I jumped into OnePageRules’ Age of Fantasy: Regiments along with a few other War Council guys and was impressed by the depth and replayability such a simple game could have. Over the last 5 months, its become our primary miniatures game and it doesn’t feel like that is going to change any time soon. Its inspired us to make scenery, create some rules supplements, and pick up multiple armies. I have a map campaign brewing that I can’t wait to start this fall or winter. It has firmly entrenched itself in my brain. That’s not surprising as the game has a lot going for it; its rules light but strategic, list building is easy and fun, and it is easily hackable.
I used to be drawn to high complexity games where rule knowledge was a big determining factor in game outcomes. I play wargames largely to solve puzzles and the 300 page rule books for 40k and Warmachine gave my brain a lot to consider. As much as I loved my time playing these games, in hindsight I was not being rewarded for understanding the mechanisms that drove play. I was being rewarded by throwing more time at reading than my opponents.
Regiments is on the other end of the spectrum. Its core rules fit on a handful of pages and can be comprehensively reviewed in a matter of minutes. All of the armies share common keyword abilities. There are significantly less “gotcha” moments as a result. Those interactions where you don’t have the necessary information to make an informed decision and get mercilessly punished for it are the primary cause of most bad wargaming experiences in my mind. This was common for players new to WHFB and there was always a number of people who quit the game before they left the “you’re going to lose a lot” phase. Eliminating this knowledge differential allows veterans to play novices and not have the games feel miserable.
Units have their points calculated with an algorithm and as a consequence are much closer to each other in power level than in other games. This flatter army composition means that how you use the units you’ve taken matters a lot more than finding the most efficient, and often unbalanced, ones. There’s no wrecking ball to reliably throw at whatever you want to destroy. A player will need to angle for good match-ups for their units rather than just using brute force most of the time. Flank and rear charges reward skillful positioning and feel impactful, allowing you to strike your opponent without getting attacked back and giving a penalty on the enemy’s morale. You feel like you did something powerful and that you earned it.
Building your army list for Regiments is incredibly fun. OPR’s army builder, Army Forge, is one of the better web based wargame tools I have used. It is relatively intuitive, provides full text for every keyword, and exports as cards for each unit with full rules. The factions all have flavorful keywords that establish their core identity and influence how they will be played on the table. There are 28 factions to choose from and you may use up to 2 to create an army. This freedom to combine any factions unlocks an incredible amount of options. Want to play a WHFB 4th edition style undead army? Choose Vampiric Undead and Mummified Undead. Have a narrative idea about Beastmen and Wood Elves repelling a horde of Skaven looking to chop down a forest to fuel their war machines? Great, go for it! It also lets you combine two factions to represent an army there aren’t explicit rules for. For example, if I wanted to play a Nippon army, I could take Human Empire and use Weapon Masters as samurai and ally with Ogres to represent Oni. If I wanted an Albion army, I could take Beastmen to represent clansmen who ignore difficult terrain and take a Mage Council from Human Empire to represent a coven of druids. There are a ton of possibilities.
The simple nature of the game gives players plenty of room to include homebrew rules. OPR encourages this by providing members of their Patreon with access to a version of the army builder that allows the creation of new units and factions using the algorithm that balances the core game, guaranteeing fair point values for whatever you create. If a player is missing some mechanics from WHFB, it is relatively easy to create analogs in Regiments. Challenges could easily play out exactly as they do in Warhammer, while magic items could be represented by granting a unit or hero additional keywords. The advanced rules have stats for castle walls and other fortifications that could be the basis for a siege scenario. There’s a lot of room to get creative and make the game your own. We’ve got some good stuff cooking.
The basic rules are available here for free if what I’ve shared has you curious. The Advanced Rulebook, which has a number of excellent optional additions to the game, can be found here. They’re simple enough that you probably don’t need me to walk you through any of them. Its the most fun I’ve had on the tabletop in a long time.
