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Hey everyone,
I was running around the GW site looking at warmaster units. I did not know does anyone still even play the game remotly. I would down the road start a army for it but I feel like I will be the only one playing it. Can someone give me a low down on it?

What do you want to know? Its the small scale counterpoint to WHFB in the same way that Epic 40K (or Epic Armageddon as it is now) is the counterpoint to 40K.

Because of the smaller scale, it allows you to fight larger battles than you can with WHFB.

Way back when, when I was a nipper, my friends and I used to run linked campaigns, whereby a 40K battle was a subset of the larger Epic battle (kind of like zooming in on the action in a particular portion of the battlefield). Warmaster can be and is, the Fantasy equivalent.

is the game still supported in GW. Like can I go an hope to find a game.
Whats the average point level.
What are the thoughts of the game.

It's supported in that it is lumped into GW's category of 'Specialist Games'.

That means that GW still supply the rules (they provide a free PDF download of the Epic Armageddon rules), and GW still make some of the models although the range may be limited.

As for getting a game, I think you would be hard pressed to find one in an official GW store; Specialist Games are treated like the red-headed stepchild of the family and not much time or attention is given to them.

If you have a FLGS or similar, you may well find people who still play it and are looking for a game; try the Looking For A Game section and place an ad if required.

Average point level - don't know, I don't play Warmaster.

Thoughts of the games - see above, but if it is anything like Epic (2nd Ed) was then you will have a blast and love it, I know I loved Epic back in the day. My friends and I played Epic more than we played 40K.

how is the populace of WarMaster player on Dakka?
and thanks your answering questions ive been looking for.

No idea really - bear in mind that Dakka has a large ratio of lurkers to registered users. It does crop up in conversation from time to time.

As I said, if you are interested in playing it, then you are better off asking around locally first.

Watch out for mis-labeled or mis-priced items in the Warmaster online section.

A friend ordered High Elf Chariots. The GW store says it contains 3 chariots. He ordered 3 packs, expecting 9 chariots.

He got one in each pack. That is $15 per chariot.

Either they have tripled the price or he got 3 mis-packs. I know which I believe.

As far as players, you are better off building 2 armies and roping friends in. Highly unlikely to find a group nearby.

skrulnik wrote:

As far as players, you are better off building 2 armies and roping friends in. Highly unlikely to find a group nearby.

I have the same issue with Epic, to the extent that I have about 5 complete armies for people to borrow when they come over.

Warmaster is a thriving system. For the core system, you will probably have better luck with your questions here:

http://www.sg.tacticalwargames.net/forum/

There is also a Medieval and Ancients version. The 'Commander' family of games (Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander and Future War Commander) are also based on the Warmaster rules engine.

There is also a Warmaster Yahoo Group that is quite busy and useful. In addition, there is a fan-zine:

http://sites.google.com/site/wmplaytest/warmuster---the-fan-zine

OK im going to try those sites. I will also call up the local GW to see if there are any players. I would like experment with it, I honestly think that some of the models look a bit better than some of the current fantasy. Maybe thats just taste. I just dont want to shell out the $$ and turns out Im the only player and this is just a collection set.

You are aware that they are in a different scale to Fantasy right? That's why some of the mini's will look different.

Standard Fantasy is 28mm, Warmaster is 10mm scale.

yeah but Im talking about the style of them. In warmaster I do like the less over the top of the units, they seem to look like if that world was real you would see that going on.

Warmaster is great but hard to find games for.

Do bear in mind that GW is not the only company in the world that offers 10mm scale figures for sale.

As GW doesn't support Warmaster in its shops or official competitions there is no reason to use their figures.

If you want to play a fantasy game which isn't WHFB you should also look at Hordes Of The Things and other available rules.


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This is very true, but personally I find HotT to be a bit generic for my taste - which is its draw to a lot of people - and being a DBx derivative doesnt help for me much either. If it was me, I would download the Warmaster rules for free from the GW web site, and then take a broader look for miniatures. There are some excellent 10mm ranges out there for Fantasy (and you can even play Warmaster at a different scale if you want).

