I'd like to know!

Rank and File.  And I am assuming you meant to clarify that we are talking about medieval style war games, and not modern warfare with guns.  You never specified that.

I'm still looking for a good rules lite rank-&-file game. 

Two contenders are One Page Rules: Fantasy Regiments, or JuniorGeneral.ORG Battle of Agincourt scenario. 

https://www.onepagerules.com/games/age-of-fantasy-regiments

https://juniorgeneral.org/agincourt/agincourt.html

Any genre of game fits into the topic, but medieval games come to my mind first; This has me wondering what a modern R&F game with modern guns would look like, besides the basic Archer/Musketeer profile.

Do you enjoy rank & file for the emphasis on flanking and cavalry or do you enjoy seeing a massive pitched battle on the table rather than a small scrap or is it just preference?

I know Osprey's Oathmark is simple, but that doesn't always mean rules-lite, I wish I could contribute more!

I like both, which makes it hard for me to focus on any one kind of hobby/wargame.

Quote from: GiantToenail on December 11, 2023, 10:49:05 AM
Any genre of game fits into the topic, but medieval games come to my mind first; This has me wondering what a modern R&F game with modern guns would look like, besides the basic Archer/Musketeer profile.

Modern rank and file would probably be US civil war.  Sure, it's mostly muskets, but you also have steam powered trains and ships, trench lines, and even machine gun Gatling guns.

Me, I lose interest outside 1066-1400 AD. 

I like rank & file better, but I like skirmish well enough, too.

Skirmish!  And sci-fi tactical/operational combat.

but also wwII etc: Axis & Allies minis, Avalon Hill,etc.

I like Wargames in general.

I love a good rank and file game. The three big ones I play are all Warlord: Hail Caesar, Pike & Shotte, and Black Powder. Granted 28mm isn't the best scale in terms of impressively sized units, it makes for fun painting. I recently painted up some battalions for the American Civil War.

That being said, I play more skirmish games since it's easier to put together a force and store them. The ones I play the most are Lion Rampant, Ronin, and the Lord of the Rings miniatures game.

I'm in the skirmish level sci-fi tactical camp.  I do need to get Five Parsecs from Home to the (virtual) table.  And, I still have a bunch of Aetherstream: Interceptor minis to paint.

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on December 30, 2023, 09:15:41 PM
I love a good rank and file game. The three big ones I play are all Warlord: Hail Caesar, Pike & Shotte, and Black Powder. Granted 28mm isn't the best scale in terms of impressively sized units, it makes for fun painting. I recently painted up some battalions for the American Civil War.

That being said, I play more skirmish games since it's easier to put together a force and store them. The ones I play the most are Lion Rampant, Ronin, and the Lord of the Rings miniatures game.

I play for the tactics. I'm not a model maker.

My units are paper standup units printed on a PC printer, or even Jenga blocks. 

Quote from: weirdguy564 on January 11, 2024, 06:41:26 PM

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on December 30, 2023, 09:15:41 PM
I love a good rank and file game. The three big ones I play are all Warlord: Hail Caesar, Pike & Shotte, and Black Powder. Granted 28mm isn't the best scale in terms of impressively sized units, it makes for fun painting. I recently painted up some battalions for the American Civil War.

That being said, I play more skirmish games since it's easier to put together a force and store them. The ones I play the most are Lion Rampant, Ronin, and the Lord of the Rings miniatures game.

I play for the tactics. I'm not a model maker.

My units are paper standup units printed on a PC printer, or even Jenga blocks.

Honestly I get that. Modeling is essentially another hobby tacked onto wargaming, and in a lot of ways I've come to learn that the truly tactical games are like what you mentioned. I've recently gotten into the chit-based hex wargames such as Advanced Squad leader and a lot of Avalon Hill's games (i.e. Anzio, which is fantastic).

This is an apples to oranges comparison. Rank and File games are usually either medieval or fantasy wargames. Whereas a more granular Skirmish game is going to be more catered towards modern style warfare you'd see in science fiction. It's like you're asking which is superior between Warhammer Fantasy Battles or 40k.  They're different games doing different things. Some people like both. Some prefer one or the other. I think 40k 10th edition is dogshit and the less said about Shitmar or The Artificially Scarce World the better. One Page Rules offers rules for lawyer friendly rank and file WFB and skirmish style 40k. And those rules are free and not dogshit. So I go with whatever flavour of OPR I'm in the mood for at the time. I might play Five Parsecs from Home if I'm in the mood for solo gaming too. I have absolutely no interest in historical wargaming due to it being completely the domain of boomers. It's just too old for me.

I don't think that's entirely true. Sure, rank and file usually is medieval/fantasy, there are several sci-fi games that would fit the description. Most notable would be Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine, or the newer Legionis game GW dropped. There's also Flames of War and All Quiet on the Martian Front, which both use large units mounted on bases and moved in ranks.

As for skirmish, there's a ton of fantasy and skirmish medieval games. Ronin, Mordheim, and Frostgrave all come to mind. Ronin is a good example of this since it gets into the swordplay aspects of man-to-man combat, and it's pretty detailed. There's also an Elder Scrolls skirmish game, which wasn't bad but it was really damn expensive.

Lately I'm preferring rank-and-flank, because it's a lot easier to get an entire army painted and on the table in 6mm.

Let me recommend To The Strongest! as a fast, rules-lite rank-and-file wargame.  You can play out a largish battle in about an hour, so it's not for people who want deep, in-depth tactics.  Where it really excels is when mated with a simple campaign system, as you can get an entire campaign done in a weekend.