"Suggest a rules set please" Topic

I have a collection of 28mm fantasy, at the moment mostly based on 80mm frontages. Am looking for rules to play a mass battle game with maybe 30 or so stands a side, Where rolling buckets of dice is not necessary and is fast playing (maybe 2 hours to complete a battle) but still has detail that gives flavour to the Different races, characters artillery and monsters. Don't want overly powerful magic and would be happy if magic perhaps only had psychological effects. Is there anything suitable?

Dragon Rampant. We use multi based stands and it work fine. Inexpensive, widely played, fast and fun.

Thanks.

John

You can check out Rally Round the King from Two Hour Wargames and Rebel Minis: rebelminis.com/rarokip.html

I'll post an inquiry on their forums so someone more knowledgeable should chime in soon.
link

2nd Dragon Rampant

Triumph is what I am using for historical and we are currently working on the draft rules for fantasy.

We use 80mm bases for our 28mm figures.

Magic, characters, and monsters will be included, they will add flavor but not overwhelm or shift the focus from a mass combat battle system.

Magic tends to provide a buff to existing troop type.

Dragon rampant seems to be the flavour of the month right now but, from your description, I don't think it really fits what you are after. I'd say from your criteria Hordes of the Things with double AP armies would be a better fit.

Sword & Spear Fantasy fits your requirements, although 30 units a side would be a big battle and would go a bit longer than 2 hours. You could make each unit 2 of your 80mm frontage stands, and that would give you 15 units a side which is more of a typical size game.

Shadow Storm is due for release shortly. An easy fun game that will handle your requirements, the original was an adaptation of Hail Caesar but the soon to be released rules are stand alone in their own right. I have play tested them in a general fantasy and Lord of the Rings environment and they played well. If you can have a look through "Tales of the Wargames Shed" on Facebook for a few games,

Tally Ho!

Thud and Blunder.

link

Matthew

Rally Round the King is perfect for what you want. Covers everything you asked for plus has a full Campaign system.

rebelminis.com/rarokip.html

Playable with any figures however based. Playable in two hours or less (as are all Two Hour Wargames) easily even with 30 stands.

30 lists with 7 to 8 different Races. Have Magic rules set for big battles. And designed for solo play – not a game that "can be played solo".

Also doesn't cost an arm and a leg. :)

Warband Fantasy might fit your request – element based without buckets of dice.

link

Hott is another good suggestion for an element based game without buckets of dice, just scale it twofold from 40mm frontages.

Thanks for all the responses. I'll give rally round the king a look.

I played HOTT many years ago, but in the end found too many "gamey" manoeuvring options when playing against other players. Love RRTK which is what I use now.

It does take time to read the rules, and there are a couple of typos in the examples, and the support is great from both the author and the other players in the forums. It's Two Hour Wargames, so fits your description perfectly :-)

The army lists provide a basic 200 point army which would give you from 5 (Mountain Giants) to 18 (Hun-alikes or Centaurs) units, and its easy to add more. Typical games use 400 points so around 30 units a side is about right.

As well as regular combat there are rules for spellcasting, flyers, heroes, mercenaries, magical artifacts and so on…

Have fun :-)