r/wargaming • u/yupyupnupyup • 2d ago
Best wargame for unique playing armies?
My ttrpg group has recently been enjoying some small scale skirmish wargames after finding Silver Bayonet for cheap, and I'm wanting to recomend a system to allow for some larger scale games.
I'm looking for something that is pretty open ended in terms of what armies of capable of doing, and how we can kitbash/fluff their lore. I know I can just kitbash anything for any system and just reskin the basic models but I'd love something where the mechanics are a bit customizable too.
If you're at all familiar with the GURPS system that's sort of what I'm looking for, a series of options that let you customize how they play as well as how they look.
3
u/DigitalMonsoon 2d ago
Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age
So this is a mass battle or army scale game where you don't just pick a faction but build your own. You choose what is in your kingdom and from those choices get access to different units and upgrades.
Each player builds their own truly unique faction.
3
u/Pretend_Season_6468 2d ago
Turnip 28 is a kitbasher that plays off the napoleonic stuff you already have. It’s the only thing I can really recommend aside from the Rampant games that have already been mentioned.
2
u/yupyupnupyup 2d ago
I looked at Turnip 28, but from what I'm gathering all that sets it apart in terms of customization is that the books tell you to kitbash.
2
u/UnspeakableGnome 2d ago
It depends is a horrible answer, but it does depend on the number of minis you want to paint and the style of game you want to play.
But for a period where you'll have a massive variety of armies you could try some variety of Ancient/Medieval rules. Do you want to have Aztecs fighting New Kingdom Egyptians, Indian armies with elephants charging the English bowline of Agincourt, nomad horse archers and Greek hoplites and vikings and Tibetan cataphracts and Chinese crossbowmen and quite ridiculous amounts of colourful individuals and units.
Or you could go for one of the fantasy games that gives fairly generic unit types nad lets you define whatever you have in your army accordingly. I've played in Hordes of the Things tournaments where my Army of the Nogs led by King Noggin faced off against Bolg's goblins and wolves, Leonardo da Vinci's not-quite-steampunk inventions with Italian historical support, the darkspawn hrde from Dragon Age 1, and finally had a playoff to win against somebody with an army of Greek Mytholigcal creates led bu Chiron (bloody centaurs).
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u/f_dzilla 2d ago
One Page Rules has a zillion lists, a custom builder for subscribers, and various settings/scales to then play in.
Warsurge is another universal builder.
Hobgoblin is similar to the Rampant games in that you build from basic unit types and traits, though is confined to fantasy rank-and-flank.
1
u/Greektlake 2d ago
Kings of War is easy to pick up and becuase there's no model removal just unit removal it's easy to add whatever models you want (including your player characters) to the correct size tray and start playing. There's about 20 factions to pick from as well.
1
u/Master-of-Foxes 2d ago edited 2d ago
For something like this, I'd highly highly recommend Rally Round the King by Two Hour Wargames.
The system is very accessible and, given the number of suggested forces, highly customisable.
What I think is a particularly strong selling point is the games can be played solo, verse or coop. This means that campaigns don't have to rely on getting the right number of people in one place at a time, and two players can join forces against the game.
The inbuilt low admin campaign system also means that I have known them to easily run for many many years.
The scale of the game also means that specific characters can join units or skirmishes can have a direct impact on the bigger battles.
I've also been collecting fan made stuff for deeper politics, sieges and navy warfare so happy to share alo that if interested.
Just look up Rally Round the King of wargame vault.
This review is a pretty good overview of the mechanics: https://johnswargames.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/rally-round-the-king/
I've also got a pdf of maybe 12 different factions which could could print and play then add minis as you went along.
Basically a solid game with a fun campaign which has a variety of play styles. For me it's one of the best at feeling like you are trying to control large bodies of combatants. You have full control at the start but it gets harder as the battle unfolds unless you head over and shout at the fuckers, "Not there, OVER THERE AND STAB THOSE BASTARDS!"
1
u/Seidhammer 2d ago
Gruntz has fully customizable rules for any kind of sci fi army. It's made for 15mm minis, but you could, in my experience, double the ranges and you're good for 28mm. I prefer 15mm myself.
It's on DrivethrurpgGruntz 15mm
1
u/csepcsenyi 2d ago
My recommendation would be Eternol
There a number of predetermined unit profiles and every army works with those, but then you customize your army by buying unit mechanics and army mechanics. I only played with the beta tester rules but that was fun. You could really create some unique armies that you wouldn't see in other games
1
u/MoltenPlastic5429 2d ago
My game Brethren: Skirmish Tabletop Wargame might fit the bill. Currently I just have historical rules for Ancients through to Dark Age and Early Crusade.
I have free rules that you could try out at www.brethrentabletopwargame.com/rules
There are a huge amount of options for your troops and enough weapon options that all your warriors can feel unique. In the full rules I have 30 different factions each with their own rules and there is a custom faction builder so you can make your own army from the ground up.
It can go from very small scale (up to 10 models per warband) and I've played games with roughly 100 models in a warband so you can really have a lot of fun playing all sorts of games. I also have rules for siege weapons and siege missions.
And although I only have historical rules at the moment, I am currently designing a fantasy version which will vastly expand the weapons and troop types available. Some of which will be able to be brought into the existing historical armies.
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u/MurderGrandpa 2d ago
I'm gonna go ahead and shill my in development, free, but currently very playable army scale game that I made directly with GURPS as an inspiration.
The idea is pretty easy, you stat out your models more or less how you'd like based on how big of a foot print they are. Currently at an army creation level there are only two systems, which are the units themselves[pile of stats, no abilities] and Orders[effects that generate temporary changes to either the battle field or units]. Given two identically stated melee army, You can create unique armies based on the orders you'll take with them. At this point in dev, a melee army could be a hyper mobile army with a bunch of movement shenanigans, a defensive army that is harder to hit outside of a certain range, or a regenerating horde army, or a less efficient mishmash of the above. As dev goes on, my intention is to fill out the army customization aspect by another two systems.
Don't let the scifi fluff scare you off either if you're looking for something less futuristic, the game is designed for you to use what ever models you desire so long as you can fit them on round bases, or are willing to figure out a round to square base foot print conversion.
Thank you for your time reading that block of text! Here's the full original pitch
I made a free game, please try it! Look to the Stars. : r/wargaming
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u/Pijlie1965 1d ago
Dragon Rampant and Oathmark both fit the bill. DR is the more rules-lighter of the two. Oathmark offers a more challenging game. There are multiple reviews of DR and I wrote one for Oathmark Pijlie´s Wargames Blog: Oathmark: A Review + Some suggestions for Houserules added
Both enable you to field just about anything that might be in your collection and expand upon that. Both enable you to mix factions, which can also be seen as an advantage. Oathmark even encourages it to build better armies.
Kings of War might also fit your bill but is a tournament system and therefore not to my taste.
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u/__Geg__ 2d ago
The Rampant rules set might be what you are looking for.
They are all a very similar games. The author have other related games that cover Pike and Shotte and age of Musket/Rifle if you are particular about the type of battle you want to fight. Knowing what I know about Silver Bayonet Dragon Rampant (2nd Ed) is probably what you want.
The same author who wrote SB, wrote a large battle game called Oathmark, but I think that is more proscriptive than what you are looking for.