I thought maybe in order to avoid confusion in what is
happening in this battle report, I thought it might be helpful to as succinctly as
possible outline how the rule mechanics differ from other rulesets you may be
used to.
As Mr Priestley wrote while introducing the game back in
March 2000:
“Warmaster is a game about the ability of the general to
lead, rather than the warriors’ ability to fight.
Right from the start I set out to create a game about huge
armies fighting over vast landscapes; a game in which snaking columns of
warriors might march along dusty roads towards a vista of farms, villages and
towns. Where flanking forces can gallop out of their general’s sight and
reappear (perhaps) at the enemy’s back. And where artillery pieces must be
laboriously dragged to within range of their targets.
Big tabletop landscapes: roaring rivers rather than piddly
little streams, fortified towns rather than pokey houses, and enclosed valleys
and rolling hills rather than the usual flattish field punctuated by a lonely
tree.”
For my ACW battles I’d been using the Fire and Fury ruleset
from about 1991 or 1992, basically (ahem) before I was even born. So the
concept of my army not doing exactly what I wanted (point and click as I call
it) was not alien to me. I’d even tried to adapt Fire and Fury to play fantasy
games with my 6mm Irregular miniatures armies. In Warmaster a stand represents
200 to 250 man-sized troops. So a unit represents maybe 750 warriors.
A reminder of the table
My Battle report map!
The Mechanics
Like many modern rulesets Warmaster is divided into 3 main
phases. Rick would usually describe these simply as “move, shoot, fight”.
An overview of the phases can be summarised thus:
Movement
Initiative moves – troops within 20cm of an enemy may either
evade (move directly away from) or charge their nearest enemy
Command phase – The general, heroes and wizards can order any
troops that did not move by initiative within a certain range up to a maximum
of 3 times by rolling under their command rating on 2D6. The order range of the
general is the battlefield, heroes 60cm and wizards 20cm. Distance and other
factors cause penalties and ordering a unit 3 times in a phase is difficult and
rare and not often risked. Like Blood Bowl there is jeopardy to failure. Any
commander failing to issue an order is spent for the phase and a failure by the
general causes the command phase to end.
Character movement – characters move, join units etc. Flying
units up to 100cm. All other characters 60cm.
Shooting
Missile troops, artillery and magic. Missile troops must
fire at their closest enemy. Armies usually have access to only four spells.
Magic users are not death stars in this game but available spells do give each army
a bit of fluff. Missile fire is underpowered in Warmaster, primarily being used
to drive back and disrupt the enemy and strategically control areas of the
battlefield rather than being particularly effective at destroying enemy units.
Combat
Melee – Up to two rounds of combat can be fought in the
combat round depending on melee results. The winner of a combat is based on
wounds inflicted and supporting troops (the equivalent of a rank bonus) and the
winner can choose whether to pursue, stand or fall back.
The Role of Characters
Although very important to the game, characters are not able
to fight on their own and take on whole units, even if mounted on a dragon or
similar. But by joining a unit a character can add attacks and/or terror to a
unit it fights with. Very useful if you are prepared to take the risk, as a
unit that is destroyed in combat takes its character with it!
Most players base their characters on round bases in order
to make them visually differential from standard troops on their 20mm x 40mm
stands.
House Rules
As I pointed out in my last post. My table is significantly
smaller than the 6ft x 4ft recommended size. As such I have made some
adjustments to movement, command and shooting distances. Halving movement and
command distances and cutting shooting distance by a third. To summarise:
Initiative distance is 10cm
Artillery in regular formation moves 5cm per order
Infantry in regular order moves 10cm per order
Cavalry in regular order moves 15cm per order
Wizards maximum order distance is 10cm
Heroes and Runesmith order distance is 30cm
Order distance penalty is -1 per 10cm.
Artillery range is 40cm
Missile troops and flame cannon range is 20cm
Goblin infantry and Wolfboyz range is 10cm.
In addition I am using the “slow” rule from Warmaster
Ancients. Any troops with a 4+ save has a -1 penalty to any subsequent order
after the first per command phase.
Deployment
There was a point where I was determined to make this a
scenario based game. I even got out some wagons to make it a version of Spring
Hill from the Franklin/Nashville campaign. But something (cider) made me forget,
and this turned into what Andy Atom Taylor would call: “A focking nahstee
tare-oop”.
So It’s just get all the toys on the table and kick off
right? Wrong.
So we have something awesome called the “Scouting phase”. A
one off event at the start of the game which decides on deployment and first
turn etc.
Normally this would involve secretly writing down units
which you were prepared to deploy in your scouting force. Units such as flying
units, light cavalry and rangers being worth more and other troops being worth
less on a sliding scale. When revealed the scouting value is added to a dice
roll (usually 2D6) and the highest score “outscouts” the enemy.
The winner of the scouting phase chooses the table edge to
deploy on and then must deploy their scouting force (usually 20cm from the
table edge but in this case 10cm). The loser of the scouting phase must then
deploy their entire army for the opposition to survey, before deploying the
remainder of their force.
Brilliant isn’t it?
In this case, I couldn’t keep the scouting secret from
myself. There was the option of committing the orc scouts and then drinking a
bottle of brandy. Then committing the dwarf scouts the next day with my memory
wiped. But I decided to randomising the scouting force with some Excel (RAND)
trickery and a D6 number of scouting units.
The results of this were that the orcs and gobbos committed
5 units and the dwarfs 4.
The Orc vanguard consisted of: Goblin Infantry (0.5); Black
Orcs (0); Boar Riders (1); Wulfboyz (2); Shamanka on Wyvern (3) = 6.5 + dice
roll of 7 = 13.5
The Dwarf vanguard consisted of: Dwarf Warriors (0); Rangers
(2); Cannon (0); Gyrocopter Squadron (3) = 5 + dice roll of 8 = 13.
The orcs win the scouting.
I now try to put myself in the head of the orc general. I
don’t want the dwarfs to have the northern table edge. I don’t want the dwarf
commander to gain the hills for his artillery with his left shielded by the
river and forest, nor to be able to anchor his right flank on the village. So
the orcs select this table edge.
So the orcs set up their vanguard units.
Apologies if the maps are hard to read. If you click on the
maps you should be able to zoom in and read the troop descriptions!
"W" is Graterak on her Wyvern!
Having won the scouting the Orc Vanguard deploys first.
Gorin's dwarfs now need to deploy their entire army. I deploy the artillery in the centre hoping to move it onto the ridge to dominate the battlefield. Frode is tasked with advancing into the farm and using it as an anchor for the dwarf right flank.
Although it should be totally obvious what all dwarf units are, please note that "X" is the gyrocopter squadron, "G" is the general King Gorin, "R" is the Runesmith Ozrim and "H" is the hero Frode.
The Dwarfs Deploy
And now once they can observe the dwarf deployment the Orcs deploy the rest of their army. A unit of orcs and the Giant "Wee Jock Poo-Plop McPlopp" deploy on the flank on the East side of the river.
The labels on the characters are "GH" Goblin hero (Grom the fatbastard); "GS" Goblin Shaman (Skidmarkz); "Gen" (General - Gratnakers) and "OH" (Orc Hero - Boriz)
The rest of the Orc and Goblin army deploys
LET BATTLE COMMENCE!
Here. Shortly.
See you soon.
