Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

It's been interesting seeing the discussions on this list, especially in conjunction with my own rules list and the ancmed group. One thing is certain, with Warrior, Ancient Warfare/Medieval Warfare and WHAB, ancients gaming has really opened up new opportunities for potential players with such a variety of rules systems to choose from.
 
Not very long ago, we had a grand total of two 'mainline' tournament systems extent at the larger U.S. conventions, ARMATI and DBM/DBA, as well as a core of remaining 7th players. Thanks to the hard work of the Four Horsemen with Warrior, Jervis Johnson with WHAB and my many list subscribers at GoreAMwar, we have provided alternatives to these rules, allowing many old and new gamers alike something to play that they enjoy.
 
There are some that still decry the fact that there is such a variety of rules systems. In one way, they have a valid point that having so many different rules systems has diluted the pool of gamers showing up to play DBM...and thus has in some way hurt the one-time 'unity' of the ancients community. From my own point of view, I chose to get out of playing ancients for a few years as I did not care to play either DBX or ARMATI. Apparently others felt the same. So in this respect, bringing a variety of rules systems to the convention circuit has actually brought players back into the hobby as well as bringing many new gamers in who are excited about our systems.
 
This is all to the good, and the more the merrier. As long as we have this hobby and rules we can enjoy, everyone can find some common ground in research, historical discussions and battle lore. I for one feel most fortunate to have so many rules systems to choose from.
 
Terry 

[joncleaves]

Thanks, Terry. And we agree.

[scott holder]

Let me add to Terry's very cogent analysis on this. If it weren't for the
"other" games sets, there would not be nearly the number of tournament ancient
gamers playing today. Each and every time Phil changed "editions" (and think
of DBM as nothing more than "8th edition"), at *least* 25% of players quit. I
know I woulda since I don't find DBM terribly interesting as a game for
tournaments. Loved it for campaign games which was how I playtested it.

So, in many ways, we suffered for years by being monolithic. Sure, people
could play the nominally same game all over the place but if you didn't like
the game in the first place, that did you no good.

Now, we have 6 game systems that seem to appeal to all facets of ancients, at
least in a tourney sense and look at the result: 150% growth in the number of
players in the last 5 years. And, there's enough players who play more than
one set that makes it still somewhat connected.

>>> tlgore@... 9/7/01 9:44:00 PM >>>

It's been interesting seeing the discussions on this list, especially in
conjunction with my own rules list and the ancmed group. One thing is certain,
with Warrior, Ancient Warfare/Medieval Warfare and WHAB, ancients gaming has
really opened up new opportunities for potential players with such a variety
of rules systems to choose from.

Not very long ago, we had a grand total of two 'mainline' tournament systems
extent at the larger U.S. conventions, ARMATI and DBM/DBA, as well as a core
of remaining 7th players. Thanks to the hard work of the Four Horsemen with
Warrior, Jervis Johnson with WHAB and my many list subscribers at GoreAMwar,
we have provided alternatives to these rules, allowing many old and new gamers
alike something to play that they enjoy.

There are some that still decry the fact that there is such a variety of rules
systems. In one way, they have a valid point that having so many different
rules systems has diluted the pool of gamers showing up to play DBM...and thus
has in some way hurt the one-time 'unity' of the ancients community. From my
own point of view, I chose to get out of playing ancients for a few years as I
did not care to play either DBX or ARMATI. Apparently others felt the same. So
in this respect, bringing a variety of rules systems to the convention circuit
has actually brought players back into the hobby as well as bringing many new
gamers in who are excited about our systems.

This is all to the good, and the more the merrier. As long as we have this
hobby and rules we can enjoy, everyone can find some common ground in
research, historical discussions and battle lore. I for one feel most
fortunate to have so many rules systems to choose from.

Terry