Generic army-size fantasy wargames? DIY elements galore?

[Simlasa]

I want to play some miniature wargames in the old D&D(ish) Minaria setting (the one from the boardgame Divine Right). It's a fairly 'normal' fantasy setting... humans, elves, dwarfs, goblins (no orcs or halflings). So I'm looking for a system that would let me build my own unit types and the magic of the setting (that vs. reworking a game tied heavily to an existing setting).
I'm definitely looking for more 'narrative' type games, not competition (I'll most likely be soloing a lot).

So far, my list includes:
Chipco's Fantasy Rules! (2nd or 3rd edition)
Warhammer 2nd (it seems more DIY than later editions)
AD&D Battlesystem (2e I think)

The only one of these I have much experience with is Fantasy Rules!

Any suggestions?

[Cory]

I helped GM a Minaria campaign a while back using Dragon Rampant. We had to come u[p with house rules for Oggsbog and some other NPCs, but the 1 unit equals 1 chit carried over well to the tabletop.

[Dice Roller]

I wonder if Dragon Rampant might suit you?
It has generic unit types and then you tailor them to your own needs by adding various abilities.
It's not tied to any particular world or setting.
Foot units have 12 'hits' (skirmishers have 6) but can be made of how many models you like. So it could be a unit of 24 goblins, and two are removed for every hit you take. Or it could be a single giant, who can take all 12 hits.
Cavalry have 6 hits but, again, can be depicted how you like. So you may take the stats for a unit of elite cavalry and give them the flying ability to represent a dragon. For example.
You can do it however you want to represent the unit in the way you want.
It's a quick, dirty, fast game. It's also relatively scaleable. The game recommends warbands of 24 points (about 5 or 6 units) but we've played it up to double that (two players per side), or a single player with 36 or so points, and it's handled it quite well without any deterioration in the rules.
The game works with a plyer rolling to activate a unit. If successful they carry out that activation and roll to activate another units.
But if they fail to activate then initiative switches to the other side.
Some people love that system, some people hate it. Personally, I'm fine with it. But if you have a warband with too many units you're unlikely to activate them all during any one turn and that could prove frustrating. So that's maybe where the system may start to break down.
Even better, being an Osprey 'blue book' set of rules it's cheap and readily available.

[Hobgoblin]

If you want an army-size campaign, I'd venture a suggestion that ostensibly doesn't fit your requirements but might work out well all the same: Hordes of the Things (HOTT).

Why? Well, first, it's the ultimate in generic, in that all army lists are just suggestions, and any army can draw on the same 20 or so unit types. The 'flavour' of the armies comes from the combinations. So an army made up of primarily of 'hordes' supplemented with 'beasts' and 'warbands' (say an army of goblin raiders) plays very differently from one that has a few 'hordes', lots of 'spears' and the balance in 'knights' and 'shooters' (a human kingdom with peasant militia, regular levy, knights and longbowmen, for example).

Second, it works really well for map-based campaigns, and you could even develop a simple system to allow strategic map-level manoeuvrings to give you stronger or weaker forces. The standard HOTT army is 24AP, but it's a well-designed game that works well with interestingly asymmetrical situations and victory conditions.

Third, because if's very 'zoomed out'/abstract, you can represent all kinds of creatures and forces in imaginative ways by using the generic troop types.

Fourth, it's a very quick game to get an army ready for. A typical force will have about 12 stands of 1-5 figures each (usually 3). So five goblins might represent a horde element, and three barbarians a warband and so on. That's good if you have lots of kingdoms to represent.

Another suggestion would be Mayhem. It does allow you to design every unit from the ground up (as Warhammer 2nd did). That's a strength and a weakness; the disadvantage is that it can be difficult to establish what the baseline is (a normal human unit). But there's a free Battlescribe file (check the publisher's other stuff - I think it comes with Armies of Mayhem) that has lists for lots of Warhammer-style forces that helps in this regard. It's a really good, innovative mass-battle game that's lots of fun.

A third suggestion: Ganesha Games' Of Armies and Hordes. Like Mayhem, it's really innovative and allows you to design units yourself. It also has a huge Excel-type file with hundreds of troop types. The game requires you to divide the table into irregular zones for movement, but this is easily done with chalk or terrain. It's great fun - one of those games I wish I'd played a lot more since it came out (it's always quicker and easier to get HOTT on the table, though ...).

And one more: not a fantasy game per se but great for fantasy battles nonetheless - To the Strongest. It needs a regular grid to play on, but it's a really fast, engrossing and enjoyable game.

Of those, I'd probably go with HOTT, simply because a standard battle usually takes just 45 minutes or so. And it has a random element to the activation that makes it good for solo play. It plays on a 2' square table for 15mm or 3' square for 1/72, 25mm or 28mm - so you can even have two battles going on side by side on a standard kitchen table.

