Dominion of the Spear rules - 5 games and a short review

Introduction
I have been playing around with writing 3x3 grid games for years but only got serious for ancients rules a few months ago.  I was looking for quick rules to use for campaign games.  And then just before New Year’s Day Dominion of the Spear appears at WargameVault. 3-6 units, a grid of 3 sectors and two reserves.  Quick play.  Got it immediately but has taken a few days to get around to playing and writing up a post.  

Note I use figures for the game.  Not required at all - could just write the units down on a paper.  But I have the miniatures so will use them.
 
Brief review
Each side has 3-6 units.
Each unit is either Infantry or Mounted, and also Melee or Missile.  4 basic units.  And then you can add up to 2 abilities – Elite/Ferocious or Armoured. There are 196 armies in the army list (excellent!)
The game is played by lining up 3 unit of each side (left, centre and right sectors). Remaining units go into a reserve. Working left to right roll a die for each side.  Each side adds some modifiers (about 4) and if they exceed the required score they hit the other unit. A hit results in the unit being removed. Both may be removed in the same combat.  A Missile unit fires first.  Losses are replaced by reserves.

There is limited tactical decision making:

• At setup, the defender sets up the 3 units first and then Attacker can choose optimal units to oppose.
• When a unit is lost you can choose which reserve unit may be best to replace it.
• When there is no opposing unit, you may outflank a unit.  Uncommonly but occasionally there is a choice of opposing unit to outflank.

Definitely not a lot of decision making but the narrative produced is great. I do try and address some of these limits with some house rules I will discuss later.

I highly recommend these rules for anyone looking on a way to streamline ancient battles to the core, or looking for quick campaign resolution.  My blog gets a mention in the design notes but that had no influence on the recommendation :-)
 
Game 1 – 3 sectors, 12 points, Heraclea
For this game I simply used the Battle of Heraclea forces as I am so familiar with it, I also used a historical-like deployment.  I realised later this removed the Attacker’s decision on choosing opposing units in the sectors that is one of the few decision making in the game.

Setup

Pyrrhus
Agema (Elite Mounted Melee). Right sector.
Pikes (Armoured Infantry Melee). Centre sector.
Pikes. Left sector.
Elephant (Mounted Melee, Armoured). Reserve.
 
Romans
Cavalry (Mounted Melee). Right sector.
Velites (Infantry Missile). Centre sector.
Legion (Armoured Infantry Melee). Left sector.
Legion. Reserve.
Green Legion (Infantry Melee). Reserve.
 
Note I do right to left rather than the rules left to right as that is what I am used to. Same as flipping the board 180 degrees with Attacker at the bottom.  I am just used to right to left.
 
Turn 1
Right: Agema Vs Roman Cavalry, Romans win and Elephants replace the Agema
Centre: Velites fire first and Pikes rout, No replacement
Left: Pikes Vs Legion.  Neither hit

End of turn 1

Turn 2
Right: Elephant Vs Cavalry, Cavalry routed, Reserve Legion (armoured) take their place
Centre: Velites Vs Elephant (outflanked).  Elephant gone
Left: Pike Vs legion. No effect

End of turn 2

Pyrrhus down to 1 unit and has lost.
 
Verdict
It was fun, but no decision making at all.  This was all dice driven.  It was interesting to play and definitely would be useful in a board driven campaign when rather than just roll 1 die to see who wins a battle you could use these rules to quickly play it out and maybe also determine losses. 
 
Game 2 – 4 sectors, 16 points, Heraclea
The rules do suggest more sectors (and 4 points per extra sector).  In some 3x2 rules I was tinkering with years ago, I allowed more units the centre and less on the flanks.  So I gave 4 sectors a go.

Setup

Pyrrhus
Agema. Right sector.
Pikes, Centre sector.
Pikes (Infantry Melee, Elite, Armoured). Centre sector.
Pikes. Left sector.
Elephant. Reserve.
 
Romans
Cavalry. Right sector.
Legion. Centre sector.
Velites. Centre sector.
Legion. Left sector.
2xLegion. Reserve.
 
Turn 1
Right: Agema Vs Cavalry. Agema destroyed, Elephants replace Agema
Centre: Velites miss with missile and the pikes then rout the Velites. Legion replaces the Velites
Centre: Pikes Vs Legion.  Legion routs, another Legion replaces.
Left. Pike Vs Legion.  No effect.

End of turn 1

Turn 2
Right: Elephant Vs Cavalry. Cavalry routed.
Centre: Pike Vs Legion.  No effect.
Centre: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 2

Turn 3
R: Elephant Vs Legion (in centre) outflanked. Legion routed. 
C: Pike Vs Legion (outflanked).  Legion routed
C: Pike Vs Legion (outflanked).  Legion routed.
 
Pyrrhus decisive victory (no image as all Romans have routed).
 
