"Field of Glory" and "Rise of Rome"

I need to mention that the highly anticipated "Field of Glory" rules from Osprey have now been published. They can be found almost everywhere from what I understand. Since the book (hardcover by the way) is from Osprey it is being pushed out to all the major commercial book sellers. You can also get the "Rise of Rome" and "Storm of Arrows" supplements. "Rise of Rome" covers the early, middle and late Republican Roman periods and all the many enemies of Rome from that time. "Storm of Arrows" covers late medieval. Many more supplements are coming.

Here is a list of what is covered in the "Rise of Rome" supplement, the Late Republican Roman list is where you will find the Marius/Caesar style of Romans:

MID-REPUBLICAN ROMAN
Mid-Republican Roman Allies
LATE REPUBLICAN ROMAN
Late Republican Roman Allies
Bithynian Allies
GALLIC
Gallic Allies
Ligurian Allies
PYRRHIC
LATER CARTHAGINIAN
Bruttian or Lucanian Allies
Late Campanian Allies
ILLYRIAN
Paionian Allies
ANCIENT SPANISH
Ancient Spanish Allies
LATER MACEDONIAN
ATTALID PERGAMENE
Attalid Pergamene Allies
Kappadokian Allies
NUMIDIAN OR EARLY MOORISH
Numidian or Early Moorish Allies
LATER SELEUCID
LATER PTOLEMAIC
PONTIC
SPARTACUS SLAVE REVOLT
EARLY ARMENIAN
Early Armenian Allies
PARTHIAN
Parthian or Media Atropatene Allies
Adiabene, Edessan or Hatran Allies
Elymaian Allies
Commagene Allies
Early Arab Allies
Later Skythian or Saka Allies
LATER JEWISH
Later Jewish Allies
Nabataean Allies
BOSPORAN

I bought my copy of the rules this past weekend at the "Cold Wars" convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I finished reading through the rules yesterday. I think the one biggest difference I have noticed so far is how these rules treat barbarian warbands. In many other ancient warfare rules if a warband beats you in close combat in the same turn in which it charged you, you are automatically (for the most part) broken. In these rules warbands are classified as "Impact Foot," which is perfectly fine, but wait, Roman Legionary infantry is classified as "Impact Foot" too! The logic being that a Roman unit is always going to counter-charge behind a volley of pilums so the "impacts" get canceled out. Which ever side loses still suffers a die roll penalty for losing to "Impact Foot" when it has to take its "Cohesion" test (kind of like morale/disruption combined), but it certainly isn't an automatic break and the charging warband could just as easily suffer the same penalty as the counter-charging Romans if the Romans were to win the combat. Interesting idea. I think I like that!

These rules and the supplements allow for a very broad range of options for army composition and size, so you can start out small or keep it small if you like. If I get time I might set a small experimental game this weekend and start teaching myself how to use the rules.

From what I gather, "Field of Glory" is already developing a pretty strong following. The book has only been available for purchase since February 7th and already there are tournaments springing up in the UK and even in the US. There was a small tourney at the "Cold Wars" con in Lancaster, PA this past weekend, and the Yahoo discussion group already has 647 members as of today! It will interesting to see where all this goes. We could actually have a widely popular set of ancient warfare rules here that does not feel like a glorified "dungeons and dragons," and developed by people who actually know how to express complex concepts through the medium of writing.