Best massed battle rules?

[Basementboy]

Exactly what it says in the title! Looking forward to seeing what y’all come up with.

[Atheling]

The choices are quite limited.

You are certainly missing WGRG 6th Ed and Warhammer Ancient Battles.

[SJWi]

I will throw "To the Strongest" into the mix. Eminently capable of handling big battles.

[Basementboy]

Atheling, you are quite right, WAB has been added to the poll. And thanks to SJ for the response.

[OSHIROmodels]

I quite enjoy 'Never mind the Billhooks'.

[Hobgoblin]

I think there's a case to be made for good old DBA - especially when played in 'big battle' mode with three 24AP commands a side.

[Eric the Shed]

Billhooks is great fun for the WOTR - we have fought all the major battles often with 3 players aside

https://shedwars.blogspot.com/p/shed-wars-does-war-of-roses.html

[SJWi]

Although a devotee of TTS I will say that players at my local club use and enjoy Warlord's "Hail Caesar", and I plan to dust-off "Billhooks" for my Wars of the Roses games early in 2024!  I understand James Morris' long-awaited "Midgard" rules might be released at Salute next year. 

[Cholmondely Percival IV]

Two other contenders, both aimed at the late medieval period, are Test of Resolve and The Tree of battles, available from, respectively,

https://testofresolve.com/?v=79cba1185463

and

https://www.legio-wargames.com/wargames-rules

[Sunjester]

I am becoming increasingly convinced by To The Strongest! We have now used it to play Early Imperial Roman, Late Imperial Roman and Wars of the Roses games and I has worked well for us with all of them.

I was quite impressed with Sword and Spear at first, but once we tried playing anything other than shieldwall armies it fell apart for us.

[Cat]

Big Battle DBA for me.

[SJWi]

Sunjester, I agree with you about TTS. I have used it for battles from Hittite vs Sea Peoples to Wars of the Roses, and it handles them all well. I'm sure period specific purists will claim it doesn't represent certain aspects of battle, but that's the compromise you make trying to cover such a wide canvas.  My only slightly negative comment, but one which can be levelled at other rulesets, is that battles between very similar armies ( eg Wars of the Roses) can be a tad dull but that's just my experience.     

[vodkafan]

Big Battle DBA for me.

On my list to try this, once I have enough figures painted up.

[Basementboy]

Very helpful feedback! And I’m ok with not having a ton of period specific features, I just want to air the minis out for once, and get a game going

[SJWi]

Again on the TTS theme. They use a gridded mat(s) and chits plus either packs of playing cards or more chits for activation, so it isn't as simple as just buying the rules and getting the figures on the table. Personally I like the grids and chits as (a) it speeds up play (b) removes potential "gamesmanship" over distances and angles, but I acknowledge soem people hate the idea. It obviously costs additional money but I took the view that I have 20+ 28mm ancient/medieval armies which each cost several hundred ££s, so the mats and chits were a relatively small outlay that helped revitalise my gaming of the period.