I come from board games - rather than wargames played on a board. And concur that there is not a lot out there that models the ancient world in a geopolitical sense or its military campaigns, save for the sort of tactical games (already mentioned) that replicate what MeG is already doing (such as Commands & Colors: Ancients, and my favouite, Milito - a card game that began life as the FoG card game).
Aside from those, any games set in the ancient world tend to be about wholly different aspects, such as trading (or pyramid-robbing!) and they are all abstracted to a very, very great extent. There is certainly nothing that could be used as a sort of campaign from which individual MeG battles could be extracted and fought.
At the "high level of abstraction, but worth playing or checking out as games" point, we do have the following:
Mare Nostrum Empires*
Antike II
Civilisation
Through The Ages
- and a host of other "civilisation-themed" games which are fun/interesting to play; of which my favourite is probably Age of Civilizations, a short 30-minute card game.
* I've asterisked Mare Nostrum as it perhaps gets closest, with players raising armies and seeking to control key resource centres. I suppose that it could be used as a base for a MeG campaign - but it would require more work than it is worth.
The game that came closest to being ideal is probably Warfrog's Empires of the Ancient World - even to the extent that it had battle sequences played out with cards that reminded me of the DBA troop interactions. Sadly it was 80% of a good game, and 20% definitely not; published in relatively small quantity, and long, long out of print.
What we really need is a board game that acts much like the Total War series does on the PC - where the game is played at two levels; an overarching strategy and economics game, generating "tabletop" battles when forces clash. Total War's tabletop battles are clearly figure wargames in the digital age (so much so that one TV company used it as the basis for a couple of series of battle games where members of the public took over as the C-in-C and sub-generals); what we're missing** is a board game that replicates the other level. Possibly because the PC game does it all so well.
** there was such a game - Shogun; aka Samurai Swords, aka Ikusa. It was printed by Hasbro in large volumes from the mid-80s onwards, but has been out of print for 8 years or so. The original Total War PC game clearly owes a very great deal to it. Now THAT might well be worth seeking out as the basis for a Samurai-themed campaign.
Aside from those, any games set in the ancient world tend to be about wholly different aspects, such as trading (or pyramid-robbing!) and they are all abstracted to a very, very great extent. There is certainly nothing that could be used as a sort of campaign from which individual MeG battles could be extracted and fought.
At the "high level of abstraction, but worth playing or checking out as games" point, we do have the following:
Mare Nostrum Empires*
Antike II
Civilisation
Through The Ages
- and a host of other "civilisation-themed" games which are fun/interesting to play; of which my favourite is probably Age of Civilizations, a short 30-minute card game.
* I've asterisked Mare Nostrum as it perhaps gets closest, with players raising armies and seeking to control key resource centres. I suppose that it could be used as a base for a MeG campaign - but it would require more work than it is worth.
The game that came closest to being ideal is probably Warfrog's Empires of the Ancient World - even to the extent that it had battle sequences played out with cards that reminded me of the DBA troop interactions. Sadly it was 80% of a good game, and 20% definitely not; published in relatively small quantity, and long, long out of print.
What we really need is a board game that acts much like the Total War series does on the PC - where the game is played at two levels; an overarching strategy and economics game, generating "tabletop" battles when forces clash. Total War's tabletop battles are clearly figure wargames in the digital age (so much so that one TV company used it as the basis for a couple of series of battle games where members of the public took over as the C-in-C and sub-generals); what we're missing** is a board game that replicates the other level. Possibly because the PC game does it all so well.
** there was such a game - Shogun; aka Samurai Swords, aka Ikusa. It was printed by Hasbro in large volumes from the mid-80s onwards, but has been out of print for 8 years or so. The original Total War PC game clearly owes a very great deal to it. Now THAT might well be worth seeking out as the basis for a Samurai-themed campaign.