Clash of Empires is a rule set designed for playing the Ancient Period right on up to late Medieval and is a successor game to Warhammer Ancient Battles. This has largely came about due to the poor support from FW/GW in handling WAB and the pages of Errata.
The book is a nice hardback with lots of useful diagrams and pictures. Easy to read and understand with a very nice summery at the back. Worth buying for sure.
However, to be fair when comparing the look and layout of this book to WAB2 here is my opinion:
Cover of the book- WAB2 looks better.
Pages-Grainy feel and somewhat cheap. WAB2 superior quality in this.
Art work- Again, vastly prefer the WAB artists and artwork
Photo's- Yet once again, WAB2 has superior photographs without any blurred images and dark pictures found in some picks in COE. Generally, the armies shown in WAB2 are better painted then in COE as well. Not to say there are not some really nicely painted mini's in COE which there are!
WAB2 is more expensive then COE, but this is justified by the higher quality.
As we know, looks are only a part of the package with the rules themselves the other.
Here is a quick observation of the rules themselves:
I Like:
-Basing similar to WAB2 makes easy transitions between the two games, however I wish they would have followed WAB2 exactly even if they say it's not important to avoid any confusion.
- minimum unit size
-Abundance of helpful diagrams
-Oblique manoeuvre
-Interpenetration of units allows for ease of movement
-Impetuous/Reckless troops(an extra rule that makes controlling some troops more difficult and adds flavour)
-Massed fire not allowed vs chargers or units with rear rank in woods
-Disruption(extra element not found in WAB that adds an extra level to the state of troops)
-Bonus to combat for closest unit to General( nice that the general can effect combat in units he is not personally in)
-Limited amount of skirmish units(very nice, as I hate clouds of skirmishers)
-Easily understood and mechanics similar to WAB
-Nice summery
I Don't like:
-Centimetres instead on inches!!
-Maximums on unit sizes.(I personally like to decide that)
-No BSB(I like a BSB to steady the line)
-Rolling to kill/Wound after armour saves(Prefer the WAB2 order)
-Only one character per unit
-Unit standards and musicians having no effect in
combat
-Prefer percentage to slots when choosing my
armies
Undecided(must play test):
-Discipline tests(Tests you have to make before making certain manoeuvres)
-Forming square as that's really not a typical ancient
manoeuvre, but could be good for play.
-Intercept(Allows cavalry and chariots to intercept flank and rear charges)
- Concerned it may be to easy to kill characters in close combat(2 wounds on a unit and roll a d6 and character is killed on a 1)
-Much, much more that will come to light after playing
Overall, on the basis of rules I don't think I will change from WAB2 to COE as my primary Ancients game even with FW/GW mistakes as I still think WAB2 is a great game. But, for sure I will add COE to games that I play and why not I say as basing similarities makes hopping between the two pretty painless!