Just a quick little newspost for y’all! As part of my ongoing efforts to sunset my itch.io account, I’ve finally moved Othismos, my business card mass battle wargame, over to the main No Name Games site.

So what is OTHISMOS?

For those of you whom this is your first experience with OTHISMOS, it’s a D6-driven mass battle system designed for anything from 10mm to 28mm scale. I wanted something that was simple to pick up and remember, with a minimum of rules to learn, and I think I succeeded: the entire system fits on both sides of a standard business card - perfect for when you just want to play a game but don’t want to bust out a 300-page rulebook.

Othismos is generally setting and time-period agnostic. It will work just as well for Orcs vs Dwarves as it will for Spartans vs Persians: the system is designed to work with anything before the advent of gunpowder, and the rules are simple enough that you can house-rule overtop of them to your heart’s content.

As long as all of your units have clear facings and flanks, you’re good to go.

How does the system work?

For each unit in the army, roll a D6 and add up the dice. This is your initiative score. Highest score goes first. Players then alternate activating units by spending a number of points equal to the number of ranks in the unit to activate it. So, e.g. a Command unit would spend one point to activate.

When it comes to melee combat, the attacker rolls a D6 and adds its P value - Push, which is a combination of the physical casualties and morale shock that one unit inflicts on another. Depending on which face of the unit is defending, the defender rolls D6 + their P + 2 (front), D6 + 1 (sides) or just a straight D6. If the attacker wins combat, they deal a number of casualties equal to their P value: 5 for Command, 4 for Infantry, 3 for Cavalry and 2 for Archers.

Ranged combat is simpler - both attacker and defender roll D6 + their respective P and compare values. If the attacker wins the roll, they deal P casualties.

OTHISMOS is my love letter to ancient and medieval warfare, stripped down to its simplest parts and shoved onto a business card. It’ll be free to download forever (along with a free scenario that puts you in Leonidas’ sandals and lets you refight Thermopylae) and if you pick up any of my other physical rulebooks or scenarios, I’ll add a copy of OTHISMOS to your order for free.

Otherwise, you can find it here.

OTHISMOS is just one part of what I’m moving over to the main site. I’ve got plenty more planned, including more ‘Eleven Bravo’ content and new scenarios. Thanks for following along with the move — your support makes No Name Games possible.