Legendary Battles

I've given Legendary Battles a good read, but I have (as of now) only solo'ed a couple of small engagements. My initial impression of these rules is very favorable, especially for an historical mini's gamer looking for a fantasy ruleset. There is not a lot of wild and wooly stuff in the rules, very straightforward. They are definitely worth the price, and seem to have an excellently balanced point system.

What they do not address are fantastic creatures, large monsters, etc. I have been playing larger critters as multiple 'regular dudes' eg: I play an ogre figure as four elite heavy infantry, and pay the points.

For Warhammer players, this is not the ruleset if you like the GW style "cartoon" battles. A typical WHFB army would be very top heavy in characters and magic, as far as I can tell.

I have the rules, but I don't use them. That should let you know what I think of them... :-)

Legendary Battles is one of these frustrating games which almost Does The Right Thing, but falls short. First, the good points:

• This is an extremely quick, easy game system which nonetheless manages to provide a satisfactory gaming feel.
• The scalable armies are great for those players on a budget.
• The enforced troop types and minimums are great if you want to play one of the six listed armies.

On the other hand:

• From the design notes on the back: "The army lists are perfectly balanced after literally millions of computer simulation."

  This has a major flaw, aside from being horribly pretentious: no details are given of the computer model used, so it is impossible to determine if he missed something in his model.

  Also, this is all fine and wonderful if you use their army lists. I, on the other hand, want to use my fast-play fantasy miniatures games for my own settings -- many of which have armies which don't fit the molds of those supplied. A points value system, or some details of the simulation model, would go a long way toward allowing "perfectly balanced" extensions to the existing army lists. (To the pedants out there, I am perfectly aware of the point values listed. They are, however, purely composite point listings. You could not make your own troop types from those lists without a lot of work -- too much for a fast-play "beer and pretzels" game.)

• The game has no real fantasy flavour other than a few names and a horrid set of (optional) magic rules tacked on to the end. It feels like a pretty competently executed quick-play medieval system. It would be almost completely useless, however, for simulating many, if not most, of the battles depicted in the pages of fantasy literature! Where are the flying creatures? Where are creatures of any sort, for that matter? Where are the mighty, powerful legions of the undead? I'm not even certain that the rules could support Tolkien's "Battle of Five Armies" from The Hobbit.