Work in Progress: Warmaster International Playtestweekend

[Edmund2011]

On the wishlist... French and Spanish, Greek and maybe a stay Viking?

Man, finally I won't be able to go..   ...at least this year 

It would have been nice to go to play and meet you all. I hope there will be more WM events soon.

Pictures of the weekend please!! 

[Heiko]

At the weekend my son and me will join the party with our armies. I'm looking forward for it.


By the way - I will bring some "spare miniatures" (Orcs/Goblins/Chaos) with me and hope for some "trading opportunities". I'm looking for: Undead Chariots / Dwarf-Anvil / Dwarf-Throne / probably some Artillery of the Dwarfs.

Greetings - Heiko -

[Heiko]

Back home, exhausted.

My brain is filled with huge amounts of impressions, is was wonderfull!

Thanks to all of you, thank you Lex!

[Alexander]

I really enjoyed playing warmaster against the veterans.  I had not played for 10+ years or so and was forgetting important parts of the rules and tactics (drive back etc) but my empire army didn't get defeated as bad as I expected even though my dice rolling was substandard. 1 loss, 1 win and a draw

Thanks for organising the event it was fun and I learned a lot!

[Jurisch]

Hi,

good to see you all and have several nice combats. Thanks to Lex for the organisation.

Most of the tested rules should get standard rules.

Scouting: + should be in the official advanced rules
Roads: + should be in the official Advanced rules
Support:+ should be in the official standard rules. Makes infantery a better choice
Flank: + should be in the official Standard rules
Command: +/- my recommendation: only within first round of the match and no charging. Max. 2 moves instead of 3.
Advanced rules

Front or flank: fix 45 rule within official rule book to avoid further discussions

Combat: Minimum 1 attack should be within the official rules.

It would be great to have a complete online rule book with all additions. Would be happy to do a translation in German to get more people to the Game.

Regards,
Jürgen

[Lex]

Thanks Jurgen!  I will overhaul the stuff, and when Jim puts up the revised Scouting article we will proceed to publish!.  This should also make a good (serries of) article(s) for Jorge.

[Aldhick]

So you enjoyed it, I bet. Please guys, can you be more specific on the tested rules and suggested changes, especially the command issue? Getting excited. Thanx

[Lex]

So you enjoyed it, I bet. Please guys, can you be more specific on the tested rules and suggested changes, especially the command issue? Getting excited. Thanx

Yes, I will (sooooon my preciouss....... soon)  but I need to pick up Regular Life (TM) first after 3 weeks of hectic preparations! for the event!

[Dave]

Thanks again Lex, it was good to put some faces to forum goers.

Ed, I have one of your Balls of Confusion.

Aldhick, here's a break down I sent to my friends. This was most of what we played with I think.

Scouting - In a nut shell, you ante units which give you a scouting
bonus and both players roll a 2D6 + bonus. The winner places the anted
units, the loser places their entire army, and then the winner places
their army. Not a huge game changer but it definitely speeds up setup
as opposed to the I place, you place brigade thing.

Support before casualties - Normally you remove casualties and then
count up support. Instead we counted support and then removed
casualties. This definitely gave a boost to infantry, and really made
you want to have support.

Flyers charge 60cm - Instead of 100cm, but they still could move
100cm. It never came up in my games, my Eagles always got shafted.

One round to pursue cav/flyers - Normally infantry and monsters can't
pursue cav or flyers, and cav can't pursue flyers. If you hit them in
the flank though we gave them one round of pursuit. I don't think this
came up in my games though.

Terrain rules - A whole bunch of them:

Broken Ground - Terrain that doesn't count as open but doesn't confer
defended/LoS blockage.

Road - Units in column that start and end their move on a road may
ignore the command modifier for the next order. So, my General orders
them on a 10, and then again on a 10 for order 2, 3, etc. All other
modifiers (distance, within 20 of enemy, losses) apply.

Build Up Area - Aka a town. Everything can enter it. You can see 4cm
through it, and infantry that are charged will count as defended. Additionally,
anything can be pursued while in it.

In Terrain/Out of Terrain - We did it by the unit, not the stand. If
one stands was 1mm in the terrain it was "in it" and could claim
defended. However, the part of the unit outside the terrain could be
charged and would be counted as a charge in the open. In effect, both
sides get the best modifier. The charger gets +1 dice for charging in
the open, but the chargee counts as defended and can only be hit on
5+.

