REVOLUTION Editor's Notes: As Rick Priestley once said, the Warmaster Ancients (WMA) is practically the second edition of Warmaster. Actually the second edition of Warmaster (WM) was written as well however it has never been (and very likely never will be) published. Knowing this, our gaming community focused on WMA rules just to find out they solve most, or better all the blind spots of WM (e.g. cavalry supremacy over infantry, support issue etc.). In our eyes it was obviously an advanced version of Warmaster. As the WMA covers a different setting to WM, it was not possible to simply use the rules with fantasy army lists. There already has been an attempt to create WMA rules for WM armies made by French Warmaster community. They created the Warmaster Evolution ruleset, but written in French. We would love to use these rules, unfortunately none of us can speak or even read French. That's why we decided to create our own ruleset written in English so everyone from the worldwide community can use it. We named it Warmaster Revolution in respect of French rules. Unlike Warmaster Evolution, which is complete rewrite of WMA (plus Flyers and Magic), Warmaster Revolution is based on structure of original WM rules. The point is to be more familiar for WM players. Aldhick WARMASTER REVOLUTION v. 0.5 ® By Rick Priestley with Stephan Hess & Alessio Cavatore COVER ART ARTISTS Geoff Taylor John Blanche, Alex Boyd, David Gallagher, Nuala Kennedy, Neil Hodgson, Karl Kopinski & John Wigley Edited by Aldhick Special thanx to: CJ Bennett, Jim Beech, Paul Winter, Barry Pittman, Spiro Dotgeek, Fritz Eloff, Shane Streeting, Ole Hansen, Kristofer Dingwell, Radomir Klabacka, This publication is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. Warmaster, Warmaster logo and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer universe are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners. Multitudes march to war. Innumerable bodies merge into a single mass like insects beneath the eye of a colossus. Columns stretching invisibly into the distance twist their way along roads pounded to dust beneath iron-shod feet. Before them lie the border lands of the enemy, dark forests that swallow armies as easily as a toad swallows a fly, swelling rivers whose distant banks shimmer under a hazy sun and finally, a wall of black-towered fortresses whose serried battlements rise in stony defiance of would-be conquerors. here can be few people who have collected and of conflict. Veteran players who have become expert at T gamed with armies of model warriors who have not other games, particularly at Warhammer, may at first find dreamed of recreating the ultimate big battle. Such a some of the concepts in Warmaster disturbingly battle wouldn’t be just a battle – or rather not just the unfamiliar. As these concepts underpin the whole game immediate confrontation between rival warriors – but it’s probably worthwhile taking a look at these from the would encompass the manoeuvre and counter- start. manoeuvre of armies, the disposition of whole brigades Warmaster is fundamentally a game based on a general’s and the execution of bold strategies as imaginative as ability to command rather than on his troops’ ability to they are ambitious. As venerable generals will know, few fight, although that will come in useful too! Each turn of games offer such opportunities, preferring instead to the game reflects the time taken to consider, formulate, restrict themselves to the minutiae of individual combat communicate and enact decisions made by the general and the intricate details of weapons and armour. Such rather than the literal time it might take for a man to walk things have their place, without doubt, but there surely or run a certain distance or shoot an arrow. Indeed, as in beckons a bigger and altogether grander challenge. real wars, we must assume that our warriors spend a And that, I guess, is what the Warmaster game is all great deal of time awaiting orders and relatively little about! I haven’t enough room here to tell you the details. time actually moving or fighting. This idea underpins the Flick through the book and you’ll get an idea of how the whole Warmaster game. Enough pre-ambling for now! game is structured. The photographs will show you what I’ve expounded further upon the thinking behind the the model armies look like far more effectively than game at suitable points in the book where I felt it helped words can describe. What I would like to say is that explain why specific rules work in certain ways. Warmaster is a very different game to games you might Therefore it only remains for me to say that I hope you have played before. Indeed, it is very different from