Verdict
4 sectors does not add anything material to the game’s decision making, nor really to the narrative. It doesn’t detract anything either.  On that note I will continue with three sectors.
 
Game 3 – 3 sectors, 16 points, Heraclea
As a key decision is replacement from reserves, I thought about increasing the number of units (to 16 points) but keeping 3 sectors.  This way there will be more decisions through the game choosing what replaces a lost unit.

Setup

Pyrrhus
Agema. Right sector.
Pikes. Centre sector.
Pikes (Elite). Left sector.
Elephant. Reserve.
Pikes. Reserve.
 
Romans
Cavalry. Right sector.
Velites. Centre sector.
Legion. Left sector.
3xLegion. Reserve.
 
Turn 1
Right: Agema Vs Cavalry.  Both destroyed.  Elephant replace Agema, Legion replace Cavalry.
Centre: Velites shoot and miss. Pikes are successful and Velites rout, replaced with Legion.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 1

Turn 2
Right: Elephant Vs Legion. No effect.
Centre: Pike vs Legion. No effect.
Left: Pike (elite) Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 2

Turn 3
Right: Elephant Vs Legion. No effect.
Centre: Pike vs Legion. No effect.
Left: Pike (elite) Vs Legion. No effect.
 
Turn 4
Right: Elephant Vs Legion. No effect.
Centre: Pike vs Legion. No effect.
Left: Pike (elite) Vs Legion. No effect.
 
Armoured melee infantry units in combat need a 6 and so you can see combat is going on awhile.
 
Turn 5
Right: Elephant Vs Legion. Elephant routs, replace by Pike
Centre: Pike vs Legion. Pikes rout.
Left: Pike (elite) Vs Legion.  No effect.

End of turn 5

Turn 6
R: Pike vs Legion. Legion rout, replaced with a Legion
C: Legion Vs Pike (right) outflanked. Pikes rout.
L: Pike (elite) Vs Legion. Legions rout
 
Pyrrhus down to one unit and loses.

End game

Verdict
I really enjoyed this game.  It was fun but I did not have to make any decisions – all dice driven.
 
Game 4 – 3 sectors, 16 points, Heraclea
I liked Game 3 so let’s play it again.

Setup

Pyrrhus
Agema. Right sector.
Pikes. Centre sector.
Pikes. Left sector.
Elephant. Reserve.
Pikes (Elite). Reserve.

Romans
Cavalry. Right sector.
Velites. Centre sector.
Legion. Left sector.
3xLegion. Reserve.
 
Turn 1
Right: Agema Vs Cavalry.  Cavalry destroyed.  Legion replaces.
Centre: Velites shoot, miss. Pike melee but no effect.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 1

Turn 2
Right: Agema Vs Legion.  Agema destroyed.  Elephants replace Agema.
Centre: Velites shoot and miss. Pike melee and Velites destroyed, Legion replaces.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 2

Turn 3
Right: Elephant Vs Legion.  No effect
Centre: Pike Vs Legion. Pike rout, Elite Pikes replace.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 3

Turn 4
Right: Elephant Vs Legion.  No effect
Centre: Pike Vs Legion. Legion rout, Another Legion replaces.
Left: Pike Vs Legion. Pike rout

End of turn 4

Turn 5
Right: Elephant Vs Legion.  Elephant rout.
Centre: Pike Vs Legion. No effect.
Left: Legion Vs Pike (outflank). No effect
 
Pyrrhus down to 1 unit and loses.

End of turn 5

Verdict
Another fun game producing a great narrative.  Still very little decision making though.
 
Game 5 – 3 sectors, 16 points, Romans Vs Goths (Naissus battle)
I had these forces still out after my last test game with my own rules so played a stylised game of that.
I also mapped all the Ancient Battlelines Clash (ABC) unit classifications (same as the Bill Banks Ancients) to the Dominion of the Spear unit types.  This way I can use “Heavy Cavalry” and know that is “Mounted Melee Elite”.  Made it a lot easier for me to relate.  Note I used to use categories like missile and melee, Mounted and infantry for a few years in my ABC rules but went back to Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Infantry etc. as that is what I felt most comfortable with using.
 
I am also also trying out rule where the Attacker chooses 1-3 sectors for combat (right to left).  The Defender then choose 1-3 sectors for combat (left to right).  Victory is checked after Attacker and Defender turn. I am hoping this will add a bit of decision making as likely only combat if advantageous, or for a tactical advantage (such as possibly outflanking) or desperate when close to losing.
 
Romans
2xLegions (HI aka Infantry Melee Armoured)
2xAuxila (MI aka Infantry Melee)
1xArchers (LA aka Infantry Missile)
1xLight Cavalry (Mounted Missile)
1xHeacvy Cavalry (Mounted Missile Elite)
 
Goths
4xWB (Warbands aka Infantry Melee Ferocious)
1xHeavy Cavalry
1xArchers

Setup

Goths are defending. They put 3 Warbands into the line with the rest into reserve. Up to Romans to match
 
Warbands have +1 to attack.  The Roman Light Cavalry will get a bonus Vs Melee infantry so will deploy them and two Legions as they will negate the +1 as the Legions are being armoured.
 
