Re: The Baron's War
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:12 am
FFoL - small skirmish, ‘sides’’ are small gangs, 1 character and 4/5 minions with maybe 4-6 sides. There isn’t a specific medieval version but it’s fairly simple to set one up using the base rules:
https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/colle ... oad-it-now
There’s also a new Bigger Battles variant that I’ve bought but haven’t used yet.
Lion Rampant - bigger battles, a retinue is around 6 units (6 or 12 figures per unit) and you can get away with 3 retinues a side without problem. The Osprey blurb suggests they are For ‘small’ games but I confess to being puzzled by that - unless they are used to bigger battles being 1,000 a side:
https://ospreypublishing.com/lion-rampa ... ming-rules
Fairly simple rules, quite fast play. One factor that seems to annoy people about them is that you can lose most of your turn if you fail certain critical rolls, but really that just means you need to select your units most likely to succeed first in the turn and save the weaker units for the end of the turn.
Footsore Baron’s War - haven’t tried them yet, but based on my experience of the Samurai rules they seemed to rely too much on luck (and this from a player that likes luck, chaos and frustration in his rulesets!). I think they tend to smaller games, a bit similar to FFoL.
Never Mind the Bannerets - haven’t even read these yet, but the WotR original ‘Billhooks’ came free with WI and my one test game seemed to work well. Bigger battles, along the lines of Lion Rampant, they do seem to have become quite popular quite quickly and are getting nicely supported. Unit sizes around 8 mounted, 12 foot.
https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/nev ... billhooks/
And Cry Havoc was a brilliant little system, 1 man = 1 figure, just a handful of figures a side with some nice map-based terrain to fight over. It would get you into the period/game very quickly. I can’t remember if I’ve still got mine or it went in the big sale - must go down into the lower basement and see if it’s still there.
https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/colle ... oad-it-now
There’s also a new Bigger Battles variant that I’ve bought but haven’t used yet.
Lion Rampant - bigger battles, a retinue is around 6 units (6 or 12 figures per unit) and you can get away with 3 retinues a side without problem. The Osprey blurb suggests they are For ‘small’ games but I confess to being puzzled by that - unless they are used to bigger battles being 1,000 a side:
https://ospreypublishing.com/lion-rampa ... ming-rules
Fairly simple rules, quite fast play. One factor that seems to annoy people about them is that you can lose most of your turn if you fail certain critical rolls, but really that just means you need to select your units most likely to succeed first in the turn and save the weaker units for the end of the turn.
Footsore Baron’s War - haven’t tried them yet, but based on my experience of the Samurai rules they seemed to rely too much on luck (and this from a player that likes luck, chaos and frustration in his rulesets!). I think they tend to smaller games, a bit similar to FFoL.
Never Mind the Bannerets - haven’t even read these yet, but the WotR original ‘Billhooks’ came free with WI and my one test game seemed to work well. Bigger battles, along the lines of Lion Rampant, they do seem to have become quite popular quite quickly and are getting nicely supported. Unit sizes around 8 mounted, 12 foot.
https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/nev ... billhooks/
And Cry Havoc was a brilliant little system, 1 man = 1 figure, just a handful of figures a side with some nice map-based terrain to fight over. It would get you into the period/game very quickly. I can’t remember if I’ve still got mine or it went in the big sale - must go down into the lower basement and see if it’s still there.