"Alternatives to Warmaster rules ?" Topic

I'm starting up a couple of 10mm armies and before i start basing them was wondering what other similar rules were out there that i might have missed ?

One army is a barbarian type and one is a mixed Skeleton /zombie one, roughly at 2000 warmaster points each at the moment with figures from Kallistra/Pendraken. I LIKE the "special" units (monsters) and a bit of "magic" in the rules!

i Want to keep with the big armies so any small unit/skirmish types are out.
so is there anything else suitable to try ?

many thanks.

ps i also have WMA already so might tack on magic rules to that set and use it.

You know the fantasy warmaster rules are free on the GW website with magic already in them right?

One that comes to my mind is "Hordes & Heroes". Available free here link
I also don't see why you couldn't use "Demon World" link
I also would recommend Chipco`s "Fantasy Rules 3rd Edition"
sabersedge.com/chipco

Hope that gives you some alteratives.
Cheers.
GeorgeD

I love fantasy Warmaster (and for a little more tidbits for the magic, check out the Battle of Five Armies rules). But you might also consider Hordes of the Things (HOTT), which is the fantasy version of DBA. I haven't played HOTT, but DBA is quick and fun and HOTT is frequently praised here.

Mighty Armies. The basic rules are currently available from Rebel Minis and they are next in the queue for rewrite and expansion. Less complex than Warmaster and the armies tend to be smaller.

Warrior Heroes from 2Hour Wargames would also work well with 10mm figures in mass armies.

I'll second Warrior Heroes. While I haven't played it, I have played the historical version it is based on, Warrior Kings.
Neat system in the Two Hour Wargames style. You can check out Warrior Kings on the WK Yahoo group to see if you are interested, but the Warrior Heroes version is more recent, thus has a few improvements, plus has the fantasy rules.

Regular Warmaster is an excellent fantasy game, and its aimed at exactly what you want, big battles instead of skirmishes.

Either the Khemri or the Vampire Counts undead lists would probably cover your undead army, and for the barbarians you could adapt either the Kislev lists or the Chaos lists.

I'm reading "Fantasy Rules 3rd ed' right now… interesting, reminds me of HOTT without so much DBA.
(and a lot more unit choices & options)

I'd say either Warmaster or Fantasy Rules 2nd edition. Less cluter and chrome and available as a download, IIRC.

Thanks,

John

For basing stick everything on 40mm x 20mm. Best to stick the cavalry on the long edge rather than the short. WM bases all cavalry facing the short edge which makes them incompatible with any other rules set that I know of. Have a look at WMA alternative basing section for long edge based cavalry.

Serious, Warmaster is a great set of rules and the way to go IMO.

Chad

Are there any reviews available for Fantasy Rules ? I've looked at the website and there's not much information about it. $20 USD for a pdf seems quite expensive.

Thanks for all the replies.

Looks like i'll stick to Warmaster then !

and Agent Brown, i agree, i was planning on basing cavalry long edge ala WMA which i also have.

Will look at one or two of the other rules once the armies are done.

Fantasy Rules 3rd is great… don't know of any specific reviews… but I know I read a couple somewhere… interest in FR seems to have died down quite a bit when it went to PDF.
$20 USD is maybe a bit much… but it used to be more…

I played extensive FR2. I own but have not played FR3. The games are essentially the same but FR3 gives you more options and tweaks and army lists. Like you needed more. :) We had a blast while ti lasted but got burned out because the game subscribed to the dame "line up the bases" mentality that the other WRG games do. It created situations where you could not fight a unit…just like DBx. The other problem was that magic was very powerful. We had games where armies were nearly demoralized BEFORE the rank and file line actually met.

It is, IMHO, still a far superior product to HoTT. The magic problems can easily be fixed. That was the big ruiner of the game to me.

Nothing like having your Undead army crumble to dust when all your Magic Users are whacked in FR.

:-) Yeah, I played Undead as one of my 20+ FR armies.

The pricing fiasco did kill interest in FR. That is a shame since the rules are good. We limited magic and it made a huge difference. The other issue with FR is that the army design system can be readily abused. I remember some cheezy armies trying to whup up on me. Eventually we saw reason and happily played about 20+ games until 3rd. We played pretty large games too. I still have all my army lists. Sitting on my table. I had about 12-15 players involved with 2nd. I had played since first (not 1.5) edition. The PDF thing had everyone walking away.
Shame. Fun rules.

Thanks,

John

Warmaster is really very good, despite suspect heritage.