Dragon Rampant, which others have mentioned above, is great. I would say, though, that it's "large skirmish" rather than "mass battle" - that is, each figure represents one man, and troops move in clumps rather than in lines or columns. That might not matter, though, and it's lots of fun.

[fred]

One consideration I’ll throw in is the conversion of the game counters to table top units. This will want to be fairly straight forward as you will need to do it many times to translate the map moves to the table top.

I suppose it depends on how many different map units you have - if there are just a few types then a one off conversion table created at the start works fine. If there are many with complex stats you might need some  kind of process to convert map stats to table top stats

[BZ]

You should take a look on Oathmark. The rules are really solid, the setting is generic, and the kingdom building and the lots of scenarios fit narrative play really well.
Building own unit types is not included, but also not impossible. I made a lot of them, with interpolating the costs from the existing units. And a bit of unbalance in a narrative game shouldnt be a big problem.
Own magic may be a bigger problem, but honestly I dont know any game, where it wouldnt be...

[Pattus Magnus]

Another possible set is Fantastic Battles. It is designed as a sandbox set, so building units to fit the setting shouldn’t be difficult. It also includes a campaign system, but that probably would require a little adjustment to fit the setting you want to play.

The main difficulty would be using single based figures, but that could be overcome with a little common sense. The rules are designed around units consisting of 1-4 square or rectangular element bases. The base width is used for measurement, so they need to be uniform, but base depths can vary. To use single based figures, you could just treat a 2x2 group as one element and build units around that. If your collection is mostly on 25mm bases each element equivalent would be 50mm by 50mm and 50mm is your unit of measurement. 2 cavalry figures would be an element, etc. If figures for some units were on 20mm bases, it would be a bit inconvenient, but it would be possible to space them out to fit the 50x50 footprint.

It hasn’t been released yet, but an upcoming set of rules that may fit is Midgard. Again, it is an open sandbox game that will allow building units to fit the setting, and it is designed around using element bases. Some details about it are on the author’s website, here:
https://mogsymakes.net/midgard/

[Mister Rab]

I've got my eye on Sword and Spear for some Ancients gaming, and they do a Fantasy version which might suit you. For smaller actions I have had some great games with Dragon Rampant, probably my go-to large skirmish ruleset.

Sword and Spear website is https://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/sword-spear

[Simlasa]

One consideration I’ll throw in is the conversion of the game counters to table top units. This will want to be fairly straight forward as you will need to do it many times to translate the map moves to the table top.

Definitely, since I'd want to keep as much of the flavor of the boardgame as possible.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I hadn't considered Dragon Rampant... I'm not sure why.
Sword & Spear is another excellent one that didn't come to mind... yet I've played it in the past.
Sometimes the context of what I'm trying to do puts odd sets of blinders on me regarding tools to do it.

[Elbows]

I'm working on something just like this, but it won't be commercial for a while, sadly. 

[spacecowsmith]

Its worth checking out No Quarter by Wargames Unlimited. Its a great wee set and freely available. Sadly not been updated for a fair while but its still a great ruleset and has a complete guide to generating pretty much anything you can imagine for games.

[darthfozzywig]

Love the Minaria choice. Have done RPG and minis games set there as well.

I’ve been using Little Wars TV’s Age of Hannibal rules, adding in some modified units (heroes, monsters, etc) from Chipco’s Fantasy Rules since AOH is based on Chipco’s FR.

Just got an stl of a giant made of skulls etc to be the Black Hand’s Colossus and looking forward to making a Tower of Zards.

[Simlasa]

OH! I had no idea AoH was based on FR!
I love FR!

I've been wandering what to do about the Colossus... was thinking about the giant flesh golem from Rackham, but a nice 3d print might be cheaper.

I'll have a look at No Quarter as well. I'm always looking to add to the repertoire of DIY games.

[Cat]

MY longtime favourite for quick-play medieval/fantasy battles is the Rules According to Ral (with many pencilled in mods), later re-implemented by Chaos Wars.
 
https://ralparthalegacy.com/collections/chaos-wars

[eilif]

If Quick play is your thing, I'd recommend:

-Dragon Rampant.  As mentioned, it's more platoon size than army size, but very generic and flexible with a good campaign mechanic.

The next two suggestions are even faster play and work great for massive armies.

-Kings of War. Not technically generic, but nearly every unit and army type is covered in the current Rulebook. Rank and Flank without individual figure removal.

-Age of Fantasy by One Page Rules. Standard version is loose order, but there's also a "Regiments" rank and flank version.  In addition to many official armor there are dozens of community created lists.

Rules, army lists and the online army list builder are free, for 5 dollar patreon you get advanced rules for all of their games and access to their unit creation program.

I'm a long time fan of KOW. The current rulebook is the best yet includes several modes of play it's got a bit more detailed rules then AoF but not too much.  However, the One Page Rules army list builder is the best I've used and the rules are the simplest.  Either is a good choice.