There are always alternatives, of course. I’ve always wondered about using DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) or HOTT (Hordes of the Things). I picked them up but ended up never playing them. I heard Michael “Chicago Wiz” talk about it in his podcast (Part 1, Part 2).
Recently, @awinter had some very different recommendations for me: He recommended Morschauser and Gerard De Gre! You’ll find them in Jon Peterson’s *Playing at the World*, of course.
Morschauser’s Ancients War Game and Humanizing the Roster System contain material from 1966 and 1967, talking about a “roster system” used to play a wargame and how one might use it to actually run individual soldiers. A very early predecessor to D&D!
Morschauser’s Ancients War Game
Duelling in the Sandpit – Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust talks about Gerard De Gre’s simple system suitable for use “in the bedroom.” (I don’t know about that...)
Duelling in the Sandpit – Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust
I’m not sure what to make of it. I still think I want those recognisable D&D elements in my mass combat rules which is what I liked about Greywulf’s Mass Combat Made Easy rules, which I had started using pretty quickly. I just discussed my current iteration yesterday. See 2019-03-28 Mass Combat. I talked about the other systems I’ve used on this blog back in 2016. See 2016-09-01 Mass Combat.
Yes, I think mass combat is important! 😀
#RPG #Old School #Mass Combat
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Worth mentioning also is By this Axe by Chris Koutalik.
– Anders H 2019-03-30 13:46 UTC
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Is this not the one I mentioned in the 2016 post? The name is different, though. Back then I wrote: “By this Poleaxe by the Hydra Cooperative for “small-scale battles or skirmishes involving 15-120 combatants on each side”... I’d be interested to hear comparisons!” Have you used it? Do you have a report or some examples on a blog sonewhere that I could check out? I am I nterested, but I want to know more before buying and reading it all.
– Alex Schroeder 2019-03-30 20:31 UTC
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Jeremy Friesen of *Take on Rules* writes about Daniel Collin's “Book of War”.
– Alex Schroeder 2019-03-31 09:28 UTC