Fantastic Battles

What is Fantastic Battles

Fantastic Battles is a fast-play mass-battle wargame for any fantasy setting, written by Nic Wright and published by his own imprint, Irregular Wars Wargaming. It came out in November 2020. Version 1.2 followed in December 2022, with a few rules clarified and new relics, unit traits, asymmetrical scenarios and siege rules added.

Nic wrote it as the 10th anniversary of his first rule set, Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World’s End, came round. Rather than a third edition of that, he went for something broader. The title, in his words, “is a play on words do you see?”

There’s no house setting and no miniatures range. You build your own army from a toolkit, and the rules are scale-agnostic: everything is measured in base widths, so any size of base works as long as both armies match. The photos in the book are 10mm figures from Forest Dragon, Polar Fox, Eureka, Magister Militum and Pendraken. The same rules handle historical armies from the ancient era to the early modern period.

The book closes with example army lists. The fantasy ones run from Halflings of the Shires and Ziggurat Dwarves to The Vermintide and Minions of the Dark Lord. The historical ones run from Homeric Greeks to Conquistadors.

How it plays

Companies, not models. An army is a set of companies and characters. Each company starts from one of seven base profiles (Irregular, Formed, Elite and so on) and takes up to three traits, like long spears, skirmishers or regenerate. A racial trope can apply to the whole army. The book’s Halfling companies are all militia, and its Goblin warriors are unreliable.
No figure removal. A unit stays on the table as a complete block. When it loses its Resolve, the whole thing comes off.
A Warlord leads. Every army has one Warlord or Mage-lord. Captains, Magic-users and Rogues can join, attached to units or on their own. Spells include Bless, Confusion, Entangle, Haste and Summon.
Things go wrong before the battle. After deployment every army rolls for mishaps. A unit can lose a company to desertion, suffer disease, rush forward, or turn up late.
Your officers have ideas of their own. Each turn runs Shooting, then Action, then Melee. In the Action phase a unit rolls for impetuous actions: on a 4 to 6 you control it, but a low roll can make it fall back, stand still, or wheel and charge the nearest enemy. The reliable trait helps and unreliable hurts. Warlords and Captains can spend their own actions rallying units.
Melee is dice pools. Each company rolls dice and modifiers add or take them away. Pikes get extra dice against a frontal charge by mounted, monstrous or flying troops. Hitting a flank or rear is worth +2 dice.
More than pitched battles. There are optional objectives and flank marches, scenarios like Hold the Pass and Ambush the Convoy, siege rules, and a campaign system with maps, diplomacy and revolts.

How to start

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Fantastic Battles (PDF)

The full v1.2 rules, £8.50 direct from Irregular Wars.

Get the book. The PDF is £8.50 from Irregular Wars. It’s also on Wargame Vault, and a softcover is sold through Amazon.
Grab the free extras. The downloads page has the quick reference sheets, the example army lists, an army builder spreadsheet, rule clarifications, and a bridge document that updates a 1.0 book to 1.2.
Use what you own. Any fantasy or historical figures will do, at any scale. Base them in companies and make sure both sides base the same way.
Pick a size. For pick-up games the book suggests 500 to 1,000 points a player, which comes to roughly 12 to 24 companies. With several players a side, it suggests a cap of 1,000 points each.
Start from a list, then make your own. The example lists are suggestions, not canon. The book encourages you to build armies around your own collection.