enjoy exploring, playing and (as I would make no claims to Games Workshop’s well known Warhammer game, for perfection) improving upon the Warmaster game as example, because it represents an entirely different level much as I’ve enjoyed creating it. Stone shatters with a crack like thunder and broken towers tumble upon the crowds below. Hundreds are crushed in a moment as a mass of dark stone crashes to the ground but the undiminished tide surges forwards, scrambling over the ruins of the fortress wall. With a thousand voices, the horde proclaims its possession of the land it has won - a new nation forged in battle to rule all others! Through the smoke and ruin of destruction they advance, an unstoppable army whose ranks spill into the broad plain as effortlessly as a flood tide. You look upon them with the unshakeable pride of the indomitable Warmaster. CONTENTS Introducing Warmaster. 6 Generals, Wizards & Heroes at a glance . 58 Game Values . 8 Generals, Wizards & Heroes .. 59 Game Sequence . 11 Game values .. 59 Characters as game pieces . 60 Command phase at a glance . 12 Characters & terrain . 60 The Command phase . 13 Orders from Wizards & Heroes . 60 Initiative movement . 13 Blunders. 61 Ordered movement . 13 Character movement . 62 Giving an order . 14 Joining a unit . 62 Command penalties . 15 Enemy moving through characters. 62 Charge!.. 16 Characters and shooting. 62 Brigades . 16 Characters in combat . 63 Movement at a glance . 18 Monstrous and chariot mounts . 63 Movement. 19 Flying units at a glance . 64 Movement distances . 19 Flying units . 65 Formation & movement. 20 Initiative . 65 Moving by initiative. 23 Orders . 65 Units which move off the table. 25 Home back . 65 Moving . 65 Terrain . 66 Fortified troops . 66 Characters . 66 End of the battle at a glance . 68 The End of the battle .. 70 Turns complete . 70 Player concedes . 70 Withdraw . 70 Shooting phase at a glance. 26 Victory points . 70 The Shooting phase . 27 Attack value . 27 ADVANCED RULES Targets . 27 The aim of the game. 72 Range . 28 The spirit of the game. 72 How to calculate casualties. 28 Artillery and machines . 73 Driving back enemies . 25 Stands. 73 Shooting at charging enemy . 30 Artillery in combat. 73 The role of missile troops. 31 Terrain. 73 Combat phase at a glance . 32 Shooting overhead . 73 Combat phase . 33 Artillery . 74 Combat engagement . 34 Magic . 76 Moving chargers . 34 Spells . 76 Attacks .. 40 Casting spells . 76 Attack modifiers . 41 Magic items . 77 How to calculate damage . 42 Combat results . 43 Supporting troops . 44 Retreats . 45 Aftermatrh. .. 46 Pursuit . 47 Enemy Destroyed . 50 Advance . 50 Fall backs . 51 Unresolved Combat . 52 Defended & fortified troops . 53 Magic standards . .77 Confusion at a glance . 54 Magic weapons . 78 Confusion . 55 Devices of power . 78 When do units become confused? . 55 Optional Rules. 79 Confused units . 56 Making way . 56 THE RULES “ Truly it was said of him, beyond count are his warriors and beyond measure his might.” 5 U INTROD CING WARMASTER armaster is a game of conflict on a grand scale, Because Warmaster units represent such large bodies W fought over an area of ground that we might of troops, the rules for combat emphasise the imagine to be many miles square. Although our position of units rather than the weapons with which models are approximately 10mm high this should not be individual warriors are armed. Troops that are in taken as a literal representation of scale when it advantageous terrain or supported by friends comes to the size of the battlefield. obviously fight more effectively. Even poor quality troops will fight relatively well in these circumstances. The area occupied by a regiment of models is On the other hand, casualties suffered have a direct assumed to encompass hundreds of warriors bearing on a unit’s effectiveness, not only making it including all of their supporting elements such as weaker in combat but also eroding its logistical mules laden with spare ammunition, surgeons’ support, making it harder for the general to direct as wagons, preachers, servants, messengers, scouts and all he wishes. the paraphernalia of warfare. Never mind that the actual number of warriors depicted is typically about 30-40 in the case of an infantry regiment – we must imagine the formation whole and glorious as it marches to battle! This abstraction, by which a few models are taken to represent many more actual A comparable approach has been taken to missile warriors, shouldn’t concern us too much during play, ranges. In the game, a bow can shoot as far as 30cm although it has a direct bearing on the way the rules but this represents a longer distance than a bow could have been formulated.