"Alternative games for Warhammer armies" Topic

So… if all the cool kids are not playing WFB anymore, what do you use the armies for? Options wanted, preferably ones that don't involve rebasing…

Kings of War from Mantic is a free download and gives a decent game.

Hostile Realms set with the Piquet Master Rules!

Fantasy warriors by grenadier miniatures

I'm with Brandlin (although I'm not cool and still play WFB).

The popular fantasy games around here (i.e., my real life geographical vicinity) seem to be:

No Quarter. A free set of fantasy rules loosely based on/inspired by the VOR: THE MAELSTROM's rather fun system. Among its many appealing factors is that it has full support for custom army lists.

link

Mordheim. There perpetually seems to be at least one, occasionally two, Mordheim campaigns being run. Smaller scale, but a hell of a lot of fun, and much like Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl, Epic Armageddon, and Inquisitor (did I miss any?), the "Living Rulebook" is free to download from GW's Specialist Games sub-site- you may have to look around a little bit, but they are still there, as of a few days ago. I believe you can also order hardcopies of the rulebook, as well, if you so desire.

In both cases, be sure to download the many free army lists/warbands, campaign settings (including a full set of supplements to play a Mordheim campaign entirely set in the jungls of Lustria), and assorted other funsies, on the relevant sites.

- Monk

Ganesha's Song of Blades and Heroes would also work.

Thanks all. I was looking for something the same size as a WFB game in terms of figures – good as both Mordheim and SoBaH are, they'd bog down a little at 100 figures/side.

Any more?

Consider it professional curiosity but what armies do you have to use?

Rally Round the King!

SOBH and HOTT spring to mind.

I've got all 3 chaos, dwarves, and vampire counts. Others at the club have dark elf, skaven, tomb king, ogres, in fact pretty much everything bar chaos dwarves and beserkers. The whole club seems to have given up on WFB 7th as broken, 8th as too expensive, but have an awful lot of big fantasy armies….

Pride of Lions?

I'd love them to play HotT. But it won't happen. They don't get the subtleties of it.. :-)

We played 100 Kingdoms for a while, then switched to Reaper's Warlord.

We made some special movement trays and played games of Warmaster with Warhammer figures.

Hey hey hey Chaos you say? What favor do hey follow?

Hmmm with dwarves whom are stumpy and vampire counts who are all gothic…I am going to go on a limb and say my first thought would be nurgle…although you may be sneaky and come in with khorne…but I will stick with nurgle.

I am quite curious if this effort of your club follows through and I fully support your efforts.

Though I would also consider some of the smaller games with 25-50 miniatures on the table…bring your 100-125 miniatures with options for 3-4 different warbands of 25-50.

Quicker games, more players, more games, and more fun.

If your luck went south on game one then move onto another :)

Thanks all. I was looking for something the same size as a WFB game in terms of figures

I'd say give No Quarter a look, then- it's designed for large scale skirmishes/battles, along the lines of WFB.

I've also heard good things about Reaper's Warlord, and about Majestic 12's Ares Fantasy Battle system, but I've never read the books for either, let alone played them, so take it for what it's worth.

- Monk

Edit: Correction, Ares is MJ12's fantasy skirmish game (which I have also heard good things about)- I was thinking of For The Masses, their fantasy mass battle game.

My favor'd still fall toward NQ, though- it's a good, solid, very playable ruleset, with the ability to actually give your custom-created armies the sort of functioning, fair, but flavorful special abilities you usually only see in "official" lists for games.

Listen to the Rat Monkey! 'No Quarter' is what you want.

Also check out Armies of Arcana. It seems to be a common replacement rule set for groups getting out of WHFB.
I have read it several times through and really like it. But I have yet to find an opponent for a game (everyone close by is 40k only).

I've gone into Armies of Arcana in a big way with my GW armies. I'm also adding in historical armies to the mix. You can use your GW minis as they are without changing basing and there are player made army lists that are more in line with GW's version of things than the AoA standards. Don't know if I'm cool or not and I'm definitely not a kid but I know what I like!

Warhammer armies (figures) are specifically formulated (designed) for use in WFB games only. They are not usable (compatible) for any other non GW game systems.

