Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World

Philip Sabin is a Professor of Strategic Studies at King's College in London. One of the tools that he uses for exploring ancient battles is simulation.

In this 298 page book, Sabin guides us through the creation of a system for simulating pitched battles in the ancient period, and then applies the system to 35 historical battles. Scenario setups are shown on color plates.

The rules for the system are approximately 16 pages long, and can be used with either miniatures or counters. (Counters are available for free download from the author's Web site.) Armies have roughly 20 units, which are graded into Veteran, Average, and Levy training levels. Battlefields are divided into a rectangular grid 5 areas wide by 4 areas deep. Each turn, players throw a single die to determine command points, which allows units to move and fight between areas. Veteran units require few points to command. Unit states are very simple: fresh, spent, and shattered (eliminated).

The book contains extensive references to both primary and secondary sources.

Fifth Column Games version is found at Lost Battles.