Age of Battles

Here's a rule set I was very excited about when I first heard of it and was convinced would be the top-contender early on. Having decided to go with 20mm (1/72) plastic figures, finding a rule set that was specifically designed for the scale (as opposed to having to convert everything) seemed very alluring.

Unfortunately there wasn't much info on the web about this game, so I had to cobble together what I could. The main sources of info were:

Age of Battles page on BoardGameGeek

Age of Battles Yahoo Group

Age of Battles Official Site

In summary, Age of Battles is a table-top gaming system using 1/72 scale miniatures by Zvezda, a manufacturer of plastic miniatures noted for historical accuracy. The are different versions of the rules which cover several time periods and countries, all based on historical events (Antiquity, Middle age, Shogun, Napoleonic).

The game comes as battle/era-specific boxed game sets that include everything needed to play out scenarios (rules, figures, stands, cards, accessories, etc), but you can also purchase additional figures in sets and use them in battle.

Movement and combat are performed through measurement and dice rolling. Figures are rated in a number of basic statistics (figure sets come with stats). Game flow is IGoUGo.

Here are some pros and cons:

PROs:

• Lots and lots of high-quality minis
• Designed for 1/72
• Themed boxes give you historical opponents ready for battle

CONs:

• English versions of the rules are a choppy translations at best. Michigan Toy Soldier company offers an English translation that is supposedly smoother.
• "Fiddly-ness": Each fig represents 1 combatant. Lots of touching of lots of individual figs.
  
• Stands. I thought I'd like them but they are too big and bulky in practice.

To be perfectly honest, I probably didn't give the rules the chance they deserve. Since the basic mechanics are so similar to Warhammer Ancient Battles (which is much easier to understand and has more ubiquitous support) I abandoned this rule set pretty quickly.

That said, I really am glad I purchased the boxed scenario game (I purchased the Battle of Issus set) because of the "instant armies" provided.

This rule set is a "no go".