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Got a bunch of ancient Macedonians and elephants wondering now what would be a good ruleset to represent phalanx combat during that period. Looking for fairly big battles with each side having big blocks of pikes. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

De Bellis Antiquitatis for cheap and simple quick playing rules with smaller armies.
De Bellis Magistorum Militum or Field Of Glory for more complex rules with larger armies.

There probably are some specific Hellenistic rules (e.g. Hoplon) but I am not familiar with them and it would be interesting for people to chip in with their alternatives.

The great thing about Ancients is that basing is fairly standard and you can use the same figures in lots of different rulesets.

I recently played an enjoyable game of Hail Caesar, and I've been reading some very positive comments on Impetus. Those are both general ancients rule sets, and not specific to phalanx combat though.

I don't know if there is a game made specifically for phalanx combat. I just want rules that stress how formidable the Macedonian phalanx was frontally and encourages flanking the phalanx. Also from reading about the ancient battles the elephants should have a descent chance of either being devastating, doing very little or stampeding your own lines!!! I would like flank attacks to be a possibility at least, not just move the whole army forward and start hacking.

Hail Caesare will suit your needs, with its supplements and what not, you will find what you need. Hopefully. but its not built around Phalanx combat thougth

Hail Caesar provides special rules for the Phalanx (used by both the Greeks and the Macedonians), the long spear (used by the Greeks), and the pike (used by the Macedonians). Pike-armed phalanxes are very nasty from the front. And when they have proper flank support, they're even nastier.

When they don't have proper flank support... well...


You'll want the main rule book for the rules, and the Armies of Antiquity army book for the lists.

Any general Ancients rulebook that is not specific to a particular period covers spear and pike phalanxes, and elephants, flank manoeuvres, and so on.

There are at least half a dozen decent games on the market, as mentioned above; DBA, Hail Caesar, etc.

As much as I love Hail Caesar, some players complain that it doesn't model phalanx movement well.

You don't actually need the supplements to play, though. You can get by with just the main rulebook.

If you want a step down from large scale, do a search for Epic (Saga) Greek lists.

A number of players have together battleboards for various Greek groups. Gives a good chance to play something more...mythic:

http://toomuchlead.blogspot.com/2013/03/saga-epic-greek-battleboards.html

http://roughwotr.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/saga-trojan-war.html

http://www.kurpfalz-feldherren.de/sites/default/files/Wraith/ancient-greek_battleboard_saga.jpg

http://www.sweetwater-forum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=10983&pageNo=1

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=292388

 jedi76 wrote:
I just want rules that stress how formidable the Macedonian phalanx was frontally and encourages flanking the phalanx. Also from reading about the ancient battles the elephants should have a descent chance of either being devastating, doing very little or stampeding your own lines!!! I would like flank attacks to be a possibility at least, not just move the whole army forward and start hacking.

Sword & Spear meets your requirements. It works very well for Hellenistic battles.

Here are some links to battle reports:

http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/battle-of-hydaspes-t441.html

http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/macedonians-v-greeks-at-chaeronea-t449.html

http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/1500-point-romans-v-seleucids-t215.html

http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/pyrrhus-v-mid-rep-rome-aar-phalanx-v-maniples-t45.html

http://polkovnikproductions.freeforums.org/aar-romans-vs-seleucids-t15.html


Mark