"Fistfull of Miniatures - What can those Rules Do?" Topic

and again.. searching for the grail, err.. ..perfect rules set.

i am talking about the "classic", not the new rules. the new rules were a big disappointment, as they are not really usable with anything (except the most bland stuff – spartan hoplites and dark ages and the like…) as they are.
what kind of monsters dothe rules provide for? special rules for things like moving through terrain easily for certain troop types etc.?
most important: where are the gaps, what is not covered?

(i am NOT talking about what could easily be aded or solved with special rules, i am interested in what is in the rules)

any help with this is greatly appreciated.

I thought the old rules were bland as well. Just allowed you to play huge battles quickly.

The old rules have stuff for elves, dwarves, undead, dragons, giants, and a few more. The magic is rather basic, wizards give bonuses to nearby friendly stands. But there is a small list of spells that they could have in the optional rules section.
But you really should get both books if your going to use the older game. For A Few Miniatures More adds in rules for elephants, chariots, and war engines (catapults and such).
I have not looked at the new edition, so I can't compare. But A Fistfull Of Miniatures has been one of my favorite games for years.

thanks a lot.

unfortunately i got the new book and that is just not very usefull.
do the old rules have a point creation system?

I thought the old rules were bland as well.

I'm not sure what you are really looking for if you thought the old rules were bland. Ancient Warfare, in reality, was probably pretty bland judging from the description of most battles. You lined up and attacked the other side without too much maneuvering. The maneuvering started when one side or the other saw the oppertunity. The successful generals (Caesar, Alexander) were the ones that made the most out of these oppertunities.

@hwarang
The old rules have everything you could want to fight all things ancient and medieval. There are, as mentioned already, rules for elves, dwarves, orcs etc as well as monsters and dragons. The supplement adds rules for pikes and adds another grade of armor. There are some "advanced" rules for skirmishers too.

The new version allows you to do a good many things with regards to basic armies. No pike abilities so hellenistic armies are out. No elephants so Carthaginian armies with elephants are out. You could do stuff like Rome vs Gaul or early hoplite warfare pretty easily.

There is a points system in the old rules.

I'm not sure what you are really looking for if you thought the old rules were bland.

The one looking for the info isn't the one who made the "bland" comment about the older edition.

The one looking for the info isn't the one who made the "bland" comment about the older edition.

It's true! But surely he must be looking for something in an ancient rules set?!

first, thanks for all the answers.

exactly what you mentioned John: no pikes, no elephants, no black powder, no mixed units (immortals) etc. so many parts of ancients and medieval are unplayable. i think i stated that the less fancy historics could be done.

as i mentioned, i believe the rules have potential. they are not bad at all, just not complete enough and i dont want to make everything up.

but, more importantly, they (the new rules) are useless for fantasy (i posted in the fantasy section).

i want maximum flexibility for fantasy, the rules have to allow me to build what *i* want, not to squeeze my thoughts into a category they made up. (for example, i believe HoTT to be inflexible, FR! to be medium flexible, high flexibility is anything more flexible than FR!. actually i am not aware of such a rules set)

for example, could you make every unit a flyer with the old rules?

for example, could you make every unit a flyer with the old rules?

The points system is pretty flexible. You have basic unit types and then give them add-ons that increase the cost.

The game has Gargoyles and Dragons as the few flying units. There is no point cost listed for flight but you could extrapolate the rough cost per stand. A gargoyle fights as light infantry. Light infantry cost 3. Gargoyles cost 7. The cost of flight must be 4 per stand.

Like with FR!, I'd be really careful using flight. It is very hard to quantify the cost so too many units that can fly will likely spoil the game.

yes.. but if it would about work, then that is great… a bit of work is ok. i think i will giove it a try.

thank you John. very helpful as always.

You can try Armies of Arcana that has a great point system.

i played AoA a few days ago again (after a few years) and really came to hate it. the movement and the absence of anything like zones of control is silly.

I'm curious what you hated about the movement in AoA? It's my favourite game right now but I realise it's not for everyone.

i think it is way too easy to get into flanks and rears. lack of zone-of-control rules combined with this "move 1/4 then declare charges, have more than half of your models out of a 45 degree arc" rule plus the ability to move at 45 degrees obliquely means that sliuding into someones flank from an original position directly in fronmt of him is very simple. (wow.. dont know if that even is a sdentence ^^)
also i believe that terrain should be handled differently for light and for heavy troops – allowing everyone to skirmish is off too.
cavalry is too fast proportionally.
AoA probably still is one ofthe better warhammer-style games out there, i do not contest that..

Thanks for the reply, hwarang. I see where you're coming from even if I don't see your examples as game breakers for myself.

@ hwarang, I personally like these rules as I met one person who adapted his groups own point scale for each base and used it for their own games. I like the fact that there are no super heros who carve they way thru the army and that bowfire will only remove one stand at a time. One thing I can suggest :
is you cut down on the amount of +1 generals,
Use banners as a +1 only for morale checks,
limit or define what is heavy cavalry, vunder weapons, etc

Have fun and good luck.

I still have plenty copies of these rules, including the only supplement I know of called "For a few miniatures more"

Very basic older rules, not bad just basic designed more for playing huge piles of figures that anything else.

link

I remember when I was Lord Solarcaine, King of the Elves in the A Fistfull of Miniatures Marnon campaign. Now that I have introduced my self I must say this game was a great introduction to wargaming for me. I tried playing the more favored and more complex games that everybody thought were best like WRG but there were too many problems with them like excessive factors like charts and special rules for special situations to keep track of that slowed the game down, and the "Rules Lawyers" who's twisted interpretations which caused half of the time playing in twisted debate arguing about what every single rule really meant.