The Art of Tactics

This page last modified: 15 April, 2002

"TEXNE TAKTIKE - The Art of Tactics" is a set of wargaming rules for recreating large land battles prior to the use of massed gunpowder weapons. AoT is designed to enable gamers to play enjoyable games that at the same time give historically accurate results - including casualty numbers for campaign play - in under four hours.

AoT is being written as an ongoing project; the rules will be available in full on this site as soon as they have been play-tested a bit more. Their first public outing was at NatCon 2002 in Christchurch, New Zealand over Easter. Their enthusiastic reception there has encouraged me to speed up their development.

Features of the rules include:

Bases are the same size for all figure scales and troop types

Large bases (80 mm by 80 mm) for diorama-like visual effects

Bases represent substantial units - from 250 to 2000 men each

No micro-management of units - almost all manoeuvring is dictated by the proximity of enemy units

Pre- and post-battle aspects emphasised such as deployment and pursuit

Compatibility with standard 15 mm scale 40 mm-wide bases for people who want to "give the rules a go" without rebasing

Optional advanced rules for even greater realism at the cost of added complexity

Greeks to the left; Macedonians to the right. Unlike in some other rule sets, bases do not have to be perfectly lined up to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

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