The Inside Scoop on Gaming

OVERVIEW

Warmaster is a game designed to represent huge Warhammer Fantasy clashes on the tabletop. Warmaster gets rid of some of the uber-cheese; "Ha ha! My Gargantuan Hero on a Giant Platypus kills you with his Fish of his Slaying!" Instead an army commander issues orders to your troops, which do the majority of the fighting. Orders are given by your army commander which affect their abilities on the battlefield. The various troop types are represented by 10 mm (railroad "N" scale) miniatures are mounted on 40mm by 20 mm bases to represent about 2 ranks of troops, 1 cavalry piece or or one large war machine. Games Workshop seems to be aiming for the DBA wargaming crowd rather than younger wargame players.

The miniatures themselves are stupendous, and will reward a careful paint job. Seeing flames painted on the cloaks of the Phoenix Guard simply stunned me, the miniatures are about 1 centimeter tall! Unlike other games Workshop games, there will be no box set. Instead, the rulebook ($35) and each boxed army ($45) will be sold separately, allowing you more flexibility in deciding what army to play. The first two armies will be Khemrian undead and the High Elves, followed by the Dwarves, Orks, Empire, Chaos, and Orcs & Goblins, and a secret seventh, and perhaps eighth army. Games Workshop is very good at getting supplements released promptly and all of the first six armies will be out within the next six months.

GAMEPLAY

Rules are accommodated by Games Workshop's trademark: lotsa dice rolls. Troops are given orders to carry out and how promptly they carry them out depends on the dice and the modifiers imposed on them. Each set of troops is activated by giving orders during the Command Phase and once a particular troop type has been given orders, it may not be given orders again. After every you give, subsequent penalties to the dice rolls are imposed (groan) until a roll fails. Similar to Blood Bowl, once a roll fails, your Command Phase is over. Troops can then shoot or fight if they made it into contact with the enemy in the Command Phase. The game is very fast moving and small to large games can be completed to satisfaction in a very reasonable amount of time.

THE GAME

The game itself is fairly fast moving and fun to play. It is not a scaled down version of Warhammer Fantasy, or even Epic Fantasy, it is a stand alone game designed to represent mass fantasy combat. The only problem I can foresee is the standard lack of support for the game once it has completed its six-month run in the stores. While supplemental articles in Citadel Journal and sourcebooks from Fanatic Press will help keep the game fresh, the fact that miniatures will not be available in most stores will ultimately prove to be the deciding factor in whether or not the game survives. Already the upcoming White Dwarf 243 dismisses the lack of available armies, and saying that more won't be produced as it will tie up the sculptors for a full year. Ultimately the deciding factor of whether or not more armies will be produced will be the popularity of the game. Necromunda still survives due to a huge, fanatical following and Space Hulk, Blood Bowl and even Man o' War are extremely popular along the con circuits. This makes for an interesting Catch-22, the game won't be supported with any additional armies unless it becomes popular and the game won't become popular because of rumored lack of support. Most people see this game as another "stop-gap" game in the Games Workshop game, designed to be supported for a short time, then dropped in favor of the next new thing. Although we are already getting hints of a secret seventh army, I'm not holding my breath. I like High Elves, I like the Khemrian undead, and I like the game itself. I'm a happy man.

THE RULEBOOK

The rulebook is filled with erm, rules. The Warmaster rules are very well suited for mass combat. Scenes from epic combats are shown in most of the artwork. Mass formations of troops heaving forward to pitched battle fill your mind as you read the rules and play the game. Even the best laid plans go to waste as battle plans from messengers are lost amidst the screams of the dying as your army marches to war, all very atmospheric.

