So what do you do when your favorite historical setting is the late bronze age near east (ANE = Ancient Near East), and you want to do some miniature wargaming in that setting?  The problem is, comparatively little is known about the military history of the area, at least at the practical level.  Consequently, most wargames tend to assume that warfare in the ANE is much like warfare everywhere else in the world before the introduction of heavily armored knights.

I've had many games of DBA set in the ANE, and though I'm not sure those games bear any resemblance to the movment of real troops in battle, they were sure fun.  WAB has an awesome "Chariot Wars" suppliment that gives rules for the major players in the ANE, and though I haven't had the chance to play any WAB:CW, I suspect it would be pretty fun, since WAB is fun and I like the setting.

But I'm not convinced that either of those games "works" for the period.  DBA is great for "linear" battles of the classical and Roman ages.  WAB is perfect (IMHO) for Dark Ages and Classical, but neither is quite right for the ANE.

"Why?" you ask?  Because of its scale, DBA rewards linear tactics, and punishes deep deployment.  Additionally, most close range missile fire is abstracted away, which robs the period of most of its flavor.  WAB on the other hand rewards well-ordered units, and doesn't handle "skirmishers" particularly well.  Some also don't like the way it handles archery very much.  So while both DBA and WAB can stretch to cover the period, they're not designed for it.

So, aside from inventing a new game, what can I do?  Well, one answer would be to take the basic principles of ANE combat, and look for a rule set that already does that.  So: 1) Missile fire is very important, 2) Chariots are very powerful, 3) Loose order infantry is important, and 4) Dense formations are not that important.

Hey, that sort of sounds like Warhammer 40,000 ("40k" to it's friends).  Well, except without lasguns, power armor, psychic space elves, etc.  (For the record, It also sounds a little like the GW "Lord of the Rings" game, except that I like the idea of having real units and a more flexible figure scale.)

So my task is now to define how to use 40k to fight battles in the Ancient Near East.  Since WHANE is its own setting, there is no reason to make the stats in any way compatible with 40k.  So for example, a hide shield in WHANE might give as much relative protection as a bullet proof vest, and a sling stone might hit with the same relative force as a bolt pistol.  The "trick" is going to be choosing game numbers that make WHANE battles work "right".

And that article will come some time in the future.