Ancients — How to Play (Digital Edition)

An addendum to the Core Rulebook. The rulebook governs what the mechanics do; this describes how you carry them out in the on-screen game. Where the two seem to differ, the rulebook wins.

Play at https://ancients.philwallach.com.

1. Starting a game

Opening the site shows a menu with three ways to play:

⚔ Hotseat — one screen — both armies on the same screen; you take both sides in turn. Best for learning and solo study.
🤖 Play vs the AI — you command the Persians (the missile-heavy army); the computer plays the Greek hoplites. It moves automatically after your turn.
🌐 Play a friend (online) — creates a private room and a shareable link. Send it to the other player; they open it and take the other side. First in is the Greeks (A), second is the Persians (B).

The default battle is Marathon-style: Greek hoplites vs Achaemenid Persians — an even fight by army weight, but the Persians have the cavalry and the bows, the Greeks the heavy melee.

2. The screen

Top bar — every action button (detailed below) plus the view and zoom controls.
The board — the hex battlefield. Drag to pan; scroll-wheel (or the 🔍 buttons) to zoom.
Status line (under the bar) — Turn · Player · PHASE (A: n bases · B: m bases) and a contextual hint for what to do next.
Online bar (online games only) — your side and whose turn it is (e.g. "You are B vs AI · YOUR TURN (move)"); while you wait for an opponent to join it shows the invite link.
Combat panel (during the Combat phase) — buttons to resolve each melee and to allocate a loss.
Event log (bottom) — every move, shot, and combat with its dice and the factors behind the result, so you can see why an outcome happened.

3. Reading the board

Each base (one unit, one hex) is a token:

Colour = side. Blue = A, red = B. (In the Marathon battle, blue = Greeks, red = Persians.)
White dot = facing. It sits toward the vertex the unit faces — its front. A base has two front edges either side of that dot, one flank each side, two rear.
#id (top) — matches the names in the combat/shoot panels (e.g. "A#3 vs B#12").
Type (centre): HI heavy inf · MI med inf · LI light inf · Sk skirmisher · Wb warband · Pk pike · Cv cavalry · Ct cataphract · LC light cav · Ch chariot.
Ring colour = quality: gold = elite · silver = regular · bronze = levy.
w# f# (bottom) — this base's weight and its current Fatigue.
F̄# floating over a block — the block's average Fatigue (its cohesion). It turns warm when the block is shaken; the block breaks when it passes the limit.
Faded tokens are routed (then removed from the field).
Terrain is shaded (open, light/heavy woods, rough, swamp, impassable); brighter hexes are higher ground.

Views and zoom

The 👁 View button cycles five ways to see the board:

Combined — the full playtest view (default).
Figures — each unit drawn as a little cluster of soldiers facing the enemy (shields, spears, sarissas, horsemen); a fraying, jittering line is a tiring one. Zoom in to appreciate it.
Units — individual units and their stats, no block clutter.
Blocks — each block filled by its average-Fatigue heat (green → red) and outlined — read every block's cohesion at a glance.
Terrain — the bare battlefield, no units.

🔍− / 🔍+ or the scroll-wheel zoom; drag pans.

4. A turn, step by step

Turns are IGOUGO: one player does everything, then the other. Your turn runs four phases — Move → Shoot → Combat → Recovery — and you press Next phase ▸ to advance through them. (Online, you only act on your own turn; the bar says so.)

Move phase

Click one of your blocks. Legal next steps highlight on the board: green = a clear 1-base-width step, amber = a difficult step (it shows the +Fatigue it will cost).
Click a green/amber hex to step there. Keep stepping to build the move; the status shows the budget used (one move = the unit's allowance in base-widths; a second move the same turn costs Fatigue and is tested).
⟲ Pivot left / Pivot right ⟳ turn the block 60°. The first pivot of a step is free; an in-place pivot costs 1 base-width.
✓ Confirm move commits it (one command = one movement test). ✕ Cancel abandons the draft.

Other move-phase tools:

↺ Wheel L / Wheel R ↻ — swing the whole block 60° about a flank corner (keeps its shape; a wide line's wheel is expensive — "a great phalanx cannot turn quickly").
≣ Column march — toggle on, then with a single-file block selected draw the head's path and Confirm; the file follows the leader's track (cheap, no frontage penalty — travel in column, fight in line).
✂ Split off — click bases of the selected block to mark them (amber), then Split. ⊕ Merge — click adjacent friendly blocks to mark them (cyan), then Merge. (Re-forming costs a little Fatigue at the seam.)
⇄ Retire — a light block directly in front of a friendly block slips back through it to the rear.

Shoot phase

Both sides shoot in this phase. Click one of your missile bases, then click a red in-range enemy to fire. The game only offers legal shots — within range and the front firing arc, not into or out of a melee, and not over an enemy unit (you can shoot over your own troops, never over the enemy). Heavy targets shrug off missiles; fire wears the enemy down (Fatigue) rather than killing outright.

Combat phase

You resolve every melee on the board, in the order you choose (a result can strip an overlap before the next fight). In the combat panel:

Click a melee button (e.g. "A#3 vs B#12") — hover it to find the pair on the board — to resolve that fight. The log shows the full breakdown (each side's die, overlaps, flank/rear, weight, shock…).
If a side loses, the loser allocates the result, point by point:
- Fatigue = hold (take the wear, give no ground).
- Push = give ground (recoil a rank; pick rear-left or rear-right). Set each point, then Apply. Online, only the loser's player sees these controls — the other side waits.

Repeat until all melees are resolved, then Next phase ▸.

Recovery phase

Automatic: blocks that didn't move or fight this turn recover a little Fatigue, and cohesion smooths within each block. Press Next phase ▸ to hand over.

5. Winning

You win when the enemy army breaks — once a side has lost the break-threshold fraction of its starting bases, its whole army gives way (a victory banner appears). The threshold tightens as the battle drags on, so long grinds do resolve. Routs, flanks, and rear attacks are where battles are decided — a frontal shoving match mostly builds Fatigue until someone cracks.

6. Online notes

The bar shows your side and whose turn it is; on the opponent's turn you wait (vs the AI, "AI thinking…").
vs AI: you are the Persians — open with your archers and slingers as the Greek line advances, and try to flank with your cavalry before the hoplites close.
vs a friend: share the room link from the bar; both of you load the same ?room=… URL.
Reload is disabled online (the server owns the game). Hotseat can reload to restart the scenario.

7. Button quick reference

Button	Phase	Does
(click a block)	Move	select it to move
⟲ / ⟳ Pivot	Move	turn 60° (first per step free)
↺ / ↻ Wheel	Move	swing the block about a flank corner
≣ Column march	Move	file-follows-leader for a single column
✂ Split off / ⊕ Merge	Move	break up / combine blocks
⇄ Retire	Move	a light unit slips back through friends
✓ Confirm / ✕ Cancel	Move	commit / drop the drafted move
(click firer, then target)	Shoot	fire missiles
(melee buttons)	Combat	resolve each fight
Push / Fatigue / Apply	Combat	the loser gives ground or holds
Next phase ▸	any	advance the phase / hand over
👁 View · 🔍 Zoom	any	change the board view / magnify