"Favorite Mass Battle Rules for Ancients & Medievals...." Topic

Im curious as to what your current pick is for mass battle rules. Im looking at brands that can or do cover both Ancients & Medievals. Figure scale does not matter.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Warmaster Ancients

To the Strongest!

I played WRG Ancients exclusively.
But that was in my tedious phase of recording all casualties and removing figures when you hit 20.
That was when I thought that adding 10 positive factors and subtracting 10 negative factors before rolling the dice was "realistic".
That was when at the Thursday Night Rules Seminar, it was considered proper to compare postmarks on the Letters from Phil to clarify rulings about "the most extensively playtested set of rules ever." For a .3 upgrade to the nth edition.

So, I'm a bitter cynic regarding Ancients rules, and sold all my armies. I now play exclusively "inadequate" rules, with spears only being used to steady muskets.

We mostly play Hail Ceaser with a bunch of house mods.

Tactica
and Armati

To the Strongest!

To my great surprise…Midgard!

Hail Caesar is the only set I've played. Really not an era that I find of much interest,

Currently,I as well am playing Hail Caesar with 28mm minis.

I've recently picked up Milites Mundi & Sword & Spear to give a try with 15mm minis. Looking forward to trying both.

De Bellis Magistrorum Militum (affectionally known as DBMM)

DBA Big Battle

Tactica II.

DBMM

I'm the odd one out….. use Clash of Empires (COE) for large battle 28mm scenarios. Did Dara 530 AD, Late Rome vs. Sassanids, two weeks ago. Over 1100 painted 25/28mm miniatures in play for 5 hours of gaming. Doesn't have all the special rules like HC for super leaders, or large unit movements, for example. Simple, straight forward, and similar to the old WAB Ver1.0/1.5 in design so no re-basing or unit miniature reconfigurations. Plus converted the COE game for both sides turn interactions vs. the old WAB IGO/YGO format. Keeps both player sides involved.

DBA with DBF

Fields of Glory V3. Many find it a bit on the tedious, more detailed side, but I like the way games play out. The gaming collective is pulling me into Warmaster Ancients. Tt's not my favorite, but it works, and you can play it with a two cocktail handicap.

pjm

BB-DBA. Or anything that might get me a game.

Spear and Shield, the original Aussie one, not the later one. Very old school now, but they work.

ADLG

To the Strongest!

I second DBF/BB-DBA.

Great games. The changes in DBF are really nice additions.

Joe Collins

+1 Parzival Warmaster ancient

tbh Lost Battles, but we mainly play Command and Colours Ancients (and Medieval) f2f.

To the Strongest seemd to be very popular but it didn't gell for me.

Home brew although I want to try Crusader rules.

I've evolved from Warmaster through Warhammer ancients, Tactica, Field of Glory and Hail Caesar (club games, almost exclusively); right now Midgard provides the club's rules of choice.