[Lex]

Road - Units in column that start and end their move on a road may
ignore the command modifier for the next order. So, my General orders
them on a 10, and then again on a 10 for order 2, 3, etc. All other
modifiers (distance, within 20 of enemy, losses) apply.

It is the command modifier on 2d order !! after that it applies normally

[Dave]

Didn't catch that part this weekend.

[Lex]

Didn't catch that part this weekend.

Their where some nuances played during the games...  I will straighten it out later this weekend in a full rundown. In the mean time you overview is a good starting point for discussion!

[jchaos79]

Sounds like a good time!

Thanks Jurgen!  I will overhaul the stuff, and when Jim puts up the revised Scouting article we will proceed to publish!.  This should also make a good (serries of) article(s) for Jorge.

Great, good news.

[empireaddict]

Thanks again to Lex for organising a great event and to everyone for making it such a great atmosphere.  Here’s my personal take on the various things we playtested:

ROADS. 
I think a bonus should apply but I would suggest it is simplified.  A unit in column which starts on a road, moves only along a road, and ends in column on a road is +1 to order.

SUPPORT
I very strongly support the counting of support before removal of casualties.  This would be number 1 in my list of things to fix in WMF.

FLANKS
I have never liked ‘pinning’ with units going from frontal positions to envelope flanks, but I accept that is a minority position.  Therefore I would welcome clarification of what constitutes a ‘flanking’ position for an ordinary charge.

60CM CHARGE FOR FLYERS
I very strongly support this change.

VISIBILITY OF 4 CM IN WOODS/BUILDINGS
I support this change.

IN/OUT OF TERRAIN
Part of unit in terrain, so whole unit gets defensive benefits.  Attackers get charging benefits against those stands that are not wholly in the terrain.  I support this as it gives a third dimension to what has been a very two-dimensional terrain system.

CAVALRY AND MONSTERS CAN ENTER WOODS/BUILDINGS
I would not support this change.  In fact, I strongly disagree with it.  One of the problems with WMF, I think, is that cavalry have been overly powerful.  Allowing them into previously denied terrain makes them stronger by letting them become, in effect, infantry based on a narrow edge.

ANYONE CAN PURSUE FOR ONE ROUND IF FLANKING
This was good and helped to rebalance infantry versus cavalry.  I would strongly support this change.

MULTIPLE MOVES IF CHARACTERS ROLL VERY LOW DICE
I would not support this change.  In fact, I strongly disagree with it.  This additional layer of complexity was explained as a way of speeding up the start of the game.  In that regard, it seemed to be a complex solution in search of a simple problem.  If there is a difficulty with slow starts, then use the scouting rules to speed the placing of armies and then simply adopt a higher tempo of play (aka “get on with it” or “do; don’t discuss”).

[Dave]

ROADS. 
I think a bonus should apply but I would suggest it is simplified.  A unit in column which starts on a road, moves only along a road, and ends in column on a road is +1 to order.

Do you mean a +1 for their next order? If so, ya that's dead simple and represents roads well.

CAVALRY AND MONSTERS CAN ENTER WOODS/BUILDINGS
I would not support this change.  In fact, I strongly disagree with it.  One of the problems with WMF, I think, is that cavalry have been overly powerful.  Allowing them into previously denied terrain makes them stronger by letting them become, in effect, infantry based on a narrow edge.

If anything can be pursued in woods/buildings I'd still like to keep testing it. I'd think twice of sending expensive cav into terrain against defended infantry, especially when the infantry might get a second round against them.

MULTIPLE MOVES IF CHARACTERS ROLL VERY LOW DICE
I would not support this change.  In fact, I strongly disagree with it.  This additional layer of complexity was explained as a way of speeding up the start of the game.  In that regard, it seemed to be a complex solution in search of a simple problem.  If there is a difficulty with slow starts, then use the scouting rules to speed the placing of armies and then simply adopt a higher tempo of play (aka “get on with it” or “do; don’t discuss”).

I forgot about that one. Essentially Command 8 and above gave a unit/brigade three orders on a roll of 2 or 3, and two orders on a roll of 4 or 5. Command 7 and below gave them two orders on a 2 or 3.

I wasn't a fan of this one either. It puts too much weight on the result of one roll. If people are having that much trouble getting armies out of their deployment zone every game then make a house rule, the main rules don't need a change here.