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Before delving into historical games I wanted to know what the best rules set is. I'm not looking for anything too specific just something that 28mm and can be used for both ancient and medevial gaming.

Also any game that has Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire fan-made content is a plus. I've been trying to wargame asoif for the longest time.

Skirmish or mass battle?

Well, Kings of War has a bunch of historical "Modfications" that may suit your purposes.

There's also Hail Caesar, though that's probably a bit less portable,

Mass Battles, I wanna fight big epic battles.

What about scale? 6 mm, 15 mm, 28 mm or something else entirely?

Deffinatly 28mm

Cool, you'll probably love Hail Caesar then. Whilst it's probably not very adaptable to Game of Thrones, you can get some very good and cheap models, it's a solid ruleset and it's most of all fun!

http://www.warlordgames.com/store/hail-caesar.html

If you can find them, either 6th or 7th edition WRG

I hear that it's quite clunky though?

What's WRG? I've been looking at Hail Cesar and on there web site there isn't too many armies (what I like about historicals is the sheer volume of playable armies) are there more armies lists than they make products for?

There are 2 pages of additional discussion here.

I have the first army list book that they published (just got it last week, actually), and while I haven't thumbed through it all, there certainly seems like there are more potential armies than what they currently make models for.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There are 2 pages of additional discussion here.

I have the first army list book that they published (just got it last week, actually), and while I haven't thumbed through it all, there certainly seems like there are more potential armies than what they currently make models for.

There are many companies making appropriate figures, I wouldn't worry too much about 'official' figures.

 thewisewizard wrote:
Deffinatly 28mm

Hail Caesar will fit your needs then, they have very good supplements that allows you to make armies that would go well with Game Of Thrones, but they do require a fair amount of models though

CptJake wrote:
There are many companies making appropriate figures, I wouldn't worry too much about 'official' figures.

I wish more people would wake up to this, and break out of the system gaming box.

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
I hear that it's quite clunky though?

Not more than any "serious" mass battle game, really. I speak as a veteran. Though they have been OOP for decades, so...

I would advise looking at De Bellis Antiquitatis, and Hordes of the Things for the fantasy connection. DBA allows you to use only 12 units, however you can play the big battle version which allows for 36 units.

If you build armies for those rules they will be compatible with more or less any non WHAB type of mass battle game.

Field of Glory is one of the popular modern sets.

Really you need to see what your possible fellow players are using. There is no point in making an army and using rules that no-one else wants to play.

Indeed, but they pop up on ebay from time to time, and both sets are well worth at least trying - 6th ed in particular for the poetry of the reaction test table.

DBA is a solid choice for things like pick up games

Hail Caesar is fun Beer and Pretzel Style, for the longest time it used no real "army list". I guess the army list books help make it more pick upy but it seems to still favor "agreed armies" amongst friends. Though of course it depends. Good ruleset but bit more free form/open ended

If you can find a copy of Warmaster Ancients and the supplements, it is decent. I would also consider looking at the Command and Colors Ancients board game (you can download the rules for free). Though a board game I've seen a lot of folks use minis to play it and it is a really good game.

Jake

 thewisewizard wrote:
Before delving into historical games I wanted to know what the best rules set is. I'm not looking for anything too specific just something that 28mm and can be used for both ancient and medevial gaming. Also any game that has Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire fan-made content is a plus. I've been trying to wargame asoif for the longest time.

I'm doing exactly that, starting with smaller forces (~45 models) using slightly converted Dux Britanniarum from TFL. And for massed battles I will either build out my 28mm and use Hail Caesar or build 10mm armies to use Warmaster Ancients/Medieval for which other fans have developed ASoIaF translations.

See resources and ideas at my newly launched blog with exactly the same intention you expressed in this post. http://dilettantegamer.blogspot.com/

I was thinking of trying to use saga for smaller games, I know theres already stark and lanister. If anyone knows anything about hail caesar. I was gonna create custom lists for all the great houses and included units and characters from smaller houses into the lists of the great houses they follow. ex. Starks would have mormont, bolton, umber, etc units and characters as part of there list.

 thewisewizard wrote:
I was thinking of trying to use saga for smaller games, I know theres already stark and lanister. If anyone knows anything about hail caesar. I was gonna create custom lists for all the great houses and included units and characters from smaller houses into the lists of the great houses they follow. ex. Starks would have mormont, bolton, umber, etc units and characters as part of there list.

That's the beauty of Hail Caesar in that it allows you to make those sorts of customization without being locked into a rigid schema of points allocations.

 marielle wrote:
Indeed, but they pop up on ebay from time to time, and both sets are well worth at least trying - 6th ed in particular for the poetry of the reaction test table.

I have 5th, 6th, 7th and Warrior in my library. Warrior is 7th taken over by an American outfit. I don't know if it is still in print.

Impetus could be another good option. They have a free "Basic Impetus" ruleset you can try out as well.

Ok so what I've learned about Hail Caesar is that in the main rulebook there are no army lists. There is just a list of basic troop types and a list of special rules so you can build your army to feel like a specific historical fighting force (or potentially the great houses of westeros) can some body elaborate on this?

 Hordini wrote:
Impetus could be another good option. They have a free "Basic Impetus" ruleset you can try out as well.

Yes. Also Basic Impetus uses the standard WRG base sizes making your troops compatible with nearly all mass battle Ancients games except Warhammer. (Warmaster is compatible too.)

 thewisewizard wrote:
Ok so what I've learned about Hail Caesar is that in the main rulebook there are no army lists. There is just a list of basic troop types and a list of special rules so you can build your army to feel like a specific historical fighting force (or potentially the great houses of westeros) can some body elaborate on this?

A lot of historical games are like this, from what I have seen.

The game runs off of "scenarios" basically. There are no points, both players just meet ahead of time (or otherwise communicate) and agree on what forces they will both bring. Sometimes the forces are unbalanced, but as in real life one side can easily be outnumbered and outgunned.

I'm not exactly sure how Hail Caesar does it, I have to look at the rules again it's been a while (been on an Ultra-Modern/Cold War spree lately so Force on Force for me), but I know most games have a scenario that you play (either given in the book or you can make up your own to replicate an actual battle/hypothetical battle) and that scenario has objectives for both sides. So while the forces may be unbalanced, it's not so much the forces that matter so much as if both sides can complete their objectives (AKA: It matters not if the armies are balanced, more so if they objectives are. Don't give one guy significantly easier objectives if he has a much larger army).

Ancients and Mediaeval is a genre with many available army list books in and out of print, if you want lists.

Ok Hail Ceaser seems to be the system for me. I assume if I could just put point costs to basic units that i have assigned special rules i could potentially make a list for any army? I'm pretty sure thats how it works.

 thewisewizard wrote:
Ok Hail Ceaser seems to be the system for me. I assume if I could just put point costs to basic units that i have assigned special rules i could potentially make a list for any army? I'm pretty sure thats how it works.

Pretty much. There is an army list book, that is separate from the rule book. Just assume certain special rules for different armies make fluff sense and are worth X points. Try to keep it fair with your opponent. It's meant to be a free and loose rules system, after all.

You can find a podcast review by Meeples and MIniatures on Hail Caesar and Clash of Empires in this link!

But I'd recommend the point books.

I have been playing FOG since it came out... They released 2.0 rules.. I have yet to try them since then.. I need to pick a set of the new rules. I have moved into FOG:R(field of Glory Renaissance) You can do late 1400's till the late 1600's.. I enjoy the Italian wars.. Also the Thirty years war is great fun too. But I play 15mm with those. Much, much cheaper...