The Great Muster - Warmaster report!

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

After a long while of prevaricating, I've finally taken the plunge into the world of 10mm. A friend who's into Warmaster convinced me to try out the scale, and after seeing a video on other systems adapted to fit 10mm I took the plunge and made an order from Pendraken and Magister Militum.

If you've followed my Black Order thread, you'll have seen the fruits of these purchases before - I painted up a few units of knights in the colour scheme of my Black Order deciding the scale was too tricky, and the 10mm project languished for a considerable amount of time. Here's where things started, with a full unit of archers and a single stand of knights, before stretching to two full knight units:

In the run-up to Christmas 2021, I decided to make a big effort to burn through my backlog in various systems and scales. With 10mm (allegedly) so easy to paint, I decided to finish everything I had - 1,000 points of the Black Order under the Norsca army list - before Christmas Day.

So began the Great Muster. What follows are some pics of the force I put together, before finally completing it just two days after the deadline:



Magister Militum Norman heavy infantry moonlighting as Black Order Chapterhouse Guard - the fantasy Order's equivalent to the halb-bruder of the Teutonic Order from which they draw inspiration.





Infantry, characters, siege weaponry and cavalry all in various stages of assembly and paint.



Something frequent users of this forum will recognise - anattempt at an "Olsson"-inspired earth elemental! You can see Olsson's far superior take here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=119687.0 I figured this would make for a good representation of a Storm Giant from the Norsca army list in Warmaster. I only used modelling compound, cork, superglue and wood glue, and a single skull from the GW kit to make this guy (I did later add some twigs).

In scale:



In the next instalment, completed pics...

[Angrypantz]

These look really cool. A friend of mine is trying to get me into 10mm scale games since we both love massive battles.

[OSHIROmodels]

They look great 

[fred]

Great stuff!

Always good to see more 10mm, remember with the this scale its more about painting armies than individual figures.

Looking forward to seeing more

[Major_Gilbear]

What a fantastic start, well done! 

[Elbows]

Awesome start.  I feel bad because I want to really like 10mm and smaller fantasy, but I find the terrain often lets it down!  I still want to see visual spectacle even if you're playing tiny scales.  I can't wait to see what you end up with!

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Awesome start.  I feel bad because I want to really like 10mm and smaller fantasy, but I find the terrain often lets it down!  I still want to see visual spectacle even if you're playing tiny scales.  I can't wait to see what you end up with!

I'm currently brainstorming re: 10mm terrain, and you're right, it does feel like a tricky area to get 'right'. I don't know what I'm going to go with yet. A friend of mine is making a 10mm castle, which promises to be pretty cool, althuogh I've yet to even try basic Warmaster so I have no idea how that'll work ruleswise.

As promised - 1,000 points of the Black Order in 10mm! Below, using the Norsca list, is:

1x General (mounted character)
1x Shaman (villagers praying to runestone)
2x Bondsmen units (Chapterhouse Guard w/chevrons on shields)
2x Huscarl units (foot knights)
2x Cavalry units (mounted knights)
1x Huntsman unit (archers)
1x Storm Giant (rock/earth elemental scratchbuilt using the Olsson method)

[mazk7130]

That's an impressive little army. Especially the golem (whatever?) is an eye-catcher. If I need one at any time i'll copy ist...

[Elk101]

Fantastic stuff. Always good to see some 10mm figures on the Fantasy Board.

[Little Odo]

Great looking army 

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Cheers chaps.

One of the things which got me into 10mm was the potential for cross-purpose modelling with 28mm map-based campaigns. As veterans of GW gaming will know, the General's Compendium - released for 6th ed WHFB - contained some amazing colour panels detailling 3d campaign maps built by the US Studio, with Warmaster pieces used to represent player armies moving around the map, much like the Total War series of games by Creative Assembly.

Safe to say, this was so inspiring I couldn't help but use the Warmaster force as an excuse to do exactly the same. So, two army tokens for the Black Order, shown with a Mighty Empires map I threw together quickly. They can also double for 'Hero' units in Warmaster if desired.

[Hupp n at em]

That elemental looks great!

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

So, had my first game of Warmaster recently against a friend. Initial impressions are it's a much more complex, byzantine ruleset than I gave it credit for. We're trying the Warmaster Revolution ruleset, which comes most recommended by the community (as far as I'm aware anyway). However, despite being a bit tricky to learn, we had a good time - and I have to say the Total War vibes at this scale make persevering with the ruleset very rewarding!

I took 1000pts of Norsca against a friend's Undead. The lists were something like:

Norsca:

Jarl
Hero
Shaman
2x Bondsmen
2x Huscarls
2x Cavalry
1x Storm Giant
1x Huntsmen

Undead:

Vampire Lord
Vampire
Necromancer
2x Zombies
2x Skeletons
2x Grave Guard
2x Black Knights
2x Dire Wolves
1x Fell Bats

On to the game!

Pretty simple deployment - I don't have a lot of 10mm terrain yet so we made do with 28mm:

Cav on the right flank, infantry in the centre, with the huscarls holding the left flank.



The bondsmen make a push for the centre ground, with the general close behind.





Meanwhile, the cavalry advance on the right, opposed by the zombies, with a mounted hero in tow.



Disaster strikes in the centre as the huntsmen are encircled by the fell bats and destroyed! Nasty little trick you can pull in Warmaster apparently - good to be shown this one early.



In retaliation, the Order's infantry charge and make contact all along the line - battle is joined.



The Order's cavalry punch through the zombie screen on the right flank, and threaten the rear of the undead lines - the storm giant has proven ineffectual at breaking through the Black Knights, but with cavalry enveloping the enemy, the centre now looks secure.



A final shot of the carnage in the centre. Those huscarls are really good!

So, overall, we had a great time with Warmaster and I may or may not have ordered some more bits from Magister Militum to pad this out to a 2,000pt force. I don't think it'll be a 'main' game of ours, but it's fun enough - and the aesthetic reminiscent enough of Total War - that we'll enjoy playing it, possibly as part of a campaign involving other systems or the odd weekend game.

Keen to hear other people's thoughts on Warmaster - we're still very new to the game!

[Elk101]

Always nice to see some 10mm gaming on the fantasy board. Thanks for sharing it.

[fred]

Great looking game - two great armies

Terrain wise - lots of 28mm stuff works, as you have showed. Probably a couple of key bits to add are some trees, model railway ones work well (look for N Gauge) and some fields or rough ground.

Warmaster, will always have a place in my heart as it was my main game on returning to gaming 15 or so years ago. But as you note it can be rather Byzantine - I’ve not kept up with the WM Rev changes, as by the time they were happening as a group we had moved to other games - ultimately home brew rules influenced by WM (and others).

Good to get introduced to the buttocks of death early on - not restricted to WM, tends to exist in many games that feature push backs from combat, but easier to execute if you have flying units.

My main memories of WM are huge armies being able to make great sweeping battles with units making large movements (rarely seen in other rules), other units standing still for turns, and combats that could go on for many rounds within a turn. The negatives of the later two rather out weighing the positives of the first two.

But the scale of the armies and the look of them is always great!