Fantastic Battles

[Tim Snoddy]

I recently bought Fantastic Battles by Nic Wright.  Not had a chance to play obviously but much impressed after a read through and observing a game pre lock down.  This is a game about big battles where one unit represents hundreds if not thousands of combatants.  There are numerous army lists in the rule book but you can build your own units from a base of seven unit types and a ton of traits.  It also works for pseudo historical games and numerous historical armies are included.  It is a stripped down set of rules allowing for pretty fast play but still with plenty of tactical depth.  It is scale and figure agnostic but you need a play area 30x 20 of the width of one of your units. If you are looking for a replacement for Hordes of the Things or Dragon Rampant with more depth this could well be what you are looking for.  Available from Amazon and wargames vault.

[Andrew Beasley]

Tim Snoddy wrote:

…This is a game about big battles where one unit represents hundreds if not thousands of combatants…

This always bugs me about ‘fantasy’ rules – unless you have a decent campaign system that allows for population growth / recruiting / mercenaries that for me its more a ‘does that pile look correct’ than number of troops 🙂 I never found one and it sounds like an excersies a math teacher would give out now.

I think over the years I’ve gotten more cynical about figures = troops and find myself drawn more an more to 10mm / 6mm / 3 or 2mm figures and basic blocks representing units.

[Tim Snoddy]

When I say the game is big battle what I mean is the rules reflect the size of the units involved.  So units are restricted in how they can move and things like outflanking and hitting on a flank are important.

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

These look very interesting! Thank you for bringing them to my attention. What is the basing system, if you don’t mind?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[ian pillay]

Tim, great find thank you for giving an overview of these rules. I’ve ordered a copy based on this as a Christmas present to myself.

Are there any blogs or websites with more about the game?

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Tim Snoddy]

Thaddeus Blanchette wrote:

These look very interesting! Thank you for bringing them to my attention. What is the basing system, if you don’t mind?

The suggested basing is dependent on scale, 40mm frontage for up to 15mm figures, 60mm frontage for larger scales.  Depth is unimportant.  As long as both armies have units with the same frontage you could use any size you prefer.  The only limiting factor being you need a battlefield 20x unit width across and 30x unit width wide.  So 800mm x 1200mm for 40mm frontage.  Alas my 28mm KOW stuff on 100mm frontage don’t work without halving move rates and working with smaller armies

ian pillay wrote:

Tim, great find thank you for giving an overview of these rules. I’ve ordered a copy based on this as a Christmas present to myself. Are there any blogs or websites with more about the game?

The author has a blog here Irregular Wars.blogspot.com  There are also two pages on Facebook one for the author and one for players which he answers any questions on, just search fantastic battles.

 

[Mike6t3]

There is a Facebook Group (Fantastic Battles) and the Authors Blog http://irregularwars.blogspot.com/2020/05/introducing-irregular-wars-fantastic.html

I’ve got a copy of the rules and they look interesting. Not had a chance to play as I don’t have enough painted minis yet but once my current project is finished I’ll probably get an army done for these.

Mike

 

 

 

Get there fastest with the mostest and roll highest.

Mike

[Mike6t3]

Looks like Tim beat me to it !  😊😊

Get there fastest with the mostest and roll highest.

Mike

[ian pillay]

The book arrived a week or so ago and I’ve now managed to read through the rules. I must say I am really impressed. I love the pre battle set up and the art work. I think that the army lists and the builder is great, the 3 traits are a nice touch. Looking forward to having a game or two in the New Year with my warmaster armies. I think the rules will work quite nicely for solo games.

 

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Nic Wright]

Hi folks,

For anybody interested, there are now a couple of videos up on Youtube looking at army building and a couple of example turns etc.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsl6S1gPVZHbxJ-8G5SBH1v7rabdAcutS

Cheers,

Nic

http://irregularwars.blogspot.co.uk/

[Author]

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