Picking the Army

Army lists and rules are provided for 25 Warmaster armies. All armies are chosen in the same fashion using the appropriate list. The army lists are included on the following pages and you may wish to skip forward to your favoured army as you read through the rest of this section.

Both sides select troops and characters up to the same maximum points value. Three ‘standard‘ sized battles are considered here. Smaller and larger battles, or battles with intermediate points values, can also be arranged as discussed later.

A small battle is ideal for beginners or for demonstrating the game but the tactical possibilities are limited. Small battles are more susceptible to the fortunes of dice rolling than are large battles. Medium sized battles are considered the usual kind and will typically last for a whole evening‘s play - although experienced players have been known to cram four or more such battles into a single day.

Large battles require more leisure but offer a varied game that better reflects the subtleties of the command system. Substantially bigger battles can be fought with even more points per side if players wish. Beware that a very large game can take an entire day or even several days to complete. There is no real maximum limit beyond the number of models and the size of the gaming area available. 10,000 points or more is certainly feasible. With very large armies it helps to have additional players to help move troops and roll dice.

Note that the army size indicates the maximum points value that can be spent. Armies can have fewer points than this value but cannot have more. Often it is impossible to spend the odd few points so a medium sized ‘2000 point‘ army might have only 1995 points of models. Such an army is still a 2000 point army as far as we are concerned. It is the maximum permitted value that determines the army size not the actual points spent.

The army lists are designed to work with armies of round thousands of points (1000, 2000, 3000, etc). However, it is also possible to choose armies of other sizes - say 1500 or 750. This is slightly less convenient but useful if players are still building their armies and want to use units as they are purchased. This is explained under Selecting the Army.

Begin with the army list for your chosen army. The different lists include all the units available for each side together with their game stats, points values and special rules where appropriate. Most of this information is condensed into a single stat line for each unit. Any additional information is noted as special rules after the army list itself. Stat lines are presented as follows:

Choose units and characters to make up the army. You can choose up to a maximum total value appropriate to the size of game. For example, High Elf Spearmen are 60 points per unit so 5 such units are worth 300 points.

Players are not entirely free to select forces as they want. Some units must always be included and some other units can only be included in limited numbers. These restrictions are indicated by the minimum/maximum column (min/max) in the army lists. The min/max value consists of two numbers separated by a slash – for example 1/2. The first number shows the minimum number of that unit/character the army must include for every 1000 points of army size. The second number shows the maximum number of that unit/character the army can include for every 1000 points of army size.

For example, in a Bretonnian army, Squires are min/max 1/4. This means that in a 1000 point army the player must include at least 1 unit but cannot include more than 4. In a 2000 point army the minimum is therefore 2 and the maximum 8, in a 3000 point army minimum 3 maximum 12, and so on.

If an entry includes a dash instead of a number this means no minimum or maximum applies. The player can chose as few or as many of this troop types as he wishes within the limitations of the points available. For example, –/2 means that in a 1000 points army there is no minimum and the maximum is 2, while 1/– means there is a minimum of 1 and no maximum.

All armies must include a single General. An army can never include more than one General no matter what its size. The Min/Max column is given as 1 to show this. You may have decided your armies will be chosen to 1500 points or some other odd number. In this case determine min/max values by rounding your actual army size down to the next full 1000‘s. So, a 1500 point army is selected using the minimums and maximums for a 1000 point army, a 2250 point army is the same as a 2000 and so on.

If your chosen army size is less than 1000 points then use the 1000 point maximums but ignore the minimums. Very small games can be a useful exercise for learning the rules but be warned that the game does not work particularly well with extremely small forces and battles may feel bewilderingly rapid.

The value of any permitted magic items is added to that of the unit or character that carries them. Magic items must be allocated to specific characters and a separate note made. This will increase the points value of the unit or character appropriately, and the total cost must be taken into account when working out victory points. See Magic in the rulebook p.76 or a Magic Items Overview on p.88 in this book.