Hi all,

Later in the year, I'd like to start a new project and look at Warhammer Historical, Trafalgar and maybe the Great War.

Firstlu however, with the range of Romans by Warlord Miniatures, I'm tempted to start there, then expand my Vikings (Old GW minis).

So, having played Legends of the Old West, is it anything like that? Is it a recommended system, or is it just Warhammer sans Magic and monsters?

With Trafalgar, how much would it cost (rulebooks aside) to enter this world in 1:1200 scale?

Thanks guys, looing forward to the new direction in gaming!

Mark

Warhammer Ancients is the same ruleset as Fantasy, without the Magic or Uber-characters.

In other words, it's a fantastic game without the breakage.

The only downside is that with all humans it's a bit dry by comparison, but if you're into historical stuff, that's not a bad thing, I suppose.

Mate i have a decent amount of Normans that are crying for paint.
i'd love to, finally, catch up for some drinks and a game if you get into Ancients.

Not completely true. WAB retains many of the elements of earlier WFB editions (panic check for all units on general's death, for example) and also has a much greater diversity of special rules, mostly to do with weapons and formations. When 2.0 is finally released later this year it will move a bit further away again. But the basics of stats and their interactions, ranks, standards etc are the same as WFB.



Nicely put.



Disgaree. With more than 150 official army lists available, including regional and temporal variations, there's an incredible amount of variety available to the gamer. True that the stats of most models vary very little, but the options available more than compensate for this in my opinion.

The only downside to WAB at this point in time is the delay that we have been experiencing as the WAB franchise gets moved from GW to Forgeworld. As both a supplement author and one of the 2.0 play-testers, I've had a frustrating couple of months waiting for things to get back on track. But there is movement again. Rick Priestly is reviewing the 2.0 manuscript, and Forgeworld have publicly committed to publishing it, as well as promising it will be the bestest thing in the history of bestness, or something.

Cheers

CW

I wouldn't purchase the WAB rules just yet as GW Historical are going to release 2nd ed later this year. Another alternative to WAB is Field of Glory which seems to be dominating the Historical gaming scene at the moment. Most people play in 15mm scale but Wargames foundry and the Perry brothers are releasing plastics for FoG rule set.

Also I noticed that the perry brothers are working on a Napoleonic rule set as are the FoG group.

Ange

Great!

Thanks for the feedback guys. Aaron, you are on. If you fancy a drink this weekend...well I'm getting married on Saturday in Springwood. So if you want to come to a wedding full of my stormtroopers then I'll PM you the details, otherwise it's drinks at Springwood Hotel from 7pm

I'll hang on then for 2nd edition and in the mean time pick up some Romans and Vikings!

well a small sqn would set you back about $100 incling sail sets and rigging, putting the blighters together is the real challenge.



If your interested Gronk we have a sheildwall tourney soon, I have a few spare vikings that could be added to your lot so you can have a crack at the rules.



cheers

matt

The Romans are a smaller army especially if you pack out your force with veterans. If you play against barbarians expect to be seriously outnumbered. They do have a good range of choices.

Vikings are good. They are all infantry with no cavalry options.

Whilst the stat lines are very similar because they are all humans this doesn't really come accross as a limitation when you play. I have found that it actually enhances the importance of other areas such as how the troops are armed, unit sizes and how you use them together.

For example, the basic troop types for viking are hirdmen, bondir and thralls. Hirdmen are the tough armoured guys, bondir the standard unarmoured troop, and thralls are weak, armed slaves. But within these troops you have choices that will significantly affect play. For example, your hirdmen could have hand weapons and shield (the base), throwing spears (essentially an extra attack when you charge), thrusting spears (2 ranks when don't move), 2 hand weapons (extra attack) or 2h weapons (+2 str, strike last). Or you can have Different Weapons which lets you have two weapon types in your unit, eg half with 2h weapons and half with spears. This allows for incredible variety and tactical options.

This basic troop type therefore covers most WHFB troops. For example, with my dark elves to use 2h weapons I choose Executioners, for 2 weapons I choose Corsairs or WE, for spears or hand weapons I choose spearmen. So with WHFB the troop choices you make determine how you play your army, in WAB how you arm your troops will determine how they play.

There are other elements as well. Some viking forces are Light Infantry. This lets them use either a formed formation or skirmishing. When moving they skirmish, negating most terrain penalties, and when they form they can only count +2 rank bonuses max, not +3. You trade mobility for combat resolution.

Strength enhancing weapons also become extremely potent as there are no ward saves or high toughness. If a 2h weapon hits it pretty much kills. Crossbows are lethal (in DnD they'd be vorpal) at str4 -1 armour.

What I have found is that you really need to play around your style in WAB as you don't tend to have a killer combo or unit or hero that can pull your bacon out of the fire. You need to support units, screen forces, target the flanks, hold key position and terrain and be extremely thoughtful in you manouvering. An isolated unit is a dead unit.

I play WHFB because I get social gaming with my mates. Some of it frustrates me. I enjoy the actual gaming side of WAB more because of what Senexis said - it avoids most of the breakage of WHFB.

If you play against Aaron's Normans take Ulfhednar with 2h axes and beserkers. Watch him quiver in fear, those things eat cavalry.

Provide lolz or ###### off.