Looking for opinions.

[Christopher]

Thought for the day - I am a man of modest means and skill.

I have only just started my Warmaster (Wm) experience in January, but already I feel like doing big things with this little hobby. I remember very little about the game system when it first came out in 2000 however I have to admit it seemed odd to be playing Warhammer at a smaller scale. That was along time ago. I am still fresh and have very much to learn about the hobby as a whole but it has been exciting so far.

I had mixed thoughts about joining WM so late in its life. I am saddened that I missed out on much of the excitement that a new game would have surely created and even more depressed knowing that I missed out on some of the very best models they released for the game, and not having to pay in souls to get the remnants on Ebay.    I am also a little thankful for keeping away from Wm becuase I now get to experience a fresh take on a hobby I have come back to after many years away from the war gaming scene.


For the time being...

I would like to hear from you, the diehards, out there that continue to experience the game in all forms what the status of the hobby and the community as a whole looks like. I am well aware that the actual development of the game is now in a coma like state with further developments including models and rules are very unlikely to happen.  However, we still have access to everything we need to make full use of each official army list and with the exception of Kislev, (sorry guys) is still available from GW directly and some choice retailers.

What does the Wm scene in your town look like? Do you guys have dedicated club days or perhaps a small group of friends that congregate in the garage once a week? At least for now I live in a small town which is considered a "remote location" so hobby shops and major centers are not something I have access to. This leaves me with only the hobby aspect at the moment and no gaming.

The future...

The other day I noticed there is simply no Warmaster presence to be found on YouTube. Needless to say that is the largest source of free content and the ideal place for a struggling hobby to be showcased. I am exploring the possibility of using YouTube to share my Warmaster experience with others while hopefully encouraging people to either try the hobby or discreet gamers to be more active in the community.   

With that said I need to ask.  If done right do you think it could be entertaining/worth watching. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome.


~Chris

[David Wasilewski]

Here's my opinion for what it's worth!

Fantastic game, simple but with great depth. Best game GW ever released. It didn't do well because the scale is 10mm and that doesn't appeal to kids as much as 28mm. As well as Epic, its the only GW games I play now. (but I hardly play Epic)

It's totally dead as far as GW are concerned. Its never coming back and the moulds are all on their last legs and probably won't be re tooled when they go. I'd buy as much as you can now as the entire range may suddenly disappear one day. There are other figure manufactorors out there though e.g. Kallistra, Pendraken etc.....

There are a few thriving pockets of warmaster in Europe, Canada, States, Australia etc but no mass market. Usually the way it goes is that one person buys a couple of armies, showcases a game with a pal and the local group is slowly converted. In my group, in Lancashire, UK there are about 6 of us with multiple armies. We tend to play BIG games (the record to date is 8K a side) on large tables, over a weekend or a couple of evenings. Warmaster works best when you use large armies (4K+ a side) in my humble opinion.

There's a thriving community that all play warmaster with local "house rules" and "house interpretations" but this isn't an issue unless you're going to a tournament or something. As long as you can secure a couple or more armies then many people become real fanatics. I have 6 very large armies (not all painted) and have been playing warmaster regularly now for about 6 years. I bought and played it when it was first released but it didn't catch our imaginations then. I think that was because we didn't play with enough terrain or with large enough forces.

Welcome to the game!!

Dave

[Stormwind]

I'd love to see a Youtube modelling blog of finding and cleaning up and making a WM army!

I, too, am a newbie - mostly excited by a High Elf Army I bought on ebay.

AND the doorbell just rang and oh man, 26 blisters of High Elves are sitting on my bed! <3 <3 <3

[Lex]

My oppinion hardly classifies, as I am obviously biased.