The rulebook itself is done similar to the style of Battlefleet Gothic, cramming a lot into a few pages and keeping "flip-through" down to a minimum. Sections are organized very well and the artwork doesn't detract very much from the rules. I liked most of the drawings, except for the "line and shade" ones, which look like at best like unfinished drawings and at worst, like scribbles. I very much appreciate the fact that the full color section is kept to a minimum. Seeing the words "mighty," "powerful" and "awesome" displayed under nearly every picture box grates on me, but this is offset by the very good painting guide and scenery guide packed in the pages. The Warmaster rulebook crams a ton into a 160 pages, complete with an index. It seems obvious that Games Workshop took a lesson after the verbal beating of the 300+ page Warhammer 40,000 rulebook with no index and somewhat poor layout. The rules also have subsections dealing with siege warfare and magical items. What more could you want?

Another positive element of the book is the appendix; perfect for photocopying for personal use, but not enough to copy the entire book, which is a good thing. "At a glace" sections at the beginning of each chapter summarize the main points as well. It doesn't cover _everything_ however, so anyone daft enough to try and photocopy this rulebook would be better off just buying a second-hand copy.

THE MINIATURES (BOX SETS)

The miniatures are of course superb, with all the detail and quality Games Workshop is known for. A standard boxed set contains six blisters of the various troop types, along with a miniature of the army commander, a High Elf General on horse for the High Elves and a suitable arcane Khremrian Tomb King complete with a throne and attendants atop a huge pile of skulls. Very nice, I loved both these models. My only gripe with a game of this nature is the miniatures are obscenely small, and will cause problems for those who either want to paint every little detail or can't play very well at all. It's a shame because much of the character of the game come from seeing two superbly painted armies clash from across the table.

My advice would be to stock up on those inks and washes now, especially black and brown for the armor of any army and bones of the undead. Black spray and a good drybrush will go a long way toward bringing out the detail of these armies. I noticed all the shots in the rulebook are extremely close up to show all the incredible detail, and that most of the detail on the miniatures themselves will get washed out when viewed from three or four feet away. My advice is that unless the unit is for show, don't bother with painting every, or even any detail on the model. The miniatures box sets also lack any assembly tips aside from what is contained in the rulebook, although many different conversions are shown. Command regiment mounted on the standard 25 mm. slottabases showing a general at his desk poring over battle plans and a regiment made up entirely of musicians get the little hamster wheel in my head running with possibilities for new regiments, as conversions aren't really possible with miniatures of this scale. The box sets come with six blisters of regiments, along with a an army commander and appropriate ancillary crew for the regiments. The miniatures themselves are rather fiddly, and the demo copy I received has a few High Elf spears bent quite noticeably. This rather worries me because the miniatures themselves are rather fiddly, and I can forsee blisters sitting on the shelf for ages because one pike or spear is broken from rabid Games Workshop fans rifling through the miniature racks.

THE FINAL VERDICT

Do I sound as though I'm against this game? I hope not. I enjoy playing it immensely, and will continue to do so for a VERY long time to come. I simply wish certain games were supported more, either kept in production or supported with new editions. While Games Workshop is known for bringing out new edition of its games frequently, most are reasonably spaced out. I wouldn't mind seeing the same old games *coughmanowarcough* re-released with all the errata and Q&As compiled into the rulebook itself without any major rule changes to "streamline" the game. I hope we'll see more of Warmaster once its finished its print run, hopefully with new armies, either by giving training sculptors the opportunity to sculpt rank and file troop types so more figures can be produced quickly or giving the job of playtesting and introducing new armies to other Games Designers. Warmaster is a great game, and one that doesn't deserve to die due to poor support by the one of the world largest wargame producers.

The Good

Incredibly fun

Compact rulebook, index

Rulebook available separately

The Bad

Lack of foreseeable support

Artwork

Figs only available in metal.

