Wanting to start with historical gaming.

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 3]

Hi all. I`m wanting to branch my wargaming into the more historical aspect. I have Bolt Action and I enjoy painting and playing in WWII, but would like to go back further. Do the community have any suggestions for a good game or starter set that is decent? Been looking at SPQR, and I like the Roman era, but also the vikings are interesting.

[torros 23816xp 0]

I was going to ask if you want skirmish games or big games. As you’ve mentioned SPQR I will presume your talking skirmish style games

From what I’ve read and the problems ensued I would say that SPQR is pretty much dead in the water.

Saga is very popular and lots of people on here would recommend it

 

There is a new game Clash of Spears which is delivering the last if it’s Kickstarter pledges . I’m informed it will be up for retail soon. Having played it I can say it has some simple yet interesting mechanics that will keep you  entertained. At the moment the army lists are only covering the Punic period but work is  being done on the dark age period

[khusrauParticipant 1169xp 0]

Well, the most important question I guess, is what are your likely opponents playing?

Secondly, it’s worth thinking about scale (figures), number of troops you would like to see on each side, and whether there are any particular game mechanics you hate.

For what it is worth, I am going to assume you won’t be doing massed battles in 15mm – for which Art d’ la Guerre is popular, as well as ‘To the Strongest’ DBMM, ‘Morte et Gloriam’ and a range of others.

If you elect to use 28mm, (at least you will be able to reuse some Bolt Action terrain, like hedges, trees, rivers and hills 🙂 then there are a couple of older sets – such as Warhammer historical, but I think this is now out of print and ‘Hail Caesar’ which seems to be popular. These are larger scale ‘battle games’ with lots of figures on each side.

In skirmish or large scale skirmish, out of left field, for Vikings etc, SAGA was or is quite popular, using specialised dice and ‘battleboards’ – it is very much on the ‘game’ end of the spectrum versus simulation though. Others in this period include Dux Britanniarum, from Too Fat Lardies, but this is specialised for the period of Briton vs Angles and Saxons after the Romans left Britain. Similar territory is covered in Daniel Mersey’s ‘Dux Bellorum’ (Osprey Books)

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130304/dux-britanniarum

Other worth a look are variants on Lion Rampant (Osprey Books), which does medieval, but can easily be adapted for the ‘Dark Ages’.

Personally, I do ‘big’ historical ancients using 15mm figures and Phil Barker’s DBMM, I play Lion rampant, usually as a club multi-player game, in 28mm, I’ve tried SAGA, but it didn’t feel right to me, and I am now hanging out for the Too Fat Lardies new ancients set ‘Infamy, Infamy’ which does Imperial Romans vs Barbarians.

Really, you are spoiled for choice, so I guess the takeaway is: what do you want from the game?

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 1]

The nice thing about historical games is once you have a force you can find a rule set to suit.

The downside is sometimes because you only have to buy a rule book they can be more expensive.

I have plenty of rules and depending on the size of games and complexity I sometimes will swap between them.

I will say give SPQR a wide berth it’s about to get a revised edition  but I don’t think that will solve it’s issue. Clash of Spears will be in retail from the end of March if you favour ancients go for that. Failing that I would mirror what Khusra said.

If it still seems as clear as mud ask away and someone will answer

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 0]

In my area there is only Warhammer players, but a few are willing to try out skirmish games if I provide the models and ruleset. And I have one friend who will play anything I put in front of him, but we don’t see eachother often. This means I’m mostly looking for something to collect and paint for my own collection, but easy enough to bring to one of our gaming days and rope someone into playing.

[zoidpinhead 12492xp 0]

Rather than start with a game perhaps you might be better off picking a favourite period, battle or army that you want to play and then work from there?  Any new project is lots of effort so you need to be really motivated by something to keep you going.

If you want to start with a game system that is easy to pick up and is as fun to play as Bolt Action is then I’d echo comments above about Lion Rampant.  It is cheap and readily available and can be learnt very quickly.  It is a fun game with some good pace to it.  Saga is good too but takes longer to pick up and getting good with the battle boards takes a few games.

Perry plastics would be my choice if I were just starting out with Lion Rampant as they cover most Medieval types.  I think the Warlord Games starter boxes are good value, the SPQR one is especially good (if you like Celts).

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 2]

I have to order anything I need from abroad, so that was why I looked at SPQR. A two-player starter set would make it easy to get a hold of everything I need to put stuff on the table. Starting a new project is something I do all the time, because I like to change up what I’m painting from time to time. Looked at Clash of Spears now, and I will keep an eye out for them.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 0]

the SPQR box is good value, Clash will launch with warband sets to make starting easier, if you’re a backstager and you fancy a rambling chat on discord give me a poke

 

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 0]

Avernos, I’m on the discord, but not very familiar with discord yet. But I’m always up for a ramble. 🙂

[brewerygoblinParticipant 132xp 1]

I would echo the comments on Lion Rampant, we use it for Wars of the Roses but it is customizable for many periods and theatres.

I started with one box of Perry plastic. bow and bill which gives nearly all the figures (two short) for a standard 24 pt game.

You can increase the points used and use several commands per side, I now have two sides plus mounted and mercenaries

Perry plastics are excellent figures and affordable so are great if you’re doing the forces on your own

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 0]

Got hold of the Lion Rampant rulebook now, and will be reading through it during the weekend. But I found a box of Pike and Shotte For King & Country quite locally. (Same country = no customs fees) After some research, it seems they don’t give any directions how to arm the models, or how to split it into two equally sized forces. Is this something that is in the rulebook, or just guesswork? Like the models, and could maybe use Lion Rampant’s rules also?

I admit I’m still too green in this field of wargaming.

[fightcitymayorParticipant 2104xp 0]

If you have a hankering for ancients, take a look at Mortal Gods from Footsore, it’s got Athenians and Spartans and Persians, oh my!  Footsore also does many really well-done minis you could use in Saga.  They also do an interesting street-fighting-in-ancient-Rome game called Gangs Of Rome.  Now it sounds like I’m doing a commercial, but I just happen to like their stuff.  Small company too, so they need the help.

Warlord does nice minis for SPQR, but the game itself is terrible.

 

 

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 0]

Been looking at their stuff now, and I really liked the vikings in there. Since I’m Norwegian, they are close at heart. Some more research into Saga seems also quite interesting after looking at Footsore’s page.

[phaidknott 7023xp 0]

Sometimes the temptation on the “one click convenience” eshop purchase can lead you down a wrong turn. Once you get away from Sci-fi/Fantasy you find there a whole MASS of figures and rules to buy. Historicals  (or pre WW1 at least) tend to have rulebooks published separately from the figure manufacturers (and dare I say as the rule book authors focus is purely on the rules (rather than “selling” a package), the rules tend to be better).

So don’t be scared of buying rules from a different manufacturer to the figures.

If you are importing figures and cost is an issue, perhaps 6mm might be the way to go and do some mass rank and file wargaming?

[rywhandar01Participant 201xp 1]

I don’t mind importing miniatures if they’re good, it was just that I found it while browsing around. But I can usually add about 20-25% to the price because of customs here. After building some Bolt Action I have found that Warlord make decent miniatures, and not too expensive. But if I find good quality elsewhere, I will get them.

I have been looking at smaller scale, but I’m a bit worried about painting when the models become so small. Do have Travel Battle by Perry on the way though, so I will soon see if it’s possible to make something that tiny look good.

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