Why is Warmaster dead?

[DarthIbis]

Today I bought a ..silly amount of warmaster, for an even sillyer amount of money

It'll be nice if it can manage to make a nice comeback... then those of us who stocked up while the prices are down will be in great shape.

I've got the better part of two whole armies over the last six months.
(Now I just have to get them assembled and painted.)

[wreiro]

Yeah the buying of WM figures is the easy part! I think I have in the region of 15, 000 points of various armies I would really like to paint.

[Lord Lucifer]

Dark Riders to whip around the flank and drive archer units into each other should work brilliantly.
Anything with a save is useful against Elves. having a plethora of hits to absorb shooting damage isn't the greatest defence when each wound causes drive-back


So I'm facing off against 1,250points of Elves and 1,250points of Dogs of War with my 2,000points of Orcs and Gobbos, and I only have four Orc units, my BoarBoyz are almost double the cost of those fantastic RnF Orcs, and my gobbos may be more liability than blessing.

Concentrate on the Humans to reach Break Point I think, if I break one of the two armies the game is counted as a draw

[Woudschim]

dogs of war, a very nice army to play with, just mind those pikes, they are horrible. *evil grin*

[Lord Lucifer]

Really? The close-formation Pikemen are really that bad?

[Woudschim]

Horrible for the opponent, that is. Even when charged you can cram 18 attacks in a 6cm wide frontage, which is ridiculously powerfull. just make sure to protect the flank with a unit handgunners or swordsmen.

but I once kicked the asses of two units slayers when they charged frontally in two units of pikes. They are one of the best infantry shock troops around.

[azraelezekiel]

High Elves. Reaper Bolt Throwers hitting on 3+ are just nasty. Especially with two units sitting point-blank with a pair of High Mages casting Heaven's Fire so they get to shoot twice per magic phase.
My poor Giant never stood a chance

I'm starting to be bitter about Orc Generals. 95 points for Ld8, you can boost it up with a Crown of Command, but that's just for one test per round. They end being more expensive and less effective than elven generals.
Grrrr, bitter

Just anote here, you were skanked with the spell use.
The spell does not affect artillery
But a way around it if you are High Elves is to add reavers to your bolt thrower brigade.
I laugh as my opponents mortal chaos knights wither in the arrow storm

[azraelezekiel]

Just one more point I think Beastmen would make a great horde army for WM. On the table top an army would look great painted as a single warband or as a few warbands brought together under one very powerful warlord.

This is currently under review in playtesting

[azraelezekiel]

And those bolt throwers are just nasty. Get the damn point-eared Mage to cast the spell that allows them to shoot again, and your second mage next to your second Bolt Thrower unit...

Advancing on an Elf army hurts like hell.

Heaven's fire doesn't work on artillery!

[azraelezekiel]

I got back into gaming a year ago via WM.
Took me ages to find an opponent in a very large metropolitan area.
I play against one guy regularly and another one not so.
But in this year I have managed to collect & paint/model 9 official armies and 3 unofficial aremies all to a minimum of 2000 points.

Everytime we play , do people say 'oh I have a WM army I might bring it for a game next time.'
It never happens but I agree with the comments regarding better promotion by GW/SG.

Playtesting is currently going on to ratify issues with a few of the official forces.
There is also rumours of a new style of army that would allow a few more forces to be released.

The big question is though, will the models ever be made to support the new armie's rules?

[nick]

I've been meaning to get myself a WM army for years and actually almost got one when I was getting WarSeer going. I've always like the concept and the fact that you have a massive army of little minis makes transporting multiple forces really simple.

Actually an interesting story for my portent days, GW sent us a preview copy of Warmaster but no minis what so ever. As a result we played through a couple of games using little pieces of paper to represent each unit. It looked like those battle maps you see in history books To this date I don't believe I've ever played a game using minis other than a GW store.

Anyway that's my late night rambling done.

Nick

[DarthIbis]

That's right, Nick. Now-a-days you can just about put together a good-size Warmaster force for under a hundred bucks. (Some races are easier to come by than others.)

I think Warmaster, Epic and Gothic are great and my interest in them actually got me to learn more about 40k and WFB.

[Lord Lucifer]

Back when it was released, a mate and I both picked up a rulebook each, which seemed novel at the time (buying just a rulebook with no miniatures, that's wierd!) and played game after game after game with 20mm by 40mm rectangles cut out of cardboard harvested from my family's love of breakfast cereal.
Each unit was noted in poor handwriting
You'd be hard-pressed to find an easier army to transport than a full 2,000point force of Cardboard Rectangle Soldiers

Seemed to be the most common result of our games was a mutual draw when both commanders got killed in the same fight

[Woudschim]

haha! odd situation!

I only once killed a general, my girlfriends general was forced to move into a unit slayers when I moved over it, and it got caught in a combat in turn 3, the slayers where wiped out, together with her general. One of the most boring games though, winning in turn three after half an hour :P.

I do also recall a game in which I put an Empire wizard in front of the enemy, further than 30cm away from my own units, I still do not know what got into me, I just forgot the rule. Needless to say, the wizard was killed, and I also lost the battle :P

[Lord Lucifer]

WARMASTER LIVES!

Today at my games club, three games of it were played.

The Skaven narrowly defeated the steadfast Dwarfs.

In the case of the Empire and Elves (2,500points between them) vs. the hordes of Chaos (2,000points), the Elves were driven off in disgrace whilst the Empire and Chaos forces ended up in a stalemate.


My game was supposed to be another two-on-one where the High Elves and Dogs of War had the advantage over me, but I ended up facing only the Dogs of War as the Elf player came down with the flu.
The bloodiest 2000pts vs. 2000pts game I've ever played, quickly ensued.

