The games system of Archworld is designed with several purposes in mind:

1) To explain in terms of wargaming the capabilities of the armies and the peoples of the Archworld campaign setting

2) To provide a simple yet realistic set of rules that will cover ancient, medieval, and early gunnery periods.

One of the reasons behind the genesis of the Archworld rules has been an attempt to respond to the needs and complaints of many wargamers who feel that most of the ancient warfare rules now available are far too complex. Too many of these game systems require an excessive amount of log keeping and the use of overly long sets of tables. A need for referees and a lot of pencil pushing detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

The other problem with many fantasy rules is that they bear little relation to the literary fantasy tradition. These games tend to rely upon vast numbers of omnipotent beings and spell-casting wizards rather than the strategic capabilities of a kingdom's legions of ordinary soldiers.

Archworld is intended to provide a reasonable and easy-to-understand accounting of the uses of weapons and armor of the period, and the strategy of empire making and the like. The gamer who is not interested in the re-fighting of Archworld battles may simply disregard the fantasy elements and still use these rules to create realistic battle situations for any period up to the late 1600s.

Bases and Scale:

Scales is given in terms of paces, with one real inch equaling ten paces, one scale pace equals 2 1/2 feet (or 1 mm. equals 1 foot). All movement and the proper sizes of bases can be worked our from this scale. As a rule, one figure equals twenty men, except in the case of personality figures, which obviously are one to one.

Archworld also contains a complete set of rules for naval combat.

Archworld also includes a 4 panel paper foldout map of Archworld, 3 single sided sheets of cardboard ship cutouts (these are not counters-the cut outs of the ships are much larger and are used for naval miniatures combat), and 2 single sided cardstock sheets of reference charts.

Games