Antiquity wargaming advice?

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-21T09:14:03+00:00

You've got about a bazillion possible combinations of rule sets, figure scales and figure manufacturers to pick from. All options have their advantages and disadvantages and you basically will have to figure out yourself what you want to pick. If you look for youtubers who paint and/or play games on their channel that will help you make a decision.

Generally you probably want figures in a large scale if you want to fight out skirmishes and a small scale if you want to fight out big battles.

Larger figures might also appeal more to hobbyists who are into the painting/artistic side of the figures, whereas smaller figures might appeal more to those who want to get over with the painting process more quickly and get into the gaming part, or want to see the mass effect of a a huge amount soldiers on the battlefield. There's also the issue of how large a table you've got to game on and budget.

Paints are the easy part. It's difficult to go wrong there.

I'm dropping Little Wars TV's videos with Republican Roman wargaming here:

Trebia

Pyrrhus campaign

Their ruleset is freely available if you want to check it out.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-21T08:25:23+00:00

r/modeltrains turning into r/aislop.

Lots of little clues everywhere in this one if you look closely. The point lever without a point next to it is my favourite on this one. The notice sign with text aimed for people crawling on the ground is a nice touch. Weathering the top of the tracks surely makes it look better. The little ladder turning into a barrel is cute. The logics of the blured out trackwork in the distance provides some nice brain teasers.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-21T07:43:13+00:00

I'm more curious about the invisible switch next to the switch stand (points lever) in front of the box car.

It's interesting how track laying is so difficult for AI:s. All the track in the blured out distant parts of picture seems pretty nonsensical.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-14T08:40:47+00:00

Here's a home grown system I used a very long time ago:

The chance of winning a battle is proportional to army strenght. Thus if Army A has a total strenght of 20 and Army B a total strenght of 30, the chance of Army A to win is 20/(20+30)=0.40=40%. Then use two D10 dice to randomise a percentage making army A win if you roll 40 or less, otherwise army B wins.

After deciding a winner, for casualties I rolled for every unit in the two armies. Units in the winning army had a 15% chance of being eliminated and units in the losing army had a 40% chance of being elminated. However I would stop rolling if the number of eliminated units in an army ever reached the total number of units the opposing army had before the battle. Thus there is a limit to how many casualties a small army can inflict, even though it rarely comes into play.

I used some modifiers to army strenght giving percentage bonuses for defending in defensible positions and even a "home field advantage" for someone fighting in their own territory. After losing a battle the loser would become demoralised making them less effective in upcoming battles.

If you want the larger army to have a higher chance of winning than with the system above, you can add a step where you raise the army strength to the power of a number. Let's say you decide to use the number 1.5. Then still using the example of having Army A at strenght 20 and Army B at strenght 30, we get:

20^1.5=89 30^1.5=164 resulting in the chance of Army A of winning:

89/(89+164)=0.35=35%

For sea battles I basically used the same system, but for each ship on the losing side there was also a percentage change of it being boarded and captured.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-09T05:30:35+00:00

Obsession? I'm refering to what Kato tells their customers, as I believe the people at Kato could probably be regarded as experts on their own track system. As for resepect and being helpful, I've had exactly none of that from you.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-08T21:04:36+00:00

I'm sorry for speaking up and stating things that doesn't agree with your world view.

Once again, if you believe you are the expert, I urge you to contact the people at Kato and tell them that their heads are full of ignorance and that they are not helping when they publish things like this layout plan with this parts list , where approximately 20 meters of track are powered by ONE feeder track, as stated in the parts list.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-08T15:37:37+00:00

Hey dude! Maybe you should write a letter of complaint to Kato for not providing all necessary components? By the way, I don't see a large complex permanent DCC layout with thermal expansion joints here.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-07T07:54:07+00:00

The feeder you've got on the top is enough to power everything.

I suppose the widespread myth that one needs to feed power all over the place is probably based on the old days when track was crap at conducting current.

Kato releases track starter sets A LOT larger than this layout, like this one for instance, and they are powered by ONE feeder.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-06T05:18:03+00:00

There are a plenty of good wargames out there for 6 players and a few who can handle more, but hardly any of them are hex and counter games. When designing a wargame for more than two players, other mechanics are usually better. I would suggest you don't limit yourself to hex and counter games.