IGWARG1 you have been found to be a mutant communist and have been scheduled for elimination via disintegration booth…please locate the closest booth as soon as possible…

:)

Impetus – Fantasy
link

My vote is No Quarter or Armies of Arcana if you want something on the lines of WFB.

Jeff

WarEngine/Shockforce rules will work with these armies

Keep trying to induce your club to try Hordes of the Things, the Big Battle version provides an excellent WarHammer sized game.

And yes you can use miniatures based for Warhammer. Just mount three foot on a 60mm X 20mm base and two mounted on a 60mm X 50mm base (I use magnets if you don't want to permantly affix figures.

TomT

Being sick of "Herohammer", my group have moved to Mantic's Kings of War – along with the published lists, we've started creating our own for the missing races.

Again this thread is a wonderful example of everyone just shoving in their favourite games without much thought as to what was asked for.

HotT will not work very good, precise base sizes are required, hard to do and clumsy. Most other multibase games are a tad easier, as they are less strict about exact dimensions, but still not very good to do with minis based on Warhammer bases.

What really is to the point are games that either use the same basing principles, so Armies of Arcana, Fantasy Warriors etc. are an option. Or you could go with the bigger multibase games, like Kings of War or one of the fantasy mods for Impetus.

If you must do HotT for some reason, supersize it. Its the only way to get it to look halfway decent with the minis you have.

Just come up with some magic and throw em in clash of empires

I've got 36 Hordes armies, painted. More in boxes. Occaisionally I need to paint something else… :-)

Another bonus to No Quarter, by the way?

They have a list for using VOR's awesome, over-the-top killing/eating machines, the mighty (and mighty expensive, points-wise) GROWLERS! :D

- Monk

another vote for KoW from Mantic. Also, ever considered 3rd ed. warhammer? it's a very, very good game…

I agree about Armies of Arcana. We recently fought a very large battle with lizardmen, Dwarves, Giants, Orcs and Egyptians. Great set of rules. We are all working on multiple armies for it.

Thanks,

John

Contrary to above statements, I have put thought into my response, and given the criteria, feel that 'No Quarter' is the best available published option. This is based on the 'feel' of the rules, the compatibility of any models (points system/build any model),No rebasing, and the size of the forces. It is not my favorite game, but neither is Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I think that WFB third edition is also a good option, but it is not designed for competitive play… I don't know if that is one of the criteria.

Also contrary to the "shoving favorite games in your face" comment, I don't even collect fantasy, let alone play it.

Hell, for that matter, I've played precious little anything in the past 4 or 5 years, to be honest, and what I have played has been modern-era zombie apocalypse, and sci-fi, in order of descending preference.

Like bill, I just think No Quarter's pretty much exactly what you're after, for all the reasons he mentioned, and the fact that those people I know who do play fantasy wargames (as opposed to what amount to a M:tG clone that just so happens to use lots of miniatures to hit up its combos) locally all speak very highly of the way it plays, and seem to have stopped looking as soon as they found it.

- Monk

Pretty much what the others have said, K.O.W is not a bad system, you could also try playing War of the Rings with WHFB, 8 figs to a movement tray will give large armies, but you would have to tweak some rules to get the flavour you require for each army.

Big I

I'd do Warmaster in 28mm… You're already using regiment bases, right? Warmaster means that each unit is 3 regiment bases! Just use inches instead of cm. Rules are free, and you already have all the army lists made for you.

You might want to use a bigger table, though, at least a 6x8.

Just in case that was a misunderstanding: I too second that No Quarter fits the question very well. Its exactly the kind of game that the OP seems to be looking for, as it is 100% compatible with warhammer basing.

Thanks all. I'll point the club at this thread and see what they think!

hmm this has got me thinking i have been collecting Skaven since they came out and have a veritable under city of them…are there any other rule sets i could use them with?

Hi, have you been reading this thread? The answers are abundant.

Thanks,

John

I think he was asking if any other systems have an established race that are ratlings or ratmen already :)

And yes, any of the above systems could support a ratman/skaven race…faster, cut through terrain without movement losses, flame throwers, muskets, poison, weaker/less wounds, etc.

Inspired by this thread and all the others like it popping up all over the internet as Warhammer players say they have had enough, I have started a series of posts on my blog on the other games out there. My first post is here on Hundred Kingdoms: link