Turn 1
Attacker:
Left: Light Cavalry Vs Warband.  Light Cavalry fires and the Warband routs. Replace with the Gothic Cavalry as the latter will get a bonus in melee against the Light Cavalry.
 
Defender:
Left: Light Cavalry Vs Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry fires and misses, Heavy Cavalry melee and misses
Centre: Warband Vs Legion. Legion routs.  Replace with Archers.
Right: Warband Vs Legion.  Warband routs. Replace with another Warband.

End of turn 1

Turn 2
Attacker:
Centre: Archers Vs Warband. Archers miss. Warband hits and Archers routed.  Replace with Auxilia.
Left: Light Cavalry Vs Heavy Cavalry.  Light Cavalry missiles miss, Heavy Cavalry also misses.
 
Defender:
Left: HC Vs Light Cavalry. Light Cavalry misses, Heavy Cavalry melee sees the Light Cavalry routs, replace with Roman Heavy Cavalry.
Centre: Warband Vs Auxilia. Warband routs. Replace with Gothic Archers.
Right: Warband Vs Legion. Legion routs, replace with Auxilia.

End of turn 2

Turn 3
Attacker:
Centre: Auxilia Vs Archers. Archers miss, Auxilia melees but for no effect.
 
Defender:
Centre: Archers Vs Auxilia, Archers miss, Auxilia routs the Archers.
Right: Warband Vs Legion. No effect.

End of turn 3

Turn 4
Attacker:
Right: Legion Vs Warband. No effect.
Centre: Legion outflank Heavy Cavalry in Left sector. Heavy Cavalry routs
 
Goths are at 1 unit.  Goths lose and Romans win!

End game

Verdict
Now that was loads of fun, and I really liked having the choice of doing combat or not in a sector.  And with a variety of units in the reserve, I did have to think on what units I used from reserve. 
 
Overall Verdict
Firstly, using the rules as written this is a fun quick game.  I have spent many hours thinking on the game, and playing the game has taking much less that that though!  Kudos to the author.   The game really does highlights the differences in unit types very well and so Legions Vs Warbands is quite different to Pikes Vs Cavalry.

After a while you could play in your head and roll some dice.  The narrative it produces is worthwhile the few minutes it takes to play.  I spend hours mulling over extra rules for specific types of units and eventually discarded them all as they are really covered enough by the unit types and abilities. Of course, having said that, I did come up with one alternative ability to Elite and Armoured called “Mixed”.  A Mixed unit counts as Elite Vs mounted and Armoured Vs infantry.  I only use it for Pikes and Elephants.  When I mapped Dominion of the Spear units to ABC units I found Pikes and Elephants were the same as HI (Blades) and Cataphracts, respectively. I did want to differentiate Pikes and Elephants so came up with “Mixed”. I played one game with “Mixed” and works fine but haven’t played enough to see if is unbalanced (it should not be but you never now).

As written, the game does have very limited decision making in the game and I did struggle with that as I wanted a little more.  I was very tempted to simply use a spreadsheet to code up the rules and run lots of games (as there is very little decisions) but that would ruin getting out some figures and actually physically rolling dice.  Rather than doing that, I spent many more hours thinking how to add more decision making – e.g. each side has a leader giving -1 (or maybe +1) to a combat die per turn.  That seemed it may skew combat so in the end I went with limiting activation.

My own rules use a die roll to see if a unit can activate.  I also thought about using a DBA type 1d3 roll for how many sectors you could combat with in a turn.  In the end I went with the Attacker and Defender can choose 1-3 sectors for combat.  One as a minimum so you have to choose and the game will not stalemate.  Attacker and Defender so both sides get to make some decisions. Choosing the sector adds some decision making, and doing it for both sides is an extra element in choices. The last game really showed that in that I did have to think about what sector(s) to select for combat.  But that it just me complicating the game but for me it gave some more decisions. 

The game itself it very clever with the 4 unit types and two abilities.  I am very tempted to expand it to a 3x3 grid plus reserves. This is only because I have been attempting to write a fast 3x3 grid set and I think the combat mechanism in Dominion of the Spear works fine, and would work just as fine with a 3x3 grid to add in some more decisions concerning movement.  But that will have to await another day as I think the current 3 sectors plus reserves and my rules tweaks works just fine for me.  No need to add more!  I am not sure I would need to change anything else.   I would play more games but after a few days I am already distracted by other rules :-)  I hope the author does not mind me tinkering with his rules – I do that for almost every ruleset, I just cannot help it :-)