Ancient Battlelines Clash is a set of free wargames rules from Shaun’s Wargaming With Miniatures Blog. Shaun writes:
Ancient Battlelines Clash is the ruleset I have written to be solo friendly, would play in less than 1 hour, preferably 20-30 minutes, on a 2’x2′ table and give a good game with what I want in historical feel.
Phalanx is a set of free wargames rules for ancients. Designed for 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, HO/OO and 25mm scales, the authors say it emphasizes speed of play while maintaining a good leval of accuracy.
Standard Wargame Rules For Ancient and Medieval Warfare is an alternative to DBM with the same basing. The authors write:
The designer team includes both extremes of wargamers: dedicated tournament players as well as those who prefer historical re-fights. These rules aim to satisfy these both sides of the wargaming hobby. We wanted to write a set of rules that allows playing realistic and interesting re-fights of historical battles. Furthermore, we have spent much time to make the rules as exact as possible, so that they are also suitable for tournament play. Once both players know the rules, there should be no need for an umpire or for long rules discussions during the game.
One aim was also to design a rule set that is “easy to learn but difficult to master”. This means that you can learn the rules relatively quickly, but will probably need several games, before finding the optimal tactic for your army. Also, there are no “super troops”. Each troop type has certain strengths and weaknesses that you will need to learn.