Rating: 82%

Grade: B

Style: 3 Substance: 5

Blazingly Subtle Plug: Additional support, pictures and Q/A for the Warmaster game can be found at my website: http://grimdarkness.tripod.com

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Warmaster
Author: Rick Priestley with Stephan Hess and Alessio Cavatore Category: Miniature Company/Publisher: Games Workshop Line: Warmaster Cost: 35.00 Page count: 160 ISBN: 1-84154-028-5 Playtest Review by Chris Valera on 03/02/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	OVERVIEW Warmaster is a game designed to represent huge Warhammer Fantasy clashes on the tabletop. Warmaster gets rid of some of the uber-cheese; "Ha ha! My Gargantuan Hero on a Giant Platypus kills you with his Fish of his Slaying!" Instead an army commander issues orders to your troops, which do the majority of the fighting. Orders are given by your army commander which affect their abilities on the battlefield. The various troop types are represented by 10 mm (railroad "N" scale) miniatures are mounted on 40mm by 20 mm bases to represent about 2 ranks of troops, 1 cavalry piece or or one large war machine. Games Workshop seems to be aiming for the DBA wargaming crowd rather than younger wargame players. The miniatures themselves are stupendous, and will reward a careful paint job. Seeing flames painted on the cloaks of the Phoenix Guard simply stunned me, the miniatures are about 1 centimeter tall! Unlike other games Workshop games, there will be no box set. Instead, the rulebook ($35) and each boxed army ($45) will be sold separately, allowing you more flexibility in deciding what army to play. The first two armies will be Khemrian undead and the High Elves, followed by the Dwarves, Orks, Empire, Chaos, and Orcs & Goblins, and a secret seventh, and perhaps eighth army. Games Workshop is very good at getting supplements released promptly and all of the first six armies will be out within the next six months. GAMEPLAY Rules are accommodated by Games Workshop's trademark: lotsa dice rolls. Troops are given orders to carry out and how promptly they carry them out depends on the dice and the modifiers imposed on them. Each set of troops is activated by giving orders during the Command Phase and once a particular troop type has been given orders, it may not be given orders again. After every you give, subsequent penalties to the dice rolls are imposed (groan) until a roll fails. Similar to Blood Bowl, once a roll fails, your Command Phase is over. Troops can then shoot or fight if they made it into contact with the enemy in the Command Phase. The game is very fast moving and small to large games can be completed to satisfaction in a very reasonable amount of time. THE GAME The game itself is fairly fast moving and fun to play. It is not a scaled down version of Warhammer Fantasy, or even Epic Fantasy, it is a stand alone game designed to represent mass fantasy combat. The only problem I can foresee is the standard lack of support for the game once it has completed its six-month run in the stores. While supplemental articles in Citadel Journal and sourcebooks from Fanatic Press will help keep the game fresh, the fact that miniatures will not be available in most stores will ultimately prove to be the deciding factor in whether or not the game survives. Already the upcoming White Dwarf 243 dismisses the lack of available armies, and saying that more won't be produced as it will tie up the sculptors for a full year. Ultimately the deciding factor of whether or not more armies will be produced will be the popularity of the game. Necromunda still survives due to a huge, fanatical following and Space Hulk, Blood Bowl and even Man o' War are extremely popular along the con circuits. This makes for an interesting Catch-22, the game won't be supported with any additional armies unless it becomes popular and the game won't become popular because of rumored lack of support. Most people see this game as another "stop-gap" game in the Games Workshop game, designed to be supported for a short time, then dropped in favor of the next new thing. Although we are already getting hints of a secret seventh army, I'm not holding my breath. I like High Elves, I like the Khemrian undead, and I like the game itself. I'm a happy man. THE RULEBOOK The rulebook is filled with erm, rules. The Warmaster rules are very well suited for mass combat. Scenes from epic combats are shown in most of the artwork. Mass formations of troops heaving forward to pitched battle fill your mind as you read the rules and play the game. Even the best laid plans go to waste as battle plans from messengers are lost amidst the screams of the dying as your army marches to war, all very atmospheric. The rulebook itself is done similar to the style of Battlefleet Gothic, cramming a lot into a few pages and keeping "flip-through" down to a minimum. Sections are organized