Looking for an ancients mass battle ruleset

[aktr]

Hi,

I'm looking for some recommendations for some ancients rulesets for a mass battle game
something allowing for roughly 100-200 minis per side.

I was looking into Hail Ceaser but I saw some reviews saying that you really need a table bigger then 6x4
I have also heard of To the Strongest - however I don't like the idea of the grid system

A couple of things
It needs to have an in print rulebook that I can buy in the UK
has to work for 28mm Miniatures
needs a points system

Cheers

Andy

[Historiker]

I have not played it and therefore can say nothing about the quality of the game but there is a game called "Swordpoint" which supports classical army lists:

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/SWORDPOINT.html

[FierceKitty]

You want mass battles, a smallish table, and 28mm? Hmmm...why not have Michelangelo sculpt them and J. S. Cotman do the terrain, while you're asking for more than 360 degrees in the circle? I do think you may have to compromise a tiny bit.

[aktr]

You want mass battles, a smallish table, and 28mm? Hmmm...why not have Michelangelo sculpt them and J. S. Cotman do the terrain, while you're asking for more than 360 degrees in the circle? I do think you may have to compromise a tiny bit.

I wouldn't say 6x4 is a small table - I'd class it as a standard size.
basically I'm trying to recapture the feel of old WFB which did all of these things but just with ancients

[OB]

Pulse of Battle if you like card driven games will suit you.  You can get it from Lancashire Games.

[WuZhuiQiu]

There's also the now out-of-print Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB), which was based directly on WFB, or the still readily available War and Conquest, one of WAB's close successors, by Rob Broom, formerly of Warhammer Historical:

https://scarabminiatures.com/product/smp-001-war-conquest-rulebook-5/

[Antonio J Carrasco]

DBMM or Art of War meet your conditions. They are not size specific, though.

[Jjonas]

I would recommend looking at:

Tactica II

War and Conquest

Clash of Empires

Swordpoint

Hail Caesar (can be played on 6x4 you can adjust movement rates)

ADLG is not exactly mass units but can be large games.

I prefer WAB 1.5 since I am old and an outlier. Extremely old. But does not pass the 'in print' test and has incomplete army lists.

WAB2 has complete army lists and is self contained, but makes my arms hurt.

Much of these depends on which ancient period you wish to play in and how big a show. Some rules work better in certain periods than others. For example for heroic age Trojan wars- then WAB or War and Conquest might be your cup of tea (or even modified Lion Rampant).

[wmyers]

If you want something like WFB, you really need Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB).


You could try War and Conquest.

Jeff Jonas’ advice is, as always, very good!  (I’m not sure about the arms hurting from v2, though?)

[Historiker]

Since you mentioned WFB I have another honorable mention, if you just want to use historical minis without it strictly speaking being a true-to-history-game: Warlords of Erehwon.

The game features one Roman army list, one Barbarian army list and one for "Olympians" (basically the fantasy movie version of ancient Greeks). The author also provided a document which gave insight into how point values are created so you can fashion your own lists.

I intend to play a game of Romans versus the Skeleton horde very soon 

I just started out with the system because I missed WFB and while the gameplay is different it captures the fun and the spirit of the game just right (at least that is my impression from reading the rulebook).

[Doom Beard 78]

The scribd.com website has some pdf scans of the wab 1.5 rulebook and supplements. the joy of GW not caring about WAb is that their lawyers have not noticed . So you could wander over there and download a pdf copy

[Jjonas]

(I’m not sure about the arms hurting from v2, though?)

humor....

[Easy E]

JJonas has hit the highlights.... unless you wan tot play a DBA/M variant with 28mm models such as....

DBA/M
Impetus
Le' Arte de Guerre

However, I recommend you go with JJonas thoughts.  WAB is easy to find as a PDF download nad plays exactly like Warhammer Fantasy Battle so that is the easiest cross-over.

[Ockius]

Hail Caesar is fine on 6x4 as you can adjust the scaling easily.

All you need to do is change the standard size unit from 160mm to 120mm (8 men to 6 men front rank) to give you more room to play with. I do that anyway and I play on an 8x5’6” table, but enjoy being able to field more units.

Hail Caesar also says something like three divisions of four units per army,  but that makes very big armies and you can easily play with just three units per division, or cut down to two divisions in each army and it still works fine. I played that way as I was building up my armies.

And as someone else says, if you really want to downscale you can measure movement in centimetres instead of inches, which effectively makes your table bigger (I did that when playing the first time with units of 80mm width when I didn’t have enough figures for bigger units).

[Atheling]

I have not played it and therefore can say nothing about the quality of the game but there is a game called "Swordpoint" which supports classical army lists:

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/SWORDPOINT.html

+1 for Swordpoint!

That would be my selection too. The combats are drawn out with the emphasis on support and holding the 'battle line' so it's very suitable for Ancients.