macedon Phalanx	2	1.5/1#	-	A	3	4
Mac. Hypaspists	3	1	-	A	4	4
Assyrian Heavy Archers	2	1	3	A	4	3
Indian Med Archers	2	1	3@	A	4	4
Light Cavalry	5	0.5	2.5	B	5	3
Numidian LC	6	0.75	3	B	6	3
Heavy Cavalry	4	1	-	A	5	4
Mac Companions	4	1.5	-	A	6	4
Ass Hvy Mtd Arch	4	1	3	B	6	3
Chariots	4	2/3*	-	A	10	1
Egypt/Ass Lt Ch	5	2/3*	3	B	9	2
Assyrian Hvy Ch.	4	3	3	A	12	1
Elephants	4	2/4*	-	A	10	1
Carthagenian or Indian Elephants	4	2/4*	3	A	10	1
Light Catapults	3	-	4	-	6	1
Horse Crew	3	1	-	D	3	1
Heavy Catapults	2	-	6	-	8	1
Foot Crew	2	0.5	-	D	2	2
Commanders	2	2	-	C	10	1
SubCommander	3	1.5	-	C	5	1

* second, higher number is used when the unit charges into the contact square.
# Phalangites count 1.5 points in melee while there are three or four stands remaining in a unit, 1 point if only two or one stand remaining.
@ Indian Medium Archers count as Light Infantry as a target only

MOVEMENT

1) Moves (except retreats) and shooting on the diagonal counts as 1.5 squares. Add one square to the unit's move if the movement starts ends, and travels entirely along a road.
2) Only one unit may occupy a square at a time, except that Commanders and/or Catapults may share a square with any friendly unit (or not), and may attach and detach freely. Limit one Commander or Sub-Commander and/or 1 Catapult and up to six crew per square.
3) No units can separate or reform except Light Infantry, Light Cavalry, Catapults and Commanders.
4) Enemy units may not be moved through; the space between two diagonally adjacent enemy units also may not be moved through.
5) A catapult must have at least one stand in its square to move; anyone can move a catapult, the rate being the slower of the two.
6) All units must face a side or a corner of the square they are in at all times. All troops may change face at any time during their move without penalty, and to indicate supports in a melee, and after a melee is fought. Support type "A" troops (generally Heavy Infantry, Heavy Cavalry, Chariots and Elephants) may only face the sides of a square.

CATAPULT FIRE
1) In order to fire, a Catapult must have at least one stand of crew, Infantry, or a commander to man it. Any stand manning a catapult cannot otherwise fire or support melee in that turn, although they may fight at full value if attacked.
2) The target must be within +/- 45 degrees of the catapults facing to be valid. Overhead fire is allowed. It is entirely possible to hit one's own troops accidentally!
3) The target must be within range of the catapult; ranges are measured counting the target's square but not that of the shooter.
4) Each Catapult gets one shot per turn. An actual shooting catapult device is placed behind the catapult model relative to the target. A clay projectile with the center marked is shot. Any ONE valid target stand (front axle for chariots and catapults, either front leg for Elephants) within 1" of the center of the shell is hit and removed from play; if there is more than one eligible target, the shooter gets his choice. If the target is in a Protected Square, the center of the shell must also be within the target square in order to kill a stand.

MISSILE FIRE
1) Fire is by units. The target must be within range and +/- 45 degrees of the shooting unit's facing in order to be valid.
2) Any units in the way at any distance screen and prevent fire by either side at the screened units.
3) Normally one die (D6) is rolled per stand;  1 die per unit firing is subtracted for firing into a Protected square (such as a woods or building), while one die is added for each unit after the first shooting at the same target. Unlike all other troops, Heavy Chariots get two shots per stand.
4) Assyrian Heavy Archers, due to their large cane shields, always count as being in a protected square for shooting only.
5) To shoot, use the appropriate number of dice and consult the table below:

Target Type	1 square	1.5 - 2 squares	Over 2
Lt Infantry, Foot crews	1, 2, or 3	1 or 2	1
Hvy Inf., Lt Cav. Horse crew	1 or 2	1	Double 1
Heavy Cavalry	1	Double 1’s	Triple 1
Chariots, Elephants	Double 1 or Double 2	Triple 1’’s or Triple 2’s	Triple 1
Commanders	Double 1’s	Triple 1’s	Impossible

6) The target square must be designated; if more than one target type can be hit, the shooter gets his choice.

CHARGING AND MELEE
1)  After Movement, if you move any your troops into the same square(s) as an opposing unit, a Melee must be fought. The troops in the contact square are automatically be involved, and other adjacent troops of both sides may also be involved as "Supports".  Supporting a Melee is always optional.
2) Supports are indicated by facing the unit into the contact square, but note the restrictions below. The attacker indicates and faces their supporting units first, then the defender. No unit may fight in more than one melee per turn. Commanders may be placed in the same square as another unit and still participate in melee.
3) Type A units (heavy troops, chariots, elephants) may only support Melee directly to their front, or to either side (never diagonally).
    Type B units (light troops) may support in any direction except directly to their rear.
    Type C units (commanders) may support in any direction, including to their rear if alone in a square, otherwise as the unit they are with..
    Type D units (catapult crews) may not support melees at all.
4) Cavalry, Chariots, and Elephants may not support Infantry or Catapult crews in melee unless they are directly to the side.
5) Chariots and Elephants are usually worth 2 points, but if they charge into the contact square, the second, higher point value is used.
6) Elephants must roll a die before movement to see if they will charge (if desired); on a roll of 5 or 6, the Elephant remains stationary, otherwise it may charge.
7) Cavalry cannot charge into a square containing 4 stands of Legionaries or Phalangites.
8) If the contact square is a Protected square, the attackers are worth one point less than usual.

