Recently Mike from our Age of Heroes D&D Campaign gave me his old Warmaster army. He explained that he and a friend had gotten into it in the early 2000's, and really hadn't touched it since then. He figured that given my affinity for games I could at least find something to do with it. Little did he know that I am completely obsessed with discontinued game titles and Warmaster is just that.
Warmaster is the epic scale version of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy table top miniatures game. Where a regular game of Warhammer is played in 28mm scale and is meant to focus on a small slice of a greater battle, Warmaster is played in 10mm and represents the entire battle or at least or a much large slice of the conflict. Using 10mm miniatures makes this possible, because the figures are so small, that an entire unit can be represented on a base no longer than 2 inches. As you can imagine such a drastically different scale, requires some very different rules and of course that means Warmaster has had a very different history when compared to Warhammer.
Warmaster is a relatively new game in the grand scheme of things. It was produced by Games Workshop from 2000 until 2013 when they discontinued their specialist games. Essentially, Games Workshop just let their stocks run out and then never made more. So there are a limited number of Warmaster minis out there. So when looking for another army I certainly wasn't going to find any official support from Games Workshop.
Minis aside, my first goal was to find a copy of the rules. That was the easy part. A Warmaster "Living Rulebook" is available online free download. It has been updated over the years by the community, and is hoenslty a really neat project! However, if you are like me you also like to own a physical copy, which you can easily find on eBay for around $10-$20 plus some shipping and handling fees. As I was searching for rules and discovering its low price and seeming availability, I began to figure that maybe this game simply wasn't that popular and was far enough underground that no one played it any more. I was thinking I could get some official minis for a reasonable price. It was seeming hopeful; but I was wrong.
To get a Warmaster "Starer Army" (one of the Games Workshop premade kits to get your army going) you have to do a bit of digging and once you find one, be prepared to spend around $100-$200 depending on the army you want to play. Individual mini blisters sell for any where for $40-$80 per blister, or even per figure row. I was a little disheartened. I already play an expensive table top miniatures game and was hoping this would be a little more affordable. You know, something I could dabble in.
Dealers in Plastic an Pewter Crack since 1975 |
But I wasn't ready to give up yet. As I explored eBay I kept finding 10mm minis that claimed to be Warmaster that were not produced by Games Workshop. So there was something there. I broaden my search of internet and found an amazing list of online stores that sell 10mm figures. Searching through this list I found support for all 6 standard Warmaster armies, and further I found full support for the additional armies included in the short lived Warmaster Magazine.
It seemed the despite being discontinued 5 years ago, Warmaster was very much alive and well. Starting kits from these companies range closer to the $30-$50 range, and sure they are third party and "counts-as" but in the end it doesn't really matter. There is no official support for this game, other than the fans who have rallied around third party manufactures and each other to fill that gap.
I have not actually played this game yet, but I have decided the first battle will be done against the Chaos Force shown and a proxy army of something else before committing any money. I have made that mistake before and want to make sure I will actually this game before I drop any real time or funds into it. But I am optimistic. I have read it is fantastic game, and there are even version for hosting historic battles. So I can't wait!
Have you played Warmaster? Tell us about your army!
Written by: Andrew Gregory
Warmaster: 10mm Fantasy Gone but Not Forgotten
Reviewed by JADE Gaming
on
6/27/2018 02:05:00 pm
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