"For freeform campaigns, HotT or FR! TCE? Similar boardgame?" Topic

I'd like to have a quick-playing campaign with fairly generic simple rules for the battle. I've got older versions of HotT and FR!, and have been thinking of picking up either 2nd ed HotT or TCE for FR!. However, I'll be playing with wooden pieces, like a boardgame on a stylized battlefield. I'm usually interested in both gaming and modeling, but this is a gaming project. It came back to mind recently when I was playing the old Ancients boardgame with my son. That game is played on a hex board with chits representing light infantry, heavy infantry, light cavalry, knights, etc. There is a very simple point system. It is just a bit fiddly, though.

(I've also considered Warmaster, and would more if it had a generic armies system along the line of HotT.)

The plan is to get some bases of the appropriate size (all 40mm square for FR! TCE, the usual standards for HotT), glue on a bit to help pick them up, spray paint them in red and blue, and work out a way to label them (maybe with flags on pins) to tell them apart, and use them as playing pieces.

We'd want easy/fun/flexible army design. I like what I've heard about FR! TCE, and HotT has been used for nearly everything. I want armies to be themed as typical for these games, where fantasy campaign games have given the impression of being a bit of a mish-mash. (I'll have some dwarf fighters and some elf archers and some human knights and a flying griffin.) But I don't mind if these themed armies are based on generic types.

Considering both the design-and-campaign game that I'm thinking of, and how these will work with labeled playing pieces on a board (I'm thinking of foam or felt layers for hills, forests, etc), does either game seem to recommend itself?

Or suggestions for a board game? I'm going to take another look at Battlelore now that I think about it.

andy

I can not speak for Hott, but I can speak for TCE. I like it very much, and the price is right. You can use any thing for minis.

Noel

For the "Over Game" Wizard Kings or Victory from Columbia are worth looking at. Any of the systems like HotT, FR!CTE or Warmaster would be good.

If you can find it the old SPI PRESTAGS games, they are good too.

Battlelore is a great game, but it doesn't have the mishmash theme you want. It's set in a fantasy version of the 100 Years War, with men (French and English), dwarves and goblins. The goblins are mercenaries hired by the English, while the dwarves are essentially Scots allied with France. The basic game also comes with one giant spider, and for a while a hill giant was offered as a premium. I don't know whether it's available separately. Although the system is versatile (essentially the same as Memoir '44 and Command & Colors: Ancients), the forces are a little limited for that grand fantasy feel.

Warmaster is a good option, and if you want a more classic feel, pick up the Battle of the Five Armies boxed set, which has all the classic Tolkien races: men, elves, dwarves, goblins/orcs, wargs, eagles & Beorn the werebear, and the heroes & Gandalf, plus the stats for spiders, bats, elven cavalry, generic wizards/shamans/elf mages, giants, trolls, and a firebreathing dragon. Copplestone is a good source for additional troops when you do go the minis route, and any 15mm dragon will stand in pretty well for Smaug (or a wyrm of your choice). It's also not too hard to develop your own stats and abilities for any non-Tolkien fantasy elements you care to add. As it is, even straight Warmaster can be interpreted generically enough, as the unit stats are more about "battlefield impact" than the more WYSWYG approach of Warhammer.

Although it isn't tactical, you might enjoy Tom Wham's Kings and Things( link ), originally produced as a Dragon magazine game called King of the Tabletop (my copy), which is supposed to be reprinted this year. (Page 15 in this PDF newsletter from the publisher: PDF link )

To be clear, I don't want the "mish-mash". :) That referred to my impressions (perhaps wrong) of games I never got because it looked like you pick from lists of fantasy standards, rather than using generic types to represent those standards.

I've looked at Wizard Kings in the past.

Oh, and I did just order FR TCE.

thanks,

andy

"FR TCE"?

Chipco's Fantasy rules tournament and campaign. I simple version of the full rules. I think they are a great rule set on there own.

I like simple. :)

I sent my PDF to Staples' copy center using their online form, printing black and white with coil binding, a printed cover, and a plastic cover on that. It cost $4.50.

Color would have been a lot more.

andy

>Chipco's Fantasy rules tournament and campaign.

People should note there are zero campaign rules in this set.

still FR: TCE would work. it has more diversity in the design stage then HoT and is still pretty wasy. possibly the individual heroe would not go so well with your approach though? (depicting them w/o minis would be not so easy).

could use the campaign rules from the HoTT book you have.

TCE dose not have rules for campaign, but it dose give you some ideas for a campaign. It gives you and easy system for a campaign.

Noel