Some Model Questions

[HereticalGeek]

Hello, I am a Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy player, but me and my buddies noticed Warmaster, and thought "Cheaper and bigger armies, we likey xD". But first I had some questions:

1.) Are there any starter sets or boxed armies available, or do we have to buy individual units?
2.) What are the models made from, plastic or metal?
3.) Are the models multipart, or if not, do they at least come sepearated from their stands. It would be very hard to paint them otherwise
4.) The models are significantly smaller, so are they incredibly fragile as well?

Thanks in advance

[wellspring]

1. There used to be. You can still find some on eBay, but on most other sites they're broken up into their component blisters. In order of availability, you have box sets for High Elves, Undead, Dwarves, Empire, Chaos, and Orcs & Goblins. There is also the Battle of the Five Armies: a plastic box set with a vast number of units that is actually still in print; though no variety (every strip of elves looks like every other).

2. Both. B5A is plastic, all else is metal. There are metal B5A expansion blisters but they are VERY rare.

3. All units are separate from their stands, but remember these are 10mm. They're more like epic 40k and less like warhammer in terms of the way you paint them. The big monsters are multipart.

4. MUCH smaller; but actually IMO less fragile. Except for the High Elf Spearmen; they are notorious for having their spears break.

You'll want to look at some of the pics on the GW site (under specialist games) and some of the fan sites to get a sense of the scale and gameplay. The rules are free to download, but I suggest springing for a used Warmaster book, which has a nice painting guide.

[HereticalGeek]

Mkay, so lets talk about this Battle of Five Armies. It looks to be a great price, will the models fit in well with models for Warmaster. Are they of the same quality. I understand there is no variety to them, but do they at least look similiar to Warmaster models? Will the Elf spearmen in that boxed set fit in with normal High Elf Spearmen?

[azraelezekiel]

B5A is a great starting point for a number of armies (orcs & goblins, elves, dwarves bretonian/empire).
But if you can't decide on an army to start with, use the counters from here http://sites.google.com/site/wmplayt...1/publications to get a feel for which one you like.
Most of the fantasy armies can be picked up off of eBay at a fraction of the cost of retail with the exception of a few.

Also check out sg forums we are a friendly bunch.
http://www.sg.tacticalwargames.net/forum/index.php

There are also some images of warmaster models in my sig, the wood elves are almost entirely made up of B5A elves same goes for my O&G army.

[HereticalGeek]

Hmmm. I think I'm going to decide against the Battle of Five Armies, since neither of my friends, who are also starting with me, are going to go for any of those races. I'll be going for High Elves myself.

[Geep]

It can be very quick and (relatively) cheap to make a Warmaster army from eBay. Just steer clear of trying to make a Kislev army just yet...

BoFA/ B5A is a good box for learning how to play, but I don't think the models in it match well with any current GW range. An entire army of BoFA figures looks pretty fine though (but then has very limited options).

[HereticalGeek]

But is it really worth spending the 80 bucks when Im not going to be using most of the models in the long run?

[azraelezekiel]

So trade them on one of the forums.
At the end of the day it is your choice and it is a game in itself.

[Nat B]

I would second azraelezekiel on getting the rulebook download from the GW site and using some markers/proxies to allow you to make a more personally informed decision on what unit types you need to buy models for. Nothing worse than buying a load of models and not liking the army playstyle, something which is hard to detirmine if you are new to the overall ruleset.

[fracas]

True

But IMHO the best thing about warmaster is how an army looks on the table top

[wellspring]

True

But IMHO the best thing about warmaster is how an army looks on the table top

I agree... cardboard armies are a good way to get a tactical feel for the game and to spec out a good army, but if you're not playing very often you won't get some of the "wow" factor that gets a gaming group to play regularly. I feel like the biggest challenge for warmaster players isn't "How do I collect a tournament-winning army?"-- it's "How do I get a bunch of friends playing Warmaster?"

It might be that your best bet is to collect a cheap ebay army, paint it up, get your gaming group interested in playing, and then do cardboard proxies for the NEXT army you want to play, and to add variety. The goal is to get to fun as soon as possible. If you bought an army whole, odds are that it's pretty well-balanced already. If not, you and your friends are all in roughly the same boat and you can remedy any problems with a blister pack or two.

The other thing that greatly adds to a game: terrain. Fortunately, if you're a minis gamer, you probably have some good terrain laying around already.

[HereticalGeek]

We have succesfully ordered our first couple of blisters and a rulebook off ebay! There in the mail now
Oh yeah, lots of terrain. When we werent playing we were cutting up styrofoam, half the time it looked better then our minis xD

[fracas]

you will love them