Large battle rules: asking for advice

[Maxx Von Morton]

Hi to everyone!
After playing several SAGA battles, I'd like to move to a larger battle ruleset to expand my armies...
I already tried Hail Cesar, but I realized I don't like too much the turnover when you miss the activation of a unit (with my dice luck, my whole army just stand still, waiting to be chopped in small pieces... ).
So... what all you guys out there would recommend?

Thank you

M

[Maxx Von Morton]

Thank you, Humakt! 

[dinohunterpoa]

Warhammer Ancient Battles 2nd Ed

Seriously.  

My group add a house rule stolen borrowed from LOTR regarding Turn Sequence and battlefield objectives to determine Initiative. You can have serious FUN with MASSIVE battles this way!

[MGH]

To the Strongest by Simon Miller handles large battles well. He routinely puts on huge convention battles with those rules. Check out his website  BigRedBat    or google the rules. Oh and the army lists are all free to download.

[hallmarkFPS]

We also use Warhammer ancient battles 2nd ed. with the addition of random charge range borrowed from WFB.

cheers
Steve

[katie]

"Lion Rampant".

It's easy to pick up, the basing is non-prescribed -- so you can use whatever figures you have from Saga.

It also has a dice activation mechanism but for larger battles you can use multiple smaller "armies" on the same side -- say 3x 18pts each side. Each "army" gets activations; so losing activation for one force means you move on to the next so you can cope to an extent -- this also means it's easy to have multiple players and each command a "battle".

Or you could switch to the medieval variants of "Fantasy Warriors"... Skip the magic rules, only use the "Men-at-Arms" lists and just use realistic proportions of the different troop types.

[A Lot of Gaul]

As indicated above, you will receive many recommendations for many different rule sets.  

My own personal favorite is Swordpoint, written by Martin Gibbins and published by Gripping Beast: http://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/SWORDPOINT.html

To help narrow the field a bit, you may want to ask yourself a few of the following questions:

How many figures do you plan to have in your "large" battles? Different Ancient-Medieval rulebooks for mass battles can call for armies with as few as 24-48 figures per side on the low end, to forces having as many as 200-450 figures or more. Swordpoint recommends battles with roughly 100-250 figures per side, although larger armies will also work perfectly well.

What kind of turn system do you prefer, IGO-UGO, simultaneous, card driven, or something else? In Swordpoint, players dice for movement initiative, whereas shooting and combat are simultaneous.

Do you want rules that allow your tabletop troops to follow your orders automatically at all times, or do you like to have somewhat less control through the use of limited command points, throwing dice to see if your orders are followed, or some other form of command 'friction?' Swordpoint does not limit or interfere with your ability to command your troops, although you can attempt to influence initiative and combat through the use of Momentum tokens.

Do you enjoy rules in which combat and other tactical processes are dealt with in precise detail (process oriented), or ones in which many of those details are abstracted into a few factors and/or die rolls (result oriented), or something in between? For this Swordpoint falls in the midrange, having special rules to give various units appropriate abilities, with other details abstracted, e.g. representing the effect of Roman line exchange by giving legionary units more staying power in combat.

Are there any other rules mechanics that are definite 'must haves' or 'no gos' for you and/or your fellow players? For example, do you want a rule set that has many game mechanics that are similar to those in SAGA?

Hopefully you will find these questions to be of some help as you mull over the many available options. Best of luck in your search!

Cheers,
Scott
 

[Polkovnik]

What kind of turn system do you prefer, ....

Do you want rules that allow your tabletop troops to follow your orders automatically at all times, or do you like to have somewhat less control .....

Do you enjoy rules in which combat and other tactical processes are dealt with in precise detail (process oriented), or ones in which many of those details are abstracted into a few factors and/or die rolls (result oriented),.....
 

Very good questions to ask yourself and help you to narrow down the choices.
If you don't like IGO-UGO, want rules where there is battlefield friction, so that there are command and control mechanisms that mean your troops don't always do what you want them to, with a top-down (i.e. results orientated) approach, then you might have a look at Sword & Spear.
You can read reviews and find more information here:
http://polkovnik.moonfruit.com/sword-spear-reviews/4586094213

[Phil Portway]

Very good questions to ask yourself and help you to narrow down the choices.
If you don't like IGO-UGO, want rules where there is battlefield friction, so that there are command and control mechanisms that mean your troops don't always do what you want them to, with a top-down (i.e. results orientated) approach, then you might have a look at Sword & Spear.
You can read reviews and find more information here:
http://polkovnik.moonfruit.com/sword-spear-reviews/4586094213

Been playing large even Huge 1000 point games with Sword & Spear. Easy to learn, lots of subtitles and fun!