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Following on from the Epic 40k thread, I thought I'd ask this.

As someone interested more in fantasy than science fiction (especially that childish over-the-top fantasy with weak plots, ok characters and guys with bows (no I'm not joking, Ranger's Apprentice is fething awesome)) Warmaster has been a game that has interested me. The question is this: does anyone actually play it?

The idea seems very strong, compared to Fantasy at least. Field massive armies of Orcs, Humans, Elves, Dwarves etc, fighting alongside Wyverns and Dragons etc. You can theoretically play out all the battles that you read about in LOTR - Pelennor Field with Bretonnia vs Orcs and Araby, perhaps? You can have hundreds of models on a 6x4 table, much more than you could have with Fantasy, Kings of War, LOTR or WOTR.

But I've never heard of anyone playing it, which is a shame.

Have you played or seen people playing it? If you have (or, actually, if you haven't) what is your impression of it?

Warmaster has a strong ‘cult’ following and has been embraced by the historical community. There are a number of Warmaster Historical variants floating around the web (aside from the official ones). The ‘Commander’ rules for example are basically Warmaster adapted to WW2, Modern and Sci-Fi settings.

Not sure about Warmaster (the fantasy version) itself though. It’s a pity as Warmaster is probably one of the best rulesets GW has ever made and one of the few ones to actually acknowledge the importance of command and control. You can see its influence in Hair Ceaser and Black Powder.

Warmaster fantasy was fun, had neat models but after the initial splash, simply 'went away'.

I had a large Warmaster Orc and Goblin army I painted and left in a display case at some store long ago... No idea where it is now. It was a fun 6 months or so that it was active near me.

NOPE it ain't dead!

We play it at our store its just not very popular

Like all of the abandoned games by GW - it has a solid following, fanbase led rules stuff and plenty of companies out there providing alternative models.

I've got Warmaster Historical and the army book. It's a pretty good set of rules, with a couple of interesting quirks.

There are so many companies making models for Ancient & Mediaeval, that you have immense choice in any scale you like. There is a growing amount of plastics in 28mm.

The key differentiator of A&M rulesets is whether they follow the base size conventions established by WRG in the 1970s. Warmaster does, so your army will also be compatible with Field of Glory, DBx, and most other rules except Warhammer Ancients, so you can look around for a set that has features you enjoy.

The other thing is if you want to research an army that isn't in your chosen rules, there are several sources for lists that can be adapted, the old WRG and the newer FoG lists, for instance, and you won't go far wrong with a fair comparison of the troop types.

Whilst at RAF Marham the gaming club there was pretty heavy on 'Warmaster'. We played the hell out of it for nearly a year. We had a convention there and a few lads from the local GW came along with a full terrain board for it. It was excellent fun and a nice change of pace from 28mm and Inquisitor, which were the other games we played...

I might go check out eBay actually, or maybe see if anyone at Salute has anything similar. Good times.

You should pick up a copy of Hordes Of The Things. It uses the same base sizes as Warmaster.

Pendraken and Copplestone both do extensive 10mm fantasy ranges that could fill in for anything missing from your Warmaster armies. So if you can't find the origional on Ebay then you should consider them. Much cheaper as well.

I saw some people playing Warmaster the other week. It was pretty neat! I didn't stay and watch or anything, though.

6mm games are really cool. It doesn't get much cuter than huge formations of those tiny little guys battling away, and historically they were very affordable.

I think Baccus do some of the nicest figures for that scale and period/genre...various historical and fantasy armies in 6mm

https://www.baccus6mm.com/index.php?content=products

I've got a decent sized Dwarf army for Warmaster.
It's a nice ruleset that avoids the problem of "Herohammer" that tends to blight WFB.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
I think Baccus do some of the nicest figures for that scale and period/genre...various historical and fantasy armies in 6mm

https://www.baccus6mm.com/index.php?content=products

I'm fairly certain Warmaster is 10mm not 6mm. As lovley as Baccus miniatures are they wouldnt work alongside existing WM ranges.

Warmaster is promoted for 10mm however the base sizes are the same as 15mm WRG and they use I think 10 figures per base instead of 4 (close order infantry).

You couldn't match two armies of different scales but the core game rules can be used with 15mm or 6mm just by varying the number of figures on the base.

For 6mm you would probably put 16 figures on a base instead of 10.

The ultimate in small armies is 2mm.

Oh yeah, there is nothing to stop you using any scale for WM as long as the bases are all a similar size. I've actually seen pictures of games where WM Ancients was being played with 20mm/1:72 miniatures.

There is a surprisingly large range of 1/72 soft plastic figures available.

Interesting to hear all the love for Warmaster. It was dead on arrival in NY, I don't think I even saw a single game played.

I ended up with a large tomb kings army from the great bitz collapse of 200X but ended up giving it away.

Warmaster may be the most solid set of rules ever published by GW. I have a nice tomb king army but havent had a game in years sadly.

It is just one of many games I have invested in and painted that died and why I just will not invest in any wargame that doesnt have a solid following after several years

JWhex wrote:
Warmaster may be the most solid set of rules ever published by GW.

I always get a laugh when I hear that. Not so much that I disagree (for the most party - I agree), but it is hardly ever in reference to any of the rules that they currently are developing and generally in reference to a set of rules that they have kicked to the curb (whether it is Warmaster, Epic, Necromunda...or even the rules that could have been - but they didn't care to try like SST).

I never saw it being played anywhere and my local LGS had discounted blisters hanging around for years.

Didn't it use the same rules as the Battle of Five Armies game?

JWhex wrote:
Warmaster may be the most solid set of rules ever published by GW. I have a nice tomb king army but havent had a game in years sadly.

It is just one of many games I have invested in and painted that died and why I just will not invest in any wargame that doesnt have a solid following after several years

The great thing is that Warmaster used standard WRG base sizes, so you can take your 10mm Tomb Kings and play against anyone else's 10mm army made for any other game that also uses standard WRG base sizes.

Once you've found some people with 10mm armies they might have a go at Warmaster.