Fantastic Battles

[Wilgut Spleens]

Fantastic Battles Review
Well, there are battles, there are fantasy battles and now there are Fantastic Battles. Written by Nic Wright and published by Irregular Wars, Fantastic Battles promise just that, battles that can be set in any fantasy world, even historical, that are in themselves fantastic!
The rules are well written and easy to pick up. The book is well set out, in a logical order, has lots of photos and some superb cartoonery by Orestix. The various tables are sensible, logical and well laid out making the game easy to play once you have the principles. I found the quick reference sheet was more than adequate for most situations.
Nic sets out his central tenets for the game in his introduction and the game seems to live up to all of them. They are…
It is setting and scale agnostic. You can use any of your existing armies, from any period and any scale. The basic unit is the company mounted on a war base of set size, usually between 4-6 cm square. Up to four may be used in formation in a unit. All companies have the same size war base and movement and missile range is measured in war bases or WB’s.
There is no single figure removal, whole units are removed once they have taken sufficient loss of Resolve, the most important factor units have. Resolve is somewhat akin to morale, combat and magic can reduce it , when it reaches zero the unit disperses with detrimental effect to the resolve of nearby units. There can be a knock-on effect.
Flexible army building is at the core of the rules. There are seven core unit profiles which can be augmented by up to three traits, from a list of forty, such as “mounted, skirmishers, ferocious charge, shieldwall, long spears, unreliable” etc. It easy to use and you can create your own units and your own army lists. There can also be racial traits that apply to the whole army. There is an Excel Fantastic Battles Army Builder which can print out an order of battle for any army you create which is in its self, Fantastic!
Engaging rules randomised initiative with play passing between both sides ensures this. Players draw coloured counters/meeples/dice from a hat or use a deck of cards to decide activation.  There are also spells that can interfere with the order of play
Command friction and fog of war These are certainly present in the form of Mishaps that are rolled for each unit at set up and may result in a unit arriving late on the battle field or in a diseased state or even have companies deserting! The rules themselves tie up movement and shooting in such a way that you have to really think about your set up.
The Command and Control is simple to use. Basically, each army is led by a Warlord or Mage Lord and can have several characters that can activate units and companies. Each character, company or unit can use one action each turn.
There are three phases shooting, movement and melee.
Shooting is pretty well automatic; it does not require an action and you have to shoot at the nearest unit in range. There are four different shooting traits which produce very different results at different ranges.
Movement is probably more limited than in many games and this adds a tactical element to the game. It is very easy to get yourself stuck in a position that you cannot manoeuvre out of.
Melee is brutal. Whole unit removal means big holes can open up in your ranks and create a domino effect of Resolve loss.
There are is a campaign system that is fun and easy to use.
The armies can be augmented by strategies and characters can have relics to boost their stats or give them extra abilities. The book contains 24 Army lists for Historical and Fantasy Armies and only one rule book is required so it is a small investment for a big game.
While the game is definately a mass battle system and probably suits 6mm- 15mm best,I had no probems using my 28mm figures blue tacked onto tremporaray movement trays
Both the tabletop and the campaign rules lend themselves well to solo play so it is also Fantastic Battles for the times we are living through.
Overall, it is easy to learn, fun to play, requires some tactical thinking, can be used with just about any army and can be used for solo play-Fantastic!

[fred]

It is a great looking set of rules - with lots of really interesting ideas.

You note movement is quite limited, and this was what for me didn’t quite work. I was perhaps approaching from a background of Irregular Wars and Warmaster where movement is very fluid (perhaps too fluid for a mass battle game) but I felt this approach turned the dial too far the other way. But I suspect if your background is DBA style rules you will be very at home with this approach.

[Wilgut Spleens]

It is a great looking set of rules - with lots of really interesting ideas.

You note movement is quite limited, and this was what for me didn’t quite work. I was perhaps approaching from a background of Irregular Wars and Warmaster where movement is very fluid (perhaps too fluid for a mass battle game) but I felt this approach turned the dial too far the other way. But I suspect if your background is DBA style rules you will be very at home with this approach.

No not at all, I have only played DBA enough to know I dont like it! I play lots of different systems and I can usually find something good to say about them, but not so much DBA.Mostly I play SBG ME,Oathmark,Dragon Rampant,Sharp Practice,Never Mind the Billhooks.For large action games I prefer Piquet. I also use my oen rules based on the old Featherstone games. Maybe I should have said movement choices are limited and its no bad thing as it creates a need to think and to use tactics.

[Bodvoc]

A great review of what has become my favourite Fantasy Battle game. It can also be used for historical ancient and medieval games too.

[elliesdad]

Amazon just dropped my copy off 5 minutes ago... Looks good on a quick flick through.

Geoff

[Pattus Magnus]

I haven’t had the opportunity to play it yet, but I really like the approach in Fantastic Battles. It ticks all the boxes for what I look for in a big-battle game.

[Irregular Wars Nic]

Thanks for the very kind words Wilgut.