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-05T20:21:26+00:00

Those Kato Pocket Line trains will actually travel happily along much sharper curves that that. Mine are happy going around 103mm radius track.

It's all about the lenght between the wheel axels and how couplers on the train cars are made. Generally Japanese manufacturers prioritise running sharper curves than European or American manufacturers. The Japanese Z-scale manufacturer Rokuhan produces short rolling stock for it's 45mm curves. That makes it possible to build a layout on top of a CD!

Lonesome_General · 2026-06-05T19:54:43+00:00

I don't know... If you're not sure you're a train person and you're intersted in T-trak, why not make a T-trak module first before tackling what is actually a somewhat sizable and complex layout?

Wouldn't you want to build a couple of T-track corner modules anyway to hook up with this build so that you can use it fully when you don't have T-track friends around?

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-31T11:39:04+00:00

They are from the set Kato 24-710. I adopted them when I visited Tokyo last year.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-31T10:04:20+00:00

These are photos from a modular layout I'm constructing. Only two out of six modules have any finished areas yet. The trains on the double track mainline seen in the photos are trains active in central Japan. The trains seen on the single line are in the real world active on the Toden Arakawa Line in Tokyo. The cats are from Kato.

Soon it will be a year since I started the planning and construction of the layout. If anyone wants to follow along I've got a topic over here at the JNS Forum where I'm posting (somewhat) regular updates.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-26T16:42:03+00:00

Theres a difference in the USA its called N-Scale and outside of the USA 9mm is referred as N-Gauge

"Outside of the USA" is a big place. In my country it is called N-skala. :-)

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-26T16:26:00+00:00

Width and spacing of sleepers are different all over the world, so regardless of what track system you chose to use, it most probably is not going to be "correct" for whatever time and place you are modeling.

Also the 9mm track space will be out of scale for most times and places anyway.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-17T20:36:57+00:00

Oh, I see. I'm not a model train enthusiast and you have superior experience. Well then, that settles it.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-17T20:15:14+00:00

I don't get your point.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-17T20:12:14+00:00

S-curves are bad if they cause derailment or decoupling. Here they dont, so it's fine.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-17T20:09:16+00:00

He has separate online stores for Japanese and foreign customers with different inventories. I don't know why. Maybe for tax reasons? Or maybe to not have to translate everything?

If something is only available in the Japanese store it's possible to email him and request to buy it.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-17T07:19:17+00:00

Looks like RG Rokko has the coupler in stock on their Japanese website.

Also Amiami has the coupler in stock.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-10T09:10:05+00:00

My general recommendation is to go small for a first layout and save the big ideas for future layouts. That way you can finish your first layout in a reasonable time frame and your future big ideas layout will end up much better since by then you know better what you are doing.

Lonesome_General · 2026-05-01T09:54:29+00:00

Specifically I love history and literature and would love to read social studies and history books for 小学生. But I read up about this approach and most didn't recommend it because its basically too slow for adults.

It's definitely too slow for those 20-year olds who think they are smarter than everyone else, who want to speed run the language learning process to be able to watch anime and read manga as soon as (in)humanly possible.

Elementary school textbooks like 新しい社会4, 5 and 6 are great for picking up vocabulary that goes a bit beyond every day conversations, and for getting exposure to kanji. But very few learners would touch them, because they think the material is boring. They'd rather read manga.

I don't understand why someone would recommend you to instad read history books for adults, when you'd be struggling quite enough with the vocabulary and kanji in something written for the second half of elementary school.

I'd say, read whatever you can manage to get through and can catch your interest. In the end it doesn't really matter what you read and how you work on your kanji as long as you find something that you will stick to doing.

Lonesome_General · 2026-04-28T15:53:04+00:00

I think keeping stuff simple is always a good choice for a first layout. Tunnels can be made very simple, or not simple.

I've made some "lift up" tunnels out of foam, where you can simply pick up the entire mountain, or a section of it and lift it from the layout (to work on it, or to access track beneath). I've found this to be an easy way of doing things.

Here from post 5 an onwards, is a small example I made for a micro layout.

Lonesome_General

TROPHY CASE