In reality, any element based Fantasy game can be applied to pretty much any scale you want.

Hmm I too am sort of interested in warmaster but mainly the historical one. how do they play out in comparison to other massive battle historical systems?

It depends on which mass battle system you compare it with. Warmaster is relatively fast to play, and more on the 'game' side of a wargame. There is almost no book keeping/paperwork involved and it plays faster than most other games of its type out there.

I would agree with CyberShadow.

It plays faster and looser than Field of Glory or DBMM, and arguably less realistically. Sometimes you can get these massive panzer moves by cavalry forces getting some good dice.

Whilst it recommends the use of 10mm figures, the base sizes are the same as used for most other 15mm wargame rules so if you used 15mm figures it would be easy to use your army in different systems.

Kilkrazy wrote:I would agree with CyberShadow.

It plays faster and looser than Field of Glory or DBMM, and arguably less realistically. Sometimes you can get these massive panzer moves by cavalry forces getting some good dice.

Whilst it recommends the use of 10mm figures, the base sizes are the same as used for most other 15mm wargame rules so if you used 15mm figures it would be easy to use your army in different systems.

Its far less complex than FoG (but then, most things are, especially with the way the FoG book is written).... I am not sure that I would go as far to say that it was less realistic than any DBx though. Thats quite a statement!

Cavalry do rule the day in Warmaster, with a couple of successful activations allowing them to roll up an entire line.

One thing that took me a while to fully understand about ancient gaming is that the mass-base size represents the area of ground taken up by the unit, and the miniatures just tell you what they actually are.... In that way, ancients gaming is actually very similar to space gaming! That does mean that if you wanted to put a single 28mm figure on a Warmaster base, the game plays exactly the same.

I say arguably less realistic because none of us have had the opportunity to observe an ancients battle and we rely on sparse accounts of what happened in them.

CyberShadow wrote:
Its far less complex than FoG (but then, most things are, especially with the way the FoG book is written)

I can agree with this. Even though FoG appeals to me with so many lists, I think its so alien to ONLY describe a unit via words and then expect people to memorize how each unit type, armor, training, drilling, and weapons would interact.

That's how Ancients players have always played.

I know it seems strange to people these days. There has been a strong reaction against detailed rules in the past 20 years (ish).

DBA addressed the issue with a very simple system and was hugely successful, however ultimately a lot of players wanted something with more meat, and DBM, then DBMM, Impetus and FoG were written.

There is room for both kinds of rules.

try playing WHFB with warmaster figures ;D

Warmaster is a great game. Our group got 8th ed warhammer (they all prefer it to 7th) But problem is we had a game of warmaster same month it was released.
We've had 2 games of 8th ed, warmaster is better than warhammer. It's just finding the players.

Just a little question; what are the dimensions of the bases in warmaster?

40mm x 20mm I believe.

Does anyone know where i can find the last 20 pages of the warmaster rulebook? Without buying it of course. The GW website doesn't have it.

You can download it free on the u.s. gw site- http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat480010a&categoryId=1100013§ion=&aId=5300011

Ive played warmaster before-it can get really interesting provided you arnt botherd about recording long combats on a scrap of paper.
it can get awfully hard to remember how many hits that unit of ratogres has sufferd this turn.
on the whole its really interesting and will let you field that massive army of your dreams without having to play on a carpark .

Combats in Warmaster Fantasy are fought to conclusion, there is no limit on the number of rounds of combat that can be fought in a turn. Indeed you are required to keep fighting until one side is wiped out or the winner decides not to pursue for one reason or another. This in part is one of the reasons why cavarly can roll a flank so quickly, you only get to counter-attack once they've wiped out whatever it was they were attacking.

Combats in Warmaster Ancients however are limited to two rounds IIRC (its been a couple of months and I often get the two confused as I play both so infrequently these days), which combined with various other rules differences results in much more 'cinematic' battlelines, often with one long line facing another, maybe curling around a flank and so on. In short WMA has a look far more like the big battle scenes in films than WM, but even that is far more in line with an actual battle than such 'kids games' as Warhammer, etc...



Of course that doesn't stop me playing Warhammer...