Warmaster - Warmaster Ancients Gameplay

Warmaster Ancients Gameplay

Even before Warmaster Ancients were published, there had been attempts to use the fantasy rules for purely historical armies. However, they had significant drawbacks – cavalry under the fantasy rules were too powerful, skirmishers too weak and some historical troop types were not catered for at all.

The gameplay for Warmaster Ancients follows the same basic procedure as Warmaster Fantasy, but differs in the following way:

• Magic, dragons and other such are naturally not present in this rule set (although historical large creatures, such as elephants, are present in some armies).

• Units may only receive three consecutive orders.

• Combat is limited to two exchanges, unlike the fantasy version, where units may continue to attack as long as they have valid targets in range. This allows players to reinforce their troops under attack.

• There are special rules for many historical unit types. Units based on the 20 mm edge are designated as "shock troops" and include heavy cavalry, elephants and phalanges using pikes – their greater hitting power is offset by their shorter frontage which opens them to outflanking. Among the most important new troop types are skirmishers, mobile light troops that can evade an enemy charge and can be used to delay an enemy advance.