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Do any of you play Warmaster?  I'm looking to get into the game, and want to collect and paint a few armies.  Any advice on how armies should be structured to get the most interestign game play?  Any armies to avoid like the plague (besides Nurgle  ) ?  I don't care all that much about having a uber-army, but don't want to start with a dog either.

In my expereince, most armies are similar, aside from some of the rules. HE are good all round, same with Empire.

I really recommend going to the specialist games warmaster forum, really great group there and lots of activity.

Out of the armies that I have played with and against, the High Elves seem to be the best. They have a wide selection of units, excellent shooting (that +1 to hit really helps), and, most importantly, a Ld 10 general. The only army that seems kind of weak are the Orcs, due to the low Ld of the their commanders, but they can still win games. I think Dark Elves might be my favorite army, simply because the Hydra model is so nifty.

The only real trick when it comes to constructing armies is to build your army in brigades of four units, since this is how they will typically operate on the field. When building a brigade with missile troops, I would include two units of shooters and two units of fighting troops, and place the shooters in the front rank, in one long line, with the fighters behind them. Obviously, don't mix different types of troops (cavalry, infantry, artillery, monsters) in the same brigade.

I would include roughly one character per brigade, though a General can usually handle 2 brigades.

Oh, and if you are building a Tomb Kings army, buy as many wizards as possible, and don't spend points on any extra skeletons, since you will raise all that you need during the game.

Mithrax, I found a forum, but it was closed down in 2005. Is there a new one?

Thanks for the advice, Saber. I haven't read the rules yet, so ...

1) Why is it so obvious not to include different troop types in a brigade? Real soldiers fought that way often. There were advantages, and disadvantages.

2) I thought the daemon armies were the weakest. Have you used them or fought against them?

3) What is the advantage of having brigades of four units?

Haven't played for a while, but I'll stick my 2 cents in.

Armies: Warmaster armies are generally quite balanced, although i tend to think cavalry is a bit good for what you pay for it, but generally in Warmaster I think you'll get a good game out of anything. In the early stages of playing people tend to find high LD armies and Cavalry armies over powered perhaps, but in part thats simply a matter fo learning the system. Perhaps a more specific opinion might be formed by looking over the comments on V2.2 lists in the Spec Games forum, at least as to which units really don't work (steam tanks for example, ain't so great). I wouldn't do lizards as a first army, unless you have a real attachment to them. Their special command rules means you have less control over tham as an army (characterful, but perhaps not so much fun if this is your only warmaster force)

Brigading is just in battle method of ensuring all stands in a formation recive the same order. Warmaster's basic command system requries you to nominate a unit, roll the commanders ld and if you pass, the unit can move. If the command roll fails, the unit cannot move and the commander cannon issue any more orders for that turn and neither can that unit be issued any more orders that turn. If you are trying to preserve a battle line of 4 units (and generally you will be as a staggered formation is more vulnerable), this would present a problem if you were advancing each unit one at a time - even on Ld10 you'd fail a check in mid line at some point and your battle line would be all over the place! Brigading allows you to issue for units that are touching each other a command together, so they pass or fail as one.

Brigades are decided ad hoc, you don't really need to worry about them at the collecting stage. You wouldn't brigade cavalry with infantry as they move quite differently, but then i wouldn't have thought you want you cavalry in the centre of your infantry line anyway. Brigades can be formed at any time, so you could brigade as much as possible in turn one, to keep your shape on approach, before forming a battle line in turn 2. Its very situational though.

I really like the ruleset, although i think the warmaster ancients limit of 2 combat rounds is a necessary house rule (whether this is in the living rulebook now, i don't know)