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Supporting the military history and miniatures hobby with  Hex Command Rules for Wargames  in the Ancients, Gunpowder and Mechanized eras,  "Raptors" Air Combat,  Hex Command "Oceans" and  now in development,  Hex Command "NOVA" rules for combat in an off-world, future era. 

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Since 1995

Hex Command Ancients FAQ

If things like Elephants move only one space per turn, how do they go uphill? (A: Encountering Obstacles)

Cavalry strikes something as weak as Light Infantry and the weaker unit can fight off the cavalry or at the minimum, hold it's ground.  How the heck is THAT possible? (A: Melee)

I've got a unit of light infantry and it has missile ability.. why is that different from a whole unit of missile troops? (A: Missile combat)  Also, what happened to Pre-Melee missiles like Pilum?

How should we do Initiative fairly? (A: Initiative and Activation)

Encountering Obstacles

This question comes from the old system of subtracting a hex speed for obstacles.  We no longer subtract a hex speed so the game can move even faster, by re-installing the Fatigued/Disorder concept. For each obstacle encountered, apply a TE hit.  In this case we may not have caught every needed place to make this change, so just bear in mind that going forward, speed will not suffer; order and fatigue is affected, except obviously for Hex Command Mechanized where mechanical equipment cannot get "fatigued."  In the case of machines, one hex speed will be suffered instead of a fatigued/disordered indicator.  At this moment however,  who knows? We might come up with some goofy meaning for the Fatigued indicators in HCM so we could use them but for now, let's do it this way.

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Melee Vs. Cavalry

There is scant evidence that cavalry was able to frontally attack infantry and have any assurance of victory.  The fact is the pike and spear, presented to the cavalry horses, is what kept them from causing FEAR which was a huge function of cavalry in the first place.  Once the fear is abated, infantry units were reported, on countless occasions, to be able to stunt the cavalry and in fact, hold their ground against the horses.  In melee, cavalry will likely be the stronger in points, but these points do NOT translate to any die roll benefit. THE CHART is where the difference in weaker and stronger is told: Only when the weaker rolls RED or when BOTH units roll RED, can the weaker immediately affect the stronger.  Otherwise, the stronger will only eventually suffer hits after it reaches the exhausted point.

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Missile Combat

A whole unit of missile troops, rare on the ancient battlefield at least by the reports available, will always inflict RED casualty hits when they hit the target because this represents trained, organized and volleying troops.  SKIRMISHER units are loose, light, small and by their nature can only inflict irritating hits which are represented with Fatigued hits only, on any target.  However, any missile unit can also KILL commanders rolling a Red H, so bear that in mind.

Some units in ancient times had missile ability mixed in with fighting troops; the only way we should represent this is by allowing the troops to have an SK ability, so they get essentially, 3 shots before they have no SK shots remaining.  You will need to have a Spent Ammo marker also, much as we hate to have so many markers on the table, but it's necessary in order to simulate this fairly common ancient battlefield trait.

Why is there no pre-melee in the rules anymore? We took the effects of pre-melee missiles like Pilum out because essentially, it is a foregone conclusion of melee.  But here is a curious fact: when a Roman unit engaged in melee and used it's Pilum, if the unit entered melee again later, does it still have the Pilum shot?  Our guess is no.  Once used, the troops might feel vulnerable, but unless they had the time or the staff we DOUBT that anyone was going around collecting spent Pilum on the field.   :)

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Initiative and Activation

The only fair way to determine this is simply to say whomever rolls Red goes first and becomes the A or Phasing Player, and the opposing player is B or Non-phasing.

Saving other research yourself into how to establish who starts with initiative, how or IF they keep it, and how or IF they LOSE it, is one of the greatest issues all war games have, not just HCA.

Our suggestion is this:

Each time a commander is killed, pass the initiative/activation symbol that you have on the table (you DO have one, don't you? It could just be a CUBE, or die, or flag), to the opposing player.  That shows automatically who will have Initiative next turn or, you might think about doing it IMMEDIATELY.. there's a wild idea;  as soon as a commander is killed, immediately stop all activity and start the phase over, but with the opposing player as the activated player.  That should make Plutarch roll over in his grave.

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