But, that said, there are a lot of things to be said for this game, and the new and improved versions of it. Dont be supprised to find a LOT of people have an army (or two) stashed away in their gaming closet/den and can be teased into bring these along and start playing the game given an opportunity. Once playing on a decently "clad" table and with armies around 2k most gamers get hooked   

For the size of the worldwide community there is plenty of basic stuff to go round, and even with GW dropping out we could find stock to bring in new players for some time to come. Besides IF  GW would drop out, there would be less issues with other suppliers filling in the need. In a pinch you could even easily work the game with 15 mm figures, and even with 25/28/30 should you not mind the rebasing. IMHO the rulessets that Rick has worked on since all still show the Warmaster DNA.

Most of the review work, the v2 armylists etc and even a basic inventory of areas that needed a rebash for WM v2 was already done by, and coordinate within the gaming community, with just very basic guidelines and support from GW (read at that moment Rick), so there is no reason why we could not proceed in that area, should we want too.

However, the current status quo works fine. As stated above, the various meta-gaming environments use slight adaptations of the basic WM engine, and as long as we have an "event" baseline of the rules we are fine.

The one things we could use more, is an exchange of players from the various groups on a more or less regular base, but that means organziing events (like the EuroGT). Waht also helps are excersizes like the play-on-forum that was done a couple of weeks ago.

[David Wasilewski]

I dream of a Warmaster Fantasy second edition, properly bound book with glossy photos and tidied up rules (no cutting and pasting!) and balanced, up to date army lists of all the current variants all in one volume with contiguous page numbers and an index. I'd be willing to pay a lot for a book like that!

It would be a way of uniting the community, generating lots of interest from newbies and encouraging other manufacturors to fill in the gap left (foolishly) by GW if/when they drop this range of figures.

After GW drop the line (eventually), do you think they'd allow the fanatics to do this Lex? And do you think there would be any chance of luring Rick to lead it?

Dave

[calmacil]

...what the status of the hobby and the community as a whole looks like.

What does the Wm scene in your town look like? Do you guys have dedicated club days or perhaps a small group of friends that congregate in the garage once a week?

For me....... I used to play warhammer, we had one game of warmaster and that was it.... warmaster is so much better than WHFB  Infact i've just sold my 12k O&G army on ebay.

The main driving force behind our group of 5 players is me, that 5 includes me as well. It's difficult for me to get games out of 3 of them. We all live in Nott'm uk. I think it's a good location for wargaming, we have the GW HQ gaming Halls as our local club, it's got 60 great tables, a bar next door, lots of atmosphere. But most of my opponents refuse to have a game there, they all work there, and don't want to be there after work.

Whenever we do have a game of warmaster it attracts lots of attention. We've got other GW people that want to join us in a campaign, but i doubt they will. I've got one friend that wants to buy a 3k painted empire army off me, so hopefully he'll have a few games. I hope we can get a regular campaign going. Ideally i'd like to be having a game every week, or every fortnight.

[Geep]

I'm all alone in my Warmaster collecting. I've got many armies ready to be made- all at 2000pts minimum. I have 4000pts of painted High Elves and am working on some Orcs to oppose them.

I've also been almost alone in my playing of 40k and fantasy in the local area, but it seems a new local gaming group is starting- I hope that with multiple painted armies I may be ble to generate WM interest.

I have seen one video recorded WM battle, but can't remember where I saw it. More would be great- I like seeing other people's strategies.

[Big Red]

Geep - that video was from punkscum and it's here on this forum (I think).  Scroll back on this sub-forum for it.

I'm lucky in that there are at least 3-4 local players close to me here in Oz - unfortunately Geep, you're just that little bit too far away to drop around for a quick game!!


Along with you Dave, I would be happy to pay for that new, shiney, updated rule book!

And I agree with all comments so far - WM is a fantastic game!!

[jchaos79]

The vid is in the battle report suborum. And it is a great vid.

Also polish community has another vid

[jchaos79]

"Thought for the day - I am a man of modest means and skill."
Me too, and that is perfect for 10mm games. Warmaster have my favourite engine of wargame but also to represent a battle. With some uncertanty, tactics and "the smog of battle". Simple, elegant, easy with no changing of rules every two years and the capacity of bring you a real fantasy experience and also a real battle simulation for historic. I use to play the systems (historical, medieval, bofa and fantasy) with their own rules and do not try to unify all together becasue they were written with an intention.

