Warrior Heroes to Be King isn't just for fantasy

[atomicfloozy]

Like Rally Round the King before it, Warrior Heroes to Be King is a great ancients/medieval/renaissance wargame. Following the Little Wars TV series on the Pyrrhic War has rekindled my interest in Ancients Wargaming. Anyway, you don't have to spend $50 or $60 for a set of good rules. In my not so humble opinion RRtK & WHtBK are better rules than many of the expensive rules.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Each Talomir Army is based on an historical army and tells you which one so easy to use for historical. Just take out the magic.

[sztrave]

RRtK is my second most favourite ancient rules.

And just in case anyone is interested, my favourite is Armati II. They both have very diffierent playing styles. RTtK you never really know what is going to happen and have to plan for that, Armati you have a fairly good idea what is going to happen and have to plan for that.

[wargamingr]

I'm just picking up RRTK again for a solo historical campaign so I'm wondering what are the differences between RRTK and Warrior Heroes To Be King?

1. are the army lists different?
2. how do the rules differ?
3. how is WHtbK better than RRTK?

Thanks :-)

[atomicfloozy]

There are lots of minor differences. If you are a long-time ancients player, it can easily be summed up by saying it is like the difference between playing WRG and DBA. Here goes:

1. The army lists have the same troop types, but the attributes or special rules have changed from 12 to 5 streamlining game play. As an example, the Tropilium Southern Marches Legionnaires (Early Roman) no longer have Combined Weapons to represent the throwing of the pila before engaging in melee.

2. Again there are minor differences in the rules. You can no longer have +1 support from a friendly unit in base contact to the rear of a unit. Better rule mechanics have replaced the Reaction Tests. Mercenaries are hired from other nations army lists, there are no special mercenary troops like Wind Maidens, there are no magic items, but the magic artifacts are still in the game. Magic has been streamlined.

3. The two games are different enough that to say one game is better than the other is merely a choice of preference. Sometimes, you feel like spending an evening playing a game full of crunchy detail that adds flavor, but not substance - that's when you play RRtK. Then there are times when you want to get straight to the point, like eating a sandwich in place of a three-course meal. I like both rule sets but lean more toward WHtBK simply because of time constraints in my life.

Hope this helps.

[wargamingr]

Very helpful, thank you!

I also managed to find an example of the game being played, which was also very useful  

I'm testing RRTK, which I last played many years ago, for a Japanese semi-historical (semi-hysterical?) campaign so good to know the army lists still work - will consider WHtbK as an update...