MELEE PROCEDURE
Each side totals up the points they have in the contact square or in support. Each player has 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 losses upon the Superior side. The side then having the fewest points remaining retreats 2 squares as above; If equal, the side with the Inferior Deployment must retreat. However, if the weaker side is outnumbered 3:1 or more in points, it is instead *destroyed* as above!

The first stand eliminated is always in the contact square, there after they are spread as evenly as possible, moving clockwise. If the exact total of losses cannot be made, flip a coin or roll a die to determine if the extra results in an additional stand loss pr is ignored.

Any unit that cannot retreat from melee due to impassable terrain and/or enemy troops is destroyed instead. Catapults retreat if there is at least one surviving  friendly stand in the square with them; if not it may be captured if their is at least one enemy stand in the square with them at the end of the melee. If neither side has stands remaining, it is not owned by either side, but may be captured by later moving a stand into the square with it. All units of both sides that survive a melee get a free change of facing.


MORALE
 1) Once a Heavy Infantry, Heavy Cavalry, or Light Cavalry unit is reduced to 1 stand, it must to retreat on each and every move towards its baseline. It may support shoot or support a Melee if otherwise eligible, but not initiate one. Special Troops (other than the standard troop types in BOLD in the table), are exempt from this requirement as are any units designated as "Guards".  I'd allow a single stand with an attached commander to carry on as usual, as long as the Commander remains attached.
2) units which retreat off the board are set aside; they do not count as losses otherwise.
3) Cavalry, Chariots, and Elephants may "run down" and eliminate a single stand of infantry or foot crew in the open without stopping.
4) Games last until one side concedes, is destroyed, or an agreed upon number of turns have been played (or a set ending time reached, after which the present move and one additional is completed) In the later cases, count up the remaining points on each side, including those which have retreated off the table; the higher total wins.

SAMPLE ARMY COMPOSITIONS 

Egyptian: 1 normal Commander, 5 units normal Heavy Infantry, 1 unit Sherdan Guard Infantry, 4 units normal Light Infantry, 1 unit normal Heavy Cavalry 3 Sub-Commanders, 4 units Light Chariots. (200 points)

Assyrian: 1 normal Commander, 1 unit Heavy Catapults, 3 units normal Heavy Infantry, 2 units Heavy Foot Archers, 1 unit normal Heavy Cavalry, 3 units Heavy Mounted Archers, 1 unit Light Chariots, 2 units Heavy Chariots. (200 points) Personally, I'd consider replacing one of the units of Heavy Horse Archers with 2 units of normal Light Infantry

Macedonian: 1 normal Commander, 1 Heavy Catapult, 1 Light Catapult, 2 units normal Light Infantry, 2 units Peltasts, 4 units Phalangites, 1 unit Hypaspists, 2 units Companions. (200 points)

Indian: 1 normal Commander, 1 Heavy Catapult, 1 Light Catapult, 2 units normal Light Infantry, 2 units normal Heavy Infantry, 3 units Medium Archers, 4 units (special) elephants, 2 units Heavy Chariots, 1 unit normal Heavy Cavalry (201 points)

Roman:  1 normal Commander, 1 Heavy Catapult, 1 Light Catapult, 2 units normal Light Infantry, 1 unit Velites, 1 unit Normal Heavy Infantry, 4 units Legionaries, 2 units normal Light Cavalry, 1 units normal Heavy Cavalry. (200 points)

Carthagenian: 1 normal Commander, 1 Heavy Catapult, 1 Light Catapult, 2 units normal Light Infantry, 4 units normal Heavy Infantry, 3 (special) Elephants, 2 units normal Heavy Cavalry, 2 units Numidian Light Cavalry. (200 points) Personally, I'd consider replacing one of the Elephant units with 2 sub-commanders.

Generic Ancient Army: 1 normal Commander, 1 Heavy Catapult, 1 Light Catapult, 3 units normal Light Infantry, 4 units normal Heavy Infantry, 1 unit Guard Infantry, 2 units normal Light Cavalry, 2 units normal Heavy Cavalry, 1 Sub-commander, 1 extra stand Horse Chariot crew. (200 points)

I have had so much fun re-discovering these rules that I plan on running a game with them at the upcoming  HAVOC convention in Shrewsbury, MA; tentatively on Saturday afternoon, April 6th. I am on a crash course to complete my Egyptian army by then, if possible!

Although I have modified them, the original article is copyright by The Courier; please feel free to use and adapt them for you personal/non-commercial use.

Carthago delenda est!

Peter