So which Fantasy battle game are we all playing?

[squeaky]

After a very long layoff from the hobby it's past time to pull the old lead out and finish a number of armies.   OBVIOUSLY my multi-base figures are based in a manner that makes no sense to me any longer (if it ever did! 50x50mm - there MUST have been a ruleset I had in mind), and my individually based figures are ALL OVER THE DAMNED PLACE; We're talking 1p coins, 2p coins, 20mm squares, 1" squares, 30mm rounds, and in the case of my Ral Partha dwarves, 16 to 20 mm cast bases!

So which set of rules solves this basing fiasco? 
Is KOW and Oathmark the standard these days? 

Relieve me of my mental turmoil so I can get back to the important things in life (is that virus thing still happening? Who is this Megan people keep talking about?)

Squeaks

[fitterpete]

Kings of War. Get the right size movement tray for the unit and put as many models as you can fit on it. If your playing at a store or venue the formula is half the official number of figures plus 1 is the minimum .

[Abbner Home]

Dragon Rampant will support all those bases, including the multiples w wound counters, at once in the same game. DR is my go to now days as I find it fun and tactically interesting while the rules are easy for my pre-teen boys to handle.

I do a bit of Oathmark using home made movement trays for my figs on 1" fender washers. All my cav is on 40mm rounds (perfect for LotR and D&D 3.5) so for Oathmark I put 3 models and two markers on a 2x10 tray. It just takes a small amount of fiddling to get the proper frontage in a fight.

[robh]

Kings of War is probably the standard for "big battle" rank & flank type games (although in comparison to Warhammer it's actual figure count is pretty small). It is a good game and easy to pick up, although some of the endgame aspects are a bit daft. Picking your scenario with care helps a lot. Like Warhammer it presents you with set army lists that you can tweak.

Another popular option (especially for the "design my own army" fans) is Mayhem. Also a big battle set. Takes a bit more work than KoW to get started but is much more flexible in the long run.
https://bombshell-games.com/mayhem/

Warhammer Fantasy itself still exists in some form or other, Impetus has a free Fantasy battle version and as you said there is Oathmark.

If you want to start with smaller forces the market is awash with options. Good discussion here:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=116288.0

[squeaky]

Kings of War is probably the standard for "big battle" rank & flank type games (although in comparison to Warhammer it's actual figure count is pretty small). It is a good game and easy to pick up, although some of the endgame aspects are a bit daft. Picking your scenario with care helps a lot. Like Warhammer it presents you with set army lists that you can tweak.

Another popular option (especially for the "design my own army" fans) is Mayhem. Also a big battle set. Takes a bit more work than KoW to get started but is much more flexible in the long run.
https://bombshell-games.com/mayhem/

Warhammer Fantasy itself still exists in some form or other, Impetus has a free Fantasy battle version and as you said there is Oathmark.

If you want to start with smaller forces the market is awash with options. Good discussion here:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=116288.0

Hi Rob, I do own all of those (and a hundred other sets, I never lost my interest in rules, just painting, actually gaming, and forums LOL), and I rate both Impetus and Mayhem quite highly, but neither really developed any traction so far as I can tell, not to the level of KOW and more recently Oathmark.  I had high hopes for BIF - I think we both prompted D&P at regular intervals on that.
Squeaks

[AKULA]

Homegrown rules...still a work in progress but I should be able to have up to 1000 figures per side comfortably.

Troops based on 2p’s on movement trays.

 

[Ogrob]

Loving some Oathmark. Great design, a breath of fresh air compared to all the WHFB-knockoffs, and nice smooth ruleset. As long as you can manage reasonably sized movement trays individual base size isn't super important.

I also play SAGA Age of Magic which I'd call a large skirmish game instead. Individual basing, no ranks and flanks. They give all allowe base sizes as a range from minimum size to max size for that unit type.

[Andrew_McGuire]

There’s also the new Fantastic Battles by Nicholas Wright of Irregular Wars. Like Mayhem I think it’s designed with 15 mm and smaller figures in mind but there’s no reason 28 mm shouldn’t work.

PDF is available from Wargame Vault. I was going to buy a hard copy on Amazon but I’ve got myself locked out of my account.

[squeaky]

Yeah I'd spotted fantastic battles on Amazon.  There are a fair number of rules out there, large skirmish to mass battles, and even more ancients conversions and fan projects, but when going down the basing and rebasing route you need to build in a little flexibility. 

Akkie, it does not surprise me at all that you have a thousand figure project on the back burner ... Some things have not changed it seems 😘😘

I've also found my copy of sword and spear fantasy which ticked a great many boxes, but not seeing a big player base 😔

Just don't want to start up with a dead duck

[Hobgoblin]

A really good mass-battle game that allows you to use miniature with varied basing altogether is Ganesha Games' Of Armies and Hordes. You have to divide your table into areas to play (there's no measuring), but this is surprisingly easy to do with terrain (or chalk).

It's a really innovative ruleset and great for getting huge numbers of long-neglected miniatures onto the table at once.

[Mr. White]

I’m trying to put together forces that can be used for:

Dragon Rampant
Oathmark
Warlords of Erehwon

[BZ]

I would try Oathmark! Its pretty easy to learn, has very fluid gameplay and you can manage your forces with movement trays.

[black hat miniatures]

We are playing Lord of the Rings games using fan lists for Kings of War and that seems to work well...

Mike

[redzed]

Homegrown rules...still a work in progress but I should be able to have up to ONE MILLION figures per side comfortably.

[Andrew_McGuire]

I wonder how the painting’s going...

I’m also wondering whether anyone has any experience with Hostile Realms,  the fantasy version of Piquet, which I have just come across while browsing the Caliver Books site. All I know of it is that a pack of sequence cards is used by each player, presumably to randomise the order of play, as well as ‘relic cards’. I am aware that Piquet seems to divide opinion like Marmite, in part because of its asymmetrical mechanics, but I’m wondering whether these might be more palatable in a fantasy setting.