This is a DRAFT look at the review which will be up on Wargames Journal this week sometime–I think the Journal one will have a few peoples views–not just mine ;-)
I must admit it is hard for me to give an impartial review of Warmaster Ancients as I love the rules they developed from – Warmaster. Now these were not everyone's cup of tea and had a couple of quirks that led to them being like Christmas and Birthdays all at once for the more ‘beardy' type of player. But to most people they provided an excellent, fast set of rules which have been adapted to many a period by different clubs and even into a WWII set of commercial rules (Blitzkrieg Commander). There has always been an ancients version around on the net but these were just army lists for the core rules and for the average ancient wargamer the standard fantasy rules didn't work as well in an ancient setting. Cavalry is to strong and there are not enough troop types. So the rules didn't grab the ancient gamer and make them use their DBX bases for Warmaster. It was clear that if the core rules were to be used in an ancient setting in the ‘mass market' changes had to be made. Rick Priestly went away and has come up with a set of rules which, even taking into account my obvious bias, seem ready to set the ancient gaming world on fire!
Presentation wise they are the normal superb standard Warhammer Historical/GW fare. 144 pages of explanation, rules, army lists, lots of diagrams, full colour and lots of superb 10mm eye candy. This is slightly offset by the graphic they have used on the front cover, which I must admit people tend to love, or think it looks stupid. A kind of ink washed graphic novel type Viking, it appears to be from a series of pictures illustrating a battle and there are other scenes in the book. Personally it doesn't really bother me but quite a few ‘historical gamers' have already commented and used it as a reason to lump the rules immediately in the GW ‘game' not real wargame category – while this is certainly their loss the choice of front cover does leave me a little perplexed.
Firstly what most people who liked Warmaster were mainly concerned with; what do the army lists cover. Well they have split the ‘ancient' period into four main groupings;
Chariot Era – Egyptian, Assyrian & Homeric Greek/Trojan
Ancient Greece and the East – Greek, Achaemenid Persian, Alexandrian Greek, late Achaemenid Persian, The Successors and Indian.
The Rise of Rome – Republican and Imperial Roman, Carthaginian, Gallic, German, Britons, Dacian, Parthian.
The Dark Ages – Sassanid Persian, Late Roman, Early Byzantine, Hun, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman
Each list has the points value, composition restrictions (so my all elephant Carthaginian army is still a boys dream) and special rules to cover ‘national characteristics'. These are what makes each army ‘feel' and play differently. It is a lack of feel and difference in armies which is the major problem I have with a lot of other fast play ancient rules. There is also a list of troops types and how the points are calculated for those people who want to devise other lists that are not present until the ‘official' versions are released. At WJ we are already working on a few to bring to you over the next month or two.
Another query usually at the forefront of gamers thinking about giving new rules is the scale and basing used. The game is geared for 10mm figures based on 40x20mm bases (standard warmaster basing), most things apart from ‘shock' troops (phalanx and cataphracts are an example) are based with a 40mm frontage. Most stands are a 20mm depth. This gives instant access to people who have their 15mm based up on 40mm frontage stands which is popular with the Dbx systems, but this has always been the Warmaster standard as well. There is a section in the rules which gives suggestions for converting to other base sizes, so apart from the trouble when you travel to play you should be able to muddle through with most basing conventions. 28mm figures perhaps give the biggest headache, but at WJ we have always managed, you just need a very big playing area.
So onto the rules themselves. The mechanics are fantastically simple in theory, each unit is made of 3 stands (with artillery being the exception here) and each stand has a ‘stat' line covering, type, attack, range (if applicable), hits and armour. These stats and the quick play sheet are all you need after a couple of intro games, the examples in the rules are then there to help out if the combat gets tricky.
It is a Igo/Ugo system with combat being simultaneous and fought each player turn. This system works well alongside the ‘jewel in the crown' of the Warmaster rules system – the command mechanism. Each leader (you normally have a General and one or more ‘officers') has a command value. To give an order to a group of units (up to 4) the player needs to roll the value or under. Base values are usually 8 or 9 with some 7's and 10's. The base value is modified by various factors. Examples are; each consecutive order, distance from leader, terrain and the proximity and position of enemy units. Thus the first order is often achieved, but it can fail (esp with bad leaders and tricky situations) and then you can risk it and try for another (up to 3 can be given) but it is a risky business. Once failed that leader has to stop issuing orders, failed troops can't be ordered again either, and you move onto the next leader type. If the General fails that is the order phase over. This system has built in ‘fog' and major C&C issues. You can play it safe or risk it all, the choice is yours. There is a kind of excitement or trepidation (depending on what ‘side' you are on) at seeing some cavalry flank around and head for your troops. At other times there is a feel of dread before the roll – will you make it into position or be left high and dry. Sometimes your other troops let you down as they lag behind, other times you can sweep them across the board and onto victory . Differing values give different armies different ‘feels'. It is this system, which to me, makes the rules way ahead of ‘command pips' and the like, the frustrations and emotions of command are all there waiting for you.