And by quickly, I mean slowly. This was brutal and grinding.

My force list was:
4xOrcs
7xGoblins
2xWolf Riders
2xBoar Riders
1xChariots
1xGiant
1xTrolls
1xOgres
General with Magical Doohickey
2xOrc Heroes
2xOrc Heroes on Wyverns
2xOrc Shamans
2xGoblin Shamans

Each flank was anchored by two ineffectual units of Goblins, with the remaininf three taking up the right-side of my centre, marching boldly towards some ruins and achieving very little
To the right of them, one unit each of Boars and Wolfies advanced.
To the left of my middle ground, the Giant and my combat infantry made a steady advance, with cavalry and chariotry sitting sadly neglected after a failed Command roll.

4 Shamans got to work with the GERROFF! spells, knocking a Dogs of War Tuska off the table, and forcing back the Dwarfs facing my right flank

The opponent failed all command rolls in the first turn.
Next turn, the advance continued for the infantry, whilst the left-wing cavalry got to moving. Success!
The goblins continued to not matter to anyone, and the right-wing cavalry sat pretty for a turn.

Magic again saw disruption of enemy lines.

The Dogs of War succeeded in commanding with two of their four characters, and got their centre line of Infantry to move forward cautiously, the Crossbowmen regiments fanned out to take firing positions on a hill, and some Dwarfs and Swordsmen advanced to the cover of some woods.


Crunch time.
The left-wing cavalry advanced ready to charge... then blundered!
The My first infantry block failed to move, so I decided to hold pretty with my battle line.
I redeployed my right-wing Cavalry, sent them straight to the front lines to sit next to the infantry.

This time around, all my magic failed. All of it, on 5+ to cast.


The enemy advance similarly faltered with the Tuska elephant advancing for a charge, then failing the requisite command roll. Terrific.
With that, the pike line held firm, whilst the crossbowmen opened up on the solid wall of Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, Boarboyz, and all manner of nastiness.
They succeeded in driving the Orcs and Ogres back, but no Confusion resulted.

Acting largely on initiative, the Giant charged some Crossbowmen, the Boarboyz did likewise, the left-wing Boardboyz hit the Tuska, and the Chariots slammed into the enemy Ogres

The Boarboyz were boosted with the WAAAGH!, allowing them to decimate the Tuska in a single round of combat.
The Chariots likewise annihilated the Ogres, although it took them two rounds to finish them off.
The Giant smashed the entire regiment of Crossbowmen, but suffering two hits in the attack, decided to withdraw rather than Advance into the Pikemen.
Unfortunately, the Giant only withdrew a pathetic 6cm, leaving it painfully exposed for an Initiative Charge from the Pikemen.
The right-wing Boarboyz were the stars, however, obliterating their Crossbowmen opposition, Advancing into the flank of the Pikemen on the hill, driving them back so that they contacted some more Crossbowmen in the flank, and crushed the lot of them, before withdrawing away as quickly as possible... which happened to be 5cm


Now, the Dogs of War launched their counter-offensive, slamming their Pike Blocks into my Orcs, Orcs, and Trolls.
Luckily I was well supported by way of supporting stands, and roundly beat the enemy, but decided to hold my ground for fear of losing units that were quite capable of charging next turn.
More pikers aimed for the Giant, and cut it down in two rounds of combat. Eeek!

Unfortunately for the end game, my advance drew me out of formation, and, surrounded by the enemy I could not afford to lose many combats as they would expose the rear of my formation.


The closing turns are a blur, but my right-most boarboyz bought the farm when the Birdmen of Catraza got to grips with them, with Spearman support.

Ultimately I lost two units of Orcs, two units of Goblins, a unit of Boarboyz, a Giant, my Ogres, and a Hero or two
However, I forced the enemy to break, taking out more than 12 of his units, and pulling off the bloodiest win I've managed lately.


Marathon effort, feels so good to be finished

[Cpt. Drill]

"GORDON... I MEAN WARMASTER IS ALIVE!?"

Wow man nice to hear about you game! its good warmaster has taken off for you... would like to read morwe also see some pics of armies!

[Brandir]

Warmaster is a superb game, as are the other games using the Warmaster rules engine: Blitzkreig Commander, Cold War Commander, Warmaster Ancients and Battle of the Five Armies.

In fact, reading this thread has just inspired me to dig out my Warmaster stuff and try and interest fellow club members next week.

[Woudschim]

Great to see a comeback from Warmaster!

@ lord lucifer:

Sounds like a very interesting game!

This last friday I played an introduction battle in the local games store, with a new recruit. Too bad I forgot his army, we planned to play a 1500 points battle empire/orcs.

I was forced to split my orc army, and just show him the basics of moving/shooting and combat. It did not mind really, the store closed early, so we wouldn't have the time to play a 1500 points battle anyway. He liked it very much though, and will start collecting chaos!

[Lord Lucifer]

I trust the Orcs won?

We've got a wildcard Lizardmen player hitting from the south of the campaign map. He's starting WarMaster because of the campaign, never played before in his life.
Keen to see how he gets on

My opponent has played a few games of Battle of Five Armies, but never full WarMaster
One player has played a total of three or four games, using Lizardmen... he's the dodgy Elf, he wasn't cheating with his High Elves, they were honest mistakes


I really like my newly configured army. Dropping the Crown of Command was the best thing I could've done.

[azraelezekiel]

he's the dodgy Elf, he wasn't cheating with his High Elves, they were honest mistakes

This happened to me the other day.
It was only in the final round did we realise it didn't affect the bolt thrower.
Made no difference really though. As I used the reaver/bolt thrower combo and slaughter any of those chaos scum who came in range
There is a rumour that the bolt throwers are also going to lose their +1 shooting bonus