I wanted to like The Old World, I really did but try as I might I find that it is far too bloated with special rules. I would not mind so much if so many of them were not very similiar but different. I also found that for a game intended to be about the back and forth of infantry lines that infantry, with a few exceptions, are pretty sub optimal in most cases. in fact it got so bad that a new supplement containing a re set to make infantry viable was needed.
For me, what makes this all the worse is that in London, where I call home, it has a huge player base and getting a game seems easy especially compared with historical.
So looking at the options for a 28mm rank and flank game with blocks of infantry the options are
1) play an earlier edition of WFB.
I am quite happy to play 6th, 7th or 8th. Though certain army books seem to vary tremendously from edition to the next in terms of how good the army actually is. Take High Elves for example, the 6th ed army list requires you to focus on cavalry, chariots and war machines as the infantry are fragile and infective, whereas in 8th, the infantry is still fragile but can dish out damage and rewards skill and careful deployment and manoeuvre. The difficulty is finding players. I am led to believe that somewhere on Facebook there is a community of 6th ed atavists but I am loathe to use Facebook
2) Oathmark, This seems the most generic of all rank and flank systems but seems to cover a lot of the troops and armies from Warhammer. As a second edition is set for a release next year I will wait till then
3) One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Regiments
Pretty much covers all the armies in one place. Though some of the armies are a bit small. Seems to be units capped at 5 or 10 which does not work for me.( I run my Dwarves in 20-25 figure blocks)
4) FireForge Forgotton Worlds
This seems to have been eclipsed with few comments or discussion.
5) Conquest Last Argument of Kings
An interesting game with interesting mechanics and looking at the armies they are very much tied into a proprietary setting rather than being a Warhammer clone or ultra generic ( and good for them for doing their own thing)
6_ DBX type games
The various HOT DBF things. These never excited me, too abstract, top down and not crunchy enough for me.
7) Kings of War,
I played it and was not impressed.
Are there any other in print 28mm Fantasy Rank and Flank Options I have missed? Things like Saga or Dragon Rampant do not really tick the box here as those are more warband or large skirmish type of games.