In combat or shooting you roll a number of attacks per stand (modified for combat situational factors – e.g. charging, pursuing, flanked, confused etc) and hit on a D6 roll of 4+ (5+ if the enemy is defended, 6+ if fortified) any hits can be saved if the target has a armour roll (usually a 5 or 6 – non armoured types don't get a save). Then a stand is taken off once the ‘hits' value of the stand has been reached (in one shooting or combat ‘phase', note this can be over each players turn), this is normally 3 hits. Combat is simultaneous and the overall result of the combat determines who is pushed back etc. The victorious side can then choose to persue, stand or ‘fall back' (fall back is better thought of as ‘regroup'), if they destroy the enemy in combat they can advance into another combat.
Combat sees the most changes from the fantasy version, some of these were needed to ‘fix' the mechanism, such as the flank charging rules. But some appear to be there to make the historical version more ‘realistic'. Unlike the fantasy version where a unit can keep going in combat Warmaster Ancients sees only two rounds of combat before the combat becomes ‘unresolved'. This means that the phasing player has the chance to feed more troops into the combat to ‘bolster' the threatened breakthrough point or, on the other hand, to reinforce the breakthrough. The second change is that supporting units now count as being in combat and thus can pursue or be pushed back with the combat etc. This means that combat happens differently than in the fantasy version. It is as bloody but not as chaotic and free wheeling with massive breakthroughs and ‘roll-ups' that tend to occur in Warmaster fantasy. This basically means the combat has a more historical feel to it.
The other major departure from the fantasy version lies in the new troop definitions and ‘skills'. Again most of these were to accommodate the ancient ‘feel'. We see a number of new troop types such as ‘shock' troops, which encompasses phalanx troops and cavalry which fought by ‘shock of impact'. Elephants appear as 20mm frontage troops in units and not the WMA equivalent of ‘monsters' which most people expected. In this way they are more akin to knights in Warmaster fantasy, but ones that cause terror. Non shock cavalry are now based on a 40mm frontage which takes away that ‘super cavalry' syndrome that was present in the straight conversion. National characteristics make the armies have more ‘feel'. Even armies which appear on the face of it to have similar troops types can feel very different and have to be played differently to make the most use of the characteristics. An important addition is the fact that skirmish troops can now try and evade from charges and drive backs (from shooting). This and the fact that most skirmish troops do not count towards your break point makes them far more useful in a historical setting. In the fantasy version light ‘weak' troops are a liability as your opponent goes hunting them. Goblins would be far more useful if they had a similar skill – hint hint to Rick P.
The game ends after a set number of turns (weighted random determination before the game starts) or when an army loses 50% of its units or its General. Victory points are then totalled and it is possible to force a draw even if you have in theory just lost.
Extras – as well as the rules, army lists and other standard GW fare such as painting guides etc there is also a good terrain generation system and ideas for campaigns etc.
There is an excellent ‘designers note' section which explain Mr Priestley's design philosophy. These explain the reason behind the small number of rules which have caused debate so far. Take for instance the fact that after you have charged and dispersed some skirmishers you are effectively spent and can't go that wee bit further to contact the enemy behind them. This seemed wrong to a few of our members until the read the notes and thought about it. Then you can see it is actually a very effective way to model the role of a mass of skirmishers on the battlefield.
All in all this set could not have failed to please me … but is it enough to get new people playing and maybe convert people from other rules. Personally I think it is on both counts. If Blitzkrieg Commander (WW2 version of WM) is seen to be the ‘alternative' for Rapid Fire then I don't see how WMA can possibly NOT give Dbx a very big scare and see people coming across in droves. It will get WM players playing ancients, even if at the beginning it is just to see how it differs in play mechanics. It has already made some of our club members start collecting ancient armies and I think this will happen everywhere.
Warmaster Ancients is really an evolved Warmaster and many players are busily formulating ways to ‘retrofit' WM forces to the new rules. This has already been dubbed ‘advanced warmaster' on the WM yahoo group.
If you really didn't like Warmaster then the changes in Warmaster Ancients may not be enough for you. Otherwise I'd suggest you at least try a game if you have at least a passing interest in the Ancient Period. Personally it is going to be hard to drag me away from my rekindled interest.
The rules are extremely easy to pick up. With more experienced players the combined unit combats can get tricky to resolve, but the rules have copious amounts of examples to guide a newbie through these situations, which to be honest happen rarely.
My personal thoughts are–at last there is a decent quick play ancient set which is enjoyable to play and easy to get your ‘head' round. Warmaster Ancients could well be the set of rules that the ancient market place has been waiting for – a fast and furious way of depicting mass ancient battles with a differing feel for the armies involved and which can be easily used in competitive play or for refights. I would say that DBx needs to watch this space with the same trepidation as my light skirmishers who have just seen my elephant in front of them get pushed back and ‘confused' – it may be trampling time!