very well and the artwork doesn't detract very much from the rules. I liked most of the drawings, except for the "line and shade" ones, which look like at best like unfinished drawings and at worst, like scribbles. I very much appreciate the fact that the full color section is kept to a minimum. Seeing the words "mighty," "powerful" and "awesome" displayed under nearly every picture box grates on me, but this is offset by the very good painting guide and scenery guide packed in the pages. The Warmaster rulebook crams a ton into a 160 pages, complete with an index. It seems obvious that Games Workshop took a lesson after the verbal beating of the 300+ page Warhammer 40,000 rulebook with no index and somewhat poor layout. The rules also have subsections dealing with siege warfare and magical items. What more could you want? Another positive element of the book is the appendix; perfect for photocopying for personal use, but not enough to copy the entire book, which is a good thing. "At a glace" sections at the beginning of each chapter summarize the main points as well. It doesn't cover _everything_ however, so anyone daft enough to try and photocopy this rulebook would be better off just buying a second-hand copy. THE MINIATURES (BOX SETS) The miniatures are of course superb, with all the detail and quality Games Workshop is known for. A standard boxed set contains six blisters of the various troop types, along with a miniature of the army commander, a High Elf General on horse for the High Elves and a suitable arcane Khremrian Tomb King complete with a throne and attendants atop a huge pile of skulls. Very nice, I loved both these models. My only gripe with a game of this nature is the miniatures are obscenely small, and will cause problems for those who either want to paint every little detail or can't play very well at all. It's a shame because much of the character of the game come from seeing two superbly painted armies clash from across the table. My advice would be to stock up on those inks and washes now, especially black and brown for the armor of any army and bones of the undead. Black spray and a good drybrush will go a long way toward bringing out the detail of these armies. I noticed all the shots in the rulebook are extremely close up to show all the incredible detail, and that most of the detail on the miniatures themselves will get washed out when viewed from three or four feet away. My advice is that unless the unit is for show, don't bother with painting every, or even any detail on the model. The miniatures box sets also lack any assembly tips aside from what is contained in the rulebook, although many different conversions are shown. Command regiment mounted on the standard 25 mm. slottabases showing a general at his desk poring over battle plans and a regiment made up entirely of musicians get the little hamster wheel in my head running with possibilities for new regiments, as conversions aren't really possible with miniatures of this scale. The box sets come with six blisters of regiments, along with a an army commander and appropriate ancillary crew for the regiments. The miniatures themselves are rather fiddly, and the demo copy I received has a few High Elf spears bent quite noticeably. This rather worries me because the miniatures themselves are rather fiddly, and I can forsee blisters sitting on the shelf for ages because one pike or spear is broken from rabid Games Workshop fans rifling through the miniature racks. THE FINAL VERDICT Do I sound as though I'm against this game? I hope not. I enjoy playing it immensely, and will continue to do so for a VERY long time to come. I simply wish certain games were supported more, either kept in production or supported with new editions. While Games Workshop is known for bringing out new edition of its games frequently, most are reasonably spaced out. I wouldn't mind seeing the same old games coughmanowarcough re-released with all the errata and Q&As compiled into the rulebook itself without any major rule changes to "streamline" the game. I hope we'll see more of Warmaster once its finished its print run, hopefully with new armies, either by giving training sculptors the opportunity to sculpt rank and file troop types so more figures can be produced quickly or giving the job of playtesting and introducing new armies to other Games Designers. Warmaster is a great game, and one that doesn't deserve to die due to poor support by the one of the world largest wargame producers. The Good Incredibly fun Compact rulebook, index Rulebook available separately The Bad Lack of foreseeable support Artwork Figs only available in metal. Rating: 82% Grade: B Style: 3 Substance: 5 Blazingly Subtle Plug: Additional support, pictures and Q/A for the Warmaster game can be found at my website: http://grimdarkness.tripod.com Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)