Rules recommendation for WotR big battles

[Bohica]

I'm looking for recommendations on rule sets for Mass battles during the War of the Roses.  I'm all set on skirmish so do not need recommendations.  I want rules to fight the large fights which I will be using my 6mm figures.

[MGH]

Our local group likes To the Strongest for large battles.

[AdmiralAndy]

Peter Pig have recently released Bloody Barons 2nd edition, so you might want to find some reviews about that. Unless those more in the know can advise on the merits or otherwise and scale of the ruleset. I believe its for 15mm but can be adjusted for 28mm depending how large a table you have.

Its apparently quite different in play to first edition, so rumour has it.


There is also a ruleset I've heard off called Poleaxed, which had 2 sourcebooks for differing periods of the war. I think it was related to Freezywater publications (but don't quote me on that) so its all A5 sized.

[fred]

We’ve used TTS for WoTR - gave a good game. Not sure on how good a historical simulation it is, but we got lots of great lookign figures on the table

We tried playing one game of poleaxed. Didn’t feel much of a game, units (3 a side) moved forward a bit, pretty much in straight lines. Fighting was odd. Has lots of period bits to it, but felt very unfinished as a game.

The Perfect Captain has a battle and campaign system called something like a Crown of Paper - which looks really good - but it is a whole collection of PDF files, and I struggled to work out what was needed to play vs what was effectively expansions. But it is free.

[bluewillow]

I use Advanced Impetus and find they work well. Great big bases for achieving diorama, The longbow A are devastating, and heavy foot can really wreck standard bill men, cavalry are still effective if used correctly.

Impetus also has a nice campaign also, plus one I wrote for the midlands.

I would suggest not to use Basic Impetus as it is quite balanced and no real difference between troop types, shooting is deplorable also for longbow.

Cheers
Matt

[SJWi]

My local group tried Impetus and gave up on them, but I do know they have a loyal following. TTS has become our “go-to” set for ancient/medieval including WoTR but I know some think they don’t have enough period specific flavour. At the end of the day your troop types are largely longbow, bill and some knights. I think “Poleaxed” are quite old school but obviously have the bonus of being period specific.

[Bohica]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.  Has anyone tried Mortem et Gloriam for the period?  I have a copy of those rules I picked up for my ancients but hadn't thought about them for WotR.

(Edit: I failed to mention in my original post is that I will be using 6mm for the 'big' battles)

[SJWi]

I haven't tried Mortem et Gloriam myself but some members of our club have tried it and liked it.  I don't know if that is a recommendation!

[Atheling]

Bloody Barons (First Edition) worked well. I think the second edition is hex based. 

A Coat of Steel by the Perfect Captain would scale down very well and is certainly worth a shot too.

It's available on the Perfect Captain Facebook page in the Files section

[olicana]

Another vote for TtS. Simple, elegant and full of tension.

Big WotR games can be turgid. I know because I sold a moderately large 28mm collection (800+ figures) when I got bored of samey WotR battles. However, TtS has made playing WoR enjoyably tense affairs, and if TtS had been around at the time I would have kept my figures: They were reasonably well painted for the time.



Fortunately, one of my regular opponents has a large WoR collection to play TtS with, so I haven't missed out completely.

Get TtS, simple as that.

[Osmoses]

Wrote a thing about Bloody Barons 2 here, it's my go to set for WOTR battles now:

https://adcgaming.wordpress.com/2020/04/05/bloody-barons/

[Goliad]

Another for consideration - available for free from Legio Wargames - Tree of Battles.

http://legio-wargames.com/medieval/4563587662

Can't say I have seen much discussion about them.

[AdmiralAndy]

Bloody Barons (First Edition) worked well. I think the second edition is hex based. 

A Coat of Steel by the Perfect Captain would scale down very well and is certainly worth a shot too.

It's available on the Perfect Captain Facebook page in the Files section

Could you post a link for that.

Also do you have a link for the Crown of Paper downloads they seem to be dead links on the web page I found.

Thanks.

[Osmoses]

Crown of Paper should be here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W8zOJHzn6NdkCm0dx9E7RIIlVBONthLY/view

Coat of Steel is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nJFsrcqmZ9D5MVtTjt_f6w7zT8D7o-Hu/view

[OB]

Another for consideration - available for free from Legio Wargames - Tree of Battles.

http://legio-wargames.com/medieval/4563587662

Can't say I have seen much discussion about them.

Me neither, but thanks for the link the rules look interesting.  I see they are based on Comitatus which I really enjoy.