It is not too expensive, really fun to paint and easier than bigger scales. Little room for battle and little room also for storage. There is a wide variety of figures out there and GW keep almost all figures at sells.

I have some armies: egypt, hittite, orc and goblin, undead, chaos, empire, high elves, dwarves, french ordennance, italian condotta, almoraivd. Now raising a El cid army and expanding my almoravid to fantasy to get a fantasy araby.  -- It only takes time and presverence, not really skill to build the armies.

I used to game with some friends in Madrid (spain) in a club or at home. Last year I move to Vigo ( a city in the north of spain) and since then I have to drive 600Km if I want to make a game. So I am not playing too much but still painting and enjoying the hobby.

"For the time being..."

I was not in warmaster during the "golden age" when warmagazines came out with regularity, and came out to sell new blisters and new armies.

Today we have this forum of motivated players, a great activity in ebay, a lot of blogs, and houserules. So it is enough for me.

The future...

Well I guess, with Rick out of GW, and the game rights in GW. I could only see the future of fan community... but,... we have all we need, a great ruleset, a range of figures and a lot of imagination... we need more?         well I think YES. New people interested in to keep the game alive (and to find new opponents when you move to other city ). 

I wonder if new player searchings a formula of what warmaster could give them now choose hail ceaser or other set of rules quite similar to warmaster?

hope my opinion helps

[marell le fou]

About future, i fear the WM range will one day suddenly disapear and that will be all from GW side.

After that, fortunately, there are enough stuff to let WM alive if fans hangs on.

I regret two things :

- There is no international forum for the game, so players are not regrouped.
- We have no media to directly show our battle reports to the Warhammer Battle player. Forums with a Battle Report section are frequently strictly ordered by game, what is a big mistake from my point of view. And so, players continue to read Battle Report of games they already play.

[calmacil]

About future, i fear the WM range will one day suddenly disapear and that will be all from GW side.

It's a shame that GW wouldn't consider selling the rights of warmaster to a new company that would spring life into it again (maybe giving them rights to their masters/moulds/rules set) Similar to a company like Fantasy Flight games that has redone old GW games like Fury of Dracula, and many others (think they did warhammer roleplay)
One of the first things this new company could do is release a glossy new book like Dave mentions  and then whatever they wanted. Maybe their own forum that discusses their future plans. I'm daydreaming, but it would be great.

[Christopher]

There have many good points mentioned here. It goes without saying that the diehards will still play and collect becuase they enjoy it. It also seems like everybody has accepted the games current state without holding there breath for "new stuff".  With that said it would be neat to have a more consolidated place for Warmaster players to congregate and share there battles and pictures but this forum is plenty adequate even if it is a little obscure.

I have thought a little more about the aforementioned YouTube channel and the more I think about the more I would like to do it. At the very least it would get me a little more familiar with video editing and perhaps exploring software and camera choices.  If I decided to go through with it what would people find interesting to watch?

I currently have access to the Rulebook and most of the magazines so I can definitely share my thoughts on the games system itself and introduce the various articles in the somewhat rare magazines to new players who are without. Painting and modeling should be something I am capable of doing as well, though hardly professionally. 

Any body else have some ideas?

[Geep]

I currently have access to the Rulebook and most of the magazines

This reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask for a while-
I should soon have completed the full collection of WM magazines- is it a good idea/ legal to scan these and have them posted on this forum, like the Fanatic magazines done by CyberShadow?

I'm lucky in that there are at least 3-4 local players close to me here in Oz - unfortunately Geep, you're just that little bit too far away to drop around for a quick game!!

Just a little bit too far... I think I'm actually closer to Marell le fou (who's i another country) than I am to you guys!

[Lex]

Just a little bit too far... I think I'm actually closer to Marell le fou (who's i another country) than I am to you guys!

But you would need an aquatic army for the trip, or enough MOW