Best game to recreate the 'feel' of the ancient battlefield?

Any members of this group with a passing interest in boardgames may like to consider picking up Commands & Colors: Ancients.

IMO, this game has a number of merits: firstly, it is self-contained and requires no expansions (although there are some available), being block-driven rather than relying on miniatures. N.B. that stickering the blocks is a bit of a pain.

In addition, its card-driven mechanics emulate the 'fog of war' nicely, and its carefully crafted scenarios often play out with surprising historical accuracy. Scenarios included with the 2nd edition of the game:

Akragas - Carthaginians vs Syracusans 406 BC
Crimissos - River Carthaginians vs Syracusans 341 BC
Bagradas - Carthaginians vs Romans 253 BC
Ticinus River - Carthaginians vs Romans 218 BC
Trebbia - Carthaginians vs Romans 218 BC
Lake Trasimenus - Carthaginians vs Romans 217 BC
Cannae - Carthaginians vs Romans 216 BC
Dertosa (Ebro) - Carthaginians vs Romans 215 BC
2nd Beneventum - Carthaginians vs Romans 214 BC
Castulo - Carthaginians vs Romans 211 BC
Baecula - Carthaginians vs Romans 208 BC
Metaurus - Carthaginians vs Romans 207 BC
Ilipia - Carthaginians vs Romans 206 BC
Great Plains - Carthaginians vs Romans 203 BC
Zama - Carthaginians vs Romans 202 BC

Nice to see a fellow BGG'er posting on this site. Command & Colors is a brilliant game. If you're into chess or other boardgames and you like ancient history, it's really worth a try.

Hi there!

I recently bought the reprint of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage and have had a couple of trial games, but am a little disappointed to find it is so abstract.

The theme is rather secondary to the game mechanics, IMO. Maybe I'll warm to it.

what about PC games? any suggestions?

Don't give up on Hannibal yet. My initial response was lukewarm too, but by now it's my favourite game by far.

If you like blockgames, you should consider Athens & Sparta: a fun game but maybe a bit too abstract for your taste.

PC games? Mmm, have you tried Rome:total war? It's a turn based grand strategy game, but battles are fought in 'real time'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome:_Total_War
It's not very realistic from a historical point of view, I believe, although several mods are available to correct this.

I haven't played C&C, but from what I've heard about it, you might also like the old Avalon Hill game Alexander the Great (designed by the late Gary Gygax). It captures the feel of ancient battles better than any other game I've played, especially both the relative lack of control by commanders and the brittleness of the armies.

I tend to favor strategic-level games myself, and Hannibal is one of the best ancient ones IMO. Another fun one is Victory Games' Peloponnesian War, the most interesting part there being the system for playing it solitaire, which makes you switch sides whenever you're doing too well.

My favorite:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/299

Another nice thing about C&C is that you can play it online using Vassal: http://www.vassalengine.org/community/index.php
Works very well.

I'm a BGGer too!

I have both C&C and Rome: Total War.

If you want to taste the real hopilite battle style, I suggest you "Hoplomachia", http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/hoplomachia.html

Beware, it is very complex and very limited in its timeline, but it provides rules for breakfast and speech-making, as well as the simulation of passing orders through signals.

Great to know that there are still board games out there on the order of the old Avalon Hill series (e.g., Battle of the Bulge). Now, are there any available of the computer since the same series for the computer was discontinued some years ago? I am without a gaming partner and while chess is good, I still miss the battle based strategy games

ahhh yes, i spent many a night playing the Avalon Hill games with my father. my mother would lose her diningroom table for weeks on end!

i bought a new AH game about 10 years back... 'The Republic of Rome', which looked quite good from the reviews. but alas, i have no one to play it with! :(

the cover says "For Ages 8 And Up", but it seems like that would be one helluv an 8 year old!

Hhmmm. I stumbled on a website recently that had computerized a whole bunch of AH and SPI games so they could be played online. I didn't bookmark the site as I don't have time for that now but some skillful Googling should reveal it. I can't recall which games had been implemented but it might be worth researching.

Columbia Games recently anounced that it will publish a new blockgame depicting the Roman civil wars (Ceasar vs Pompey or Octavian vs Antony).

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/37836