1066 Rules wanted for large battle.

[Scrubber]

Like most war gamers in there 60’s I have boxes and armies that have long been up opened or forgotten about. Hence the picture below.

Back when these where painted I must have been in my heavy gloss varnish phase.

Never been based or played with. So now the grey matter is working, there should be a full Saxon army somewhere to go with the Norman. To answer the question, yes think we had visited Battle on holiday that summer.

So my question is, what is a good set of rules for this period. Preferably easy to play ones.

[has.been]

Fist Full of Lead, the core rules allow for just about anything.
They are fun & and a version allowing for more figures is being developed.
See recent Medieval threat using them.

[Codsticker]

How many figures per side? As Big Skirmish is pretty popular right now, Dragon Rampant is probably the most affordable, most readily available and straight forward of the popular set in the last few years. There are quite a few skirmish level rules, like the aforementioned FFoL, from smaller publishers out there that are probably both fun and innovative.

[Atheling]

For that type of battle, Swordpoint would be a great rules set. It concentrates on the battle line and combats can go on for a good while which replicates the Shieldwall combat nicely.

They have also been put together by the doyens of the Dark Ages; the Gripping Beast lot.

[has.been]

less Dragon Rampant, which is fantasy based, more
Lion Rampant, which is medieval based.
Both good sets of rules. I should have thought of them.
From the photo it looks like there are enough figures for Lion Rampant.

[Cubs]

As Big Skirmish is pretty popular right now, Dragon Rampant is probably the most affordable, most readily available and straight forward of the popular set in the last few years.

Books Etc has Dragon Rampant and Lion Rampant for less than £8 each.

[Scrubber]

I’m guess full battle. Looks between 150 to 200 Norman’s. Have better idea once I find Saxons.

Do these games base figures individually or multiple figures per base. Don’t really want to be moving large numbers as singles.

[Digits]

Base them on single rounds and use the multiple holder bases

[Scrubber]

Taken most of morning. Found Saxons.
Definitely not skirmish, about 400 mixed Saxons.
The great thing is looks like only 30 Norma mounted knights not painted.
Saying that the Norman infantry looks thin, so think there is more figures hiding.

Edit 25th dec. bottom right box contains 274 select Fyrd. So 400 + figures.

[FierceKitty]

recent Medieval threat

= Vikings? Mongols? Normans? Turks?

[bonewolf22]

For skirmish-scale games, Song of Blades and Heroes and its advanced variant are always fun and have the benefit of being quick to play too, though the systems are designed for fantasy so if you're running a strictly medieval game you won't be using a good portion of the rules. Fistful of Lead is a rising system I haven't personally played but has been getting a lot of positive buzz, and despite its name it is generic enough for a medieval setting.

Lion Rampant scales well from smaller-scale games to large army engagements and is another favorite among historical gamers looking for a fun but not-too-complicated wargame. I'm a big fan of SAGA, though it caps out at around the 60-80 figure range depending on your army list. I don't have a lot of experience in the 100+ miniatures range, but popular systems I've heard of for that scale of combat include Hail Caesar, Dues Vult, and Swordpoint.

There's no shortage of historical games available and luckily many of the rulebooks are very inexpensive, so I'd advice reading some reviews for the systems mentioned in this thread and deciding which caters the most to your gaming sensibilities.

[DivisMal]

A lot of good stuff has been mentioned already. I would like to put Warhammer Ancient Battles and especially the Shieldwall supplement forward. With the amount of models you have that should give you nice battles with a good flow.

[AKULA]

Base them on single rounds and use the multiple holder bases

This.

 

[Codsticker]

less Dragon Rampant, which is fantasy based, more
Lion Rampant, which is medieval based.
Both good sets of rules. I should have thought of them.
From the photo it looks like there are enough figures for Lion Rampant.

Yes, that's right, that's actually the one I meant.

[Munindk]

Lion Rampant might struggle with 400 Saxons.
I see Dux Bellorum or Hail Cesar mentioned a lot for battles that big, but I have no personal experience with them.