"15mm Medieval rules?" Topic

Hi
Any suggestions. I'm getting back into 15mm Medieval Wargames again. I need some suggestions on rules. I mostly keen on starting a 100 Years War Campaign. And looking to field some large armies. Can anyone suggest a decent set of Element Rules. There is DBMM and FoG I know. Last time I played FoG it didn't seem to give the correct result for the Longbow but I'm not sure what 3rd Ed is like. My friend likes DBA and I don't mind it but it just does not look right to me. I'm an old fashioned gamer and I like to see big armies that capture the feel of the period. Any suggestions and recommendations?

To The Strongest. Uses a grid but for the period, that feels right. A unit just needs to fit in your box so can be as big or small as you like. My Vikings are mounted on 40mm steel bases. For this game we put 6 or 9 stands on a movement tray for each unit. Looks great.

I've not gamed the 100 Yrs. War, but I do like the mechanics of the DB_ rules. If lots of figures on the table is important, I have built a few elements with triple the numbers of 12mm figures on the 25mm scale bases-- looked awesome. Something similar should work with 15mm.

Big battle DBA. 36 elements per side. It looks great and plays great.

BTW… historical battles are great in DBA as well.

link

Joe Collins

Tactics Medieval

You should take a look at Triumph.

It uses stands or elements similar to the old WRG basing. I used to play a lot of DBA and DBM, but Triumph is now my go to for large scale Medieval and Ancient Battles.

Impetus has/had a pretty strong following.

I suspect it may still, but it's been a while since I've seen any battle reports, or news of them.

DBA 3.0, Triumph! or To The Strongest would be my recommendations.

Look at Mortem et Gloriam.

Another recommendation for "To the Strongest!" rules.
link
And he's a "home boy" for you.

Jim

I like Sword and Spear for this period. I use 15mm figures based om 40mm frontage bases (some are from my old Warmaster armies, others for DBA type rules). A unit is made up of 4 bases or 6 for a large unit. Rules are well supported online.

Like you, I am also looking for satisfying rules to play with my large 15mm Medieval armies. I'm especially interested in the 100YW, WotR, the wars of Charles the Bold, and peripheral wars related to those (English vs. Scottish, English vs. Irish, French vs. Flemish, etc. ad nauseum).

I like DBA a lot, and big battle DBA even more, but never liked it for Medieval gaming. It just felt "off" to me. DBA 3.0 may have changed that, but I haven't tried it for Medievals, so I can't comment cogently.

Nobody's mentioned Art de l'Guerre. I haven't tried it, so I can't recommend it, but it has a reputation for being a sort of "fixed" DBx system, and the old DBx tournament players seem to like it. It's written right out of the box to be a multi-command game for armies of a few dozen elements at most, and I haven't seen any reason you couldn't use big Impetus-style bases on a big table if you want a greater spectacle. It seems to play quickly – a local AdlG group goes through 2 rounds of games in about 3-5 hours every Saturday. The biggest problem seems to be acquiring a copy.

I've played a lot of To The Strongest and Sword and Spear, and while both are fun, neither made me feel much like a general. They both seem very Tactica-like to me – proscribed maneuver and setup, heavy on luck, lower player involvement in the decision cycle. I think some of those things can be fixed, but it would take some work on house rules and experimentation with setup. On the bright side, they look great with large armies, they play very fast, they are easy to learn (TTS more than S&S), and they keep big multi-player games active and tense.

My current fixation is Lion Rampant. On paper it sounds all wrong – it's not a big battle set (more mass skirmish in style), it has a lot of Hollywood in its history, and it's written specifically for moderate numbers of large scale figures. That said, it has the most "Medieval" feel of any game I've tried, and after a local gamer did Hastings 1066 using Lion Rampant with some house rules, I was sold. It's hella simple, easy to teach, very popular, and it's easy to bolt on house rules and invent new unit types. I'm experimenting with my own adaptations to make it do real historical battles that feel "big" using my 15mm miniatures. Email me at warlord@ixtraneous.net and I'll send you my draft copies of experimental rules. Caveat: all my rules are untested, so don't steal my cattle or besiege my castle if they turn out to suck.

- Ix

Yellow admiral

I played a lot from dba 2.2 to 3.0. 3 actually is better for medieval.

I also like your comments about ADLG, I just add that I found the lack of recoil mechanism inADLG a bout of a downer.

Captain Carter – there is some specialist medieval war games society in UK – can't remember their name, Lance and Longbow society or something – but they have specialist rules for medieval. Never played them but people speak highly of them.

It just so happens I played a HYW themed game of FOG this past weekend: HYW English vs Italian Condotta. 800 points a side and we finished in 2hr 45mn. I have played DBM, DBA, ADLG, Might of Arms and FOG in my ancients/medieval gaming and have found FOG gives me a better vibe for the period and the game. V3 of FOG plays faster and is bloodier in the impact phase speeding play. While my longbow shooting was abysmal (my die rolling has historically been bad with any kind of foot bow), the longbow fought long and hard in the trenches (so to speak) against heavy foot and knights eventually wearing the Italians down for a hard fought win. A photo AAR coming later this week.

If you want a faster play version of FOG on a smaller table check out my blog for FOG 300.

link

Tactica Medieval

Hagar, I'm just getting back to the hobby after a bit of a hiatus and rebuilding my collection which was decimated. I just got a copy of DBA 2.2 and it looks good, some improvements from DBA 1.0, for Dark Ages and earlier. Could you give a brief outline of the differences between DBA 2.2 and DBA 3.0? re: Medieval