Recommend a mass-battle fantasy wargame that isn't GW or mantic

[craigjwoodfield]

As the title says, not interested in GW anymore, and I am afraid that Kings of War is lowest common denominator tripe.

Any other mass-battle (i.e. formed units) fantasy rules worth a look? I'm excluding Dragon Rampant as well, which I really like but the rest of the group are lukewarm about.

[Chris Abbey]

We've really enjoyed playing Sword and Spear Fantasy.
Published by Great Escape Games. It has some really fresh, new innovative mechanisms, especially for orders / activation.



http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/epages/950003459.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950003459/Products/SAS002

[TheBlackCrane]

'Mayhem' seem to have had a decent response - I think there's a thread or two on here somewhere about them, came out quite some time ago. Always a set I meant to look into for a fantasy side project at some point, haven't yet but the rules look interesting!

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/110359/Mayhem?src=also_purchased

[OSHIROmodels]

I always enjoyed Fantasy Warlord although I suspect it's well out of print now. The mechanics took a little bit of getting used but were certainly interesting 

Gary Chalk did most of the artwork for it.

cheers

James

[Duncan McDane]

You might want to get a look at the Fantasy Warriors rules from Grenadier ( Nick Lund ). Tried them out once, aeons ago, and they had some nice featrues in them ( rolling for weather, boosting, if I remember correctly ). Should be available at Stratelibri a.o...

[Romark]

What about God of Battles ?  by Jake Thornton,available from Wargames Foundry .

[Hobgoblin]

I'd second the recommendation of Sword and Spear Fantasy, based on the couple of times I've played it. Both games were good, and it's got a nicely "grounded" feel to it. By this, I mean that its roots as a historical game shine through - a good thing, in my opinion.

I have the Mayhem rules and have played them a couple of times. It's a very interesting game and offers a lot of flexibility to design your own units. The "danger vs default" system is unique, and the command system is innovative. I previously played it in 28mm, but will be playing it in 10mm once our forces are painted up.

One excellent option is Hordes of the Things. It's the massed-battle game I've played the most, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Games are quick and highly tactical, and the rules are pretty much watertight. If you like Dragon Rampant (which I do), HotT might appeal, as there's certainly some of its DNA in DR.

I can recall buying the HotT rules when they first came out, thinking it was an old game that I'd never heard of. We were playing Warhammer at the time and were fairly disenchanted with it (the ponderous turn system, the waiting for your go, the sheer time it took to set up armies, and the fact that games were almost never concluded in the available time ...). HotT was a revelation - we'd play several games in an afternoon, and the experience was far more tactical and challenging.

Which scale are you planning to use? HotT works really well in 28mm, because you need relatively few figures and only 3' square to play on. You can, of course, play much bigger battles with several players aside, or up the points from the standard 24AP to 36 or whatever. But it also works well in 15mm or 10mm. As you descend scales, it becomes less abstract in the way that troops are represented and more "massed".

The advantage of the more abstract approach (with, say, three 28mm figures representing one warband unit) is that you can get armies based and painted up very quickly. I'd imagine that most gamers have enough spare figures kicking around that they could put together a HotT army without much effort. And there's complete freedom to design your forces as you like. Here are some of my chaos warriors, for example (classed as hordes in HotT), drawn from the dusty recesses of the lead and plastic pile.

Obviously, the qualities of all rulesets are subjective. But it's perhaps worth noting that - unlike many games - HotT has been going strong since its launch more than a quarter of a century ago and has only had a single rule change in that time. That, along with its longstanding and enthusiastic player base, is a fairly strong indication that it works pretty well.

Edit: one other thing about HotT is that you can play a whole campaign in the time that you'd fit in a single game of many other rules. And figures based for HotT will largely be useable in S&SF, DR and Mayhem (doubling up elements) too.

[stone-cold-lead]

Is AD&D Battlesystem still around? I bought a copy in the early 90's after reading a review in GMI mag. After playing WFB 3rd edition Battlesystem was a breath of fresh air. Bit simpler and a lot more exciting.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I've read, really liked, but not yet had a chance to play Crusader's "Legion's of Battle" http://www.crusaderpublishing.com/LegionsofBattle.php

[Lowtardog]

I've read, really liked, but not yet had a chance to play Crusader's "Legion's of Battle" http://www.crusaderpublishing.com/LegionsofBattle.php

Yep works well, played historical versions a lot when released. Only pain I found was calculating the points for units, troop types etc.

Sword and Spear is the one for me, playing tonight as it happens

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

I'm a huge fan of Wargames Foundry's God of Battles (by Jake Thornton). It handles games of up to 100 figures really well and plays very smoothly while rewarding sensible tactics. The author's blog has a good overview ( LINK ) and the interview on meeples and miniatures a few years ago was also very good.

A lot of people are put off by the fixed unit sizes though, which aren't quite 'massed battle' (units range from 8 - 16 figures), although you could easily double the unit size or use stands of figures.

[Hobby Services]

I'd have said Dragon Rampant, but that's out so...Armies of Arcana?  The last edition was pretty promising and it supports the anything-you-like army building approach just as well as DR does.  Pretty sure Lone Gunman still sells it.

[ZeroTwentythree]

There's also Shadow Storm, which is like a fantasy add-on for Hail Caesar.

http://adyswargamesden.com/category/shadow-storm/

[Ahistorian]

Extra votes for Mayhem, and for HoTT, with one addition - increasing army sizes to 48AP, but multiplying unit costs by 1, 2, or 3 depending on how many times they can recoil before being destroyed.

[Tactalvanic]

As previously mentioned, and freely available for download to


either some

http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Fantasy_Warriors.html

or more

http://www.grenadier.it/fantasy-warriors-ruleset.php

have some interesting rules and mechanics and aren't that bad considering their age making for some interesting differences between them and other rules sets.

Plus rules for most generic army types you might think of.

Still you already have plenty of recommendations, why not try them, all...