Howdy folks,
As the Australians on the list will know, GW ran their Golden Ticket "sneak peek" at Warmaster today. Having been one of the ticket holders, I can now join the ranks of those who have played (and say "neener neener neener" to the rest of Australia...).
I have formed a few opinions about some... quirks that the game has. However, I know that munchkins + staff demo-game rules != the way the game should really be played. So before I go off on a rant about how godawful these particular bits are, I'll just explain the way they happened and hope somebody tells me if that's correct or completely bogus.
Okay, initial thoughts are that this game plays quite smoothly. The rules are fairly easy to learn but it takes a lot longer to grasp the subtleties of the tactics, and even longer to get your mind around the quirky situations that can arise. Some things just don't seem right. For example, in one of my games I had a unit of three Undead chariots plus my general flank charge a brigade of six archer stands plus the High Elf general. I also had a brigade of six archer stands in position to get a frontal charge, but figured that by charging them in I would just hamper my chances - stand and shoot would have caused several wounds, plus the High Elves would have received a not insignificant number of extra attacks. Was I wrong? Dunno, haven't bothered to calculate it, but it certainly seemed that way in the heat of battle.
Another thing that seems weird is the whole supporting units thing. The way the staff ran it, the unit behind doesn't get to follow up if you win the combat. I don't know if it is the correct way of playing it, but it makes pursuit a very bad idea in a disproportionatly large number of circumstances, since you'll end up with a single unit (instead of an entire brigade) fighting a very large opposing brigade. Perhaps that's the way battles really were in ancient times, I don't know, but it certainly seems bizarre to me. "Oh look Fyodor, the unit in front of us is fighting. Oh look, now the fighting is moving forwards, let me just catch my breath for a minute, it's so tiresome standing at the back looking menacing..." Seems odd that the supporting stands know enough to support the combat initially but don't know enough to *keep on* supporting the combat when it moves away a bit.
I got the impression that it is often a very silly thing to pursue an enemy you beat in combat, because they will end up getting the advantage. Perhaps it was the luck of the dice, but throughout the entire competition I witnessed pursuers getting cut down left right and centre. Obviously there would be times when this should happen, but it seemed to happen far more often than I would have expected. Hopefully things will become clearer once I get a thorough reading of the rules.
I can't say I was particularly impressed by the calibre of the opposition. Of the eight ticket holders, two of them - myself and a friend of mine - were over the age of fourteen, and the other six were doing great impressions of munchkins. Unfortunately Rob (staff) noticed this as well, so paired me off against my friend. I hope this doesn't sound like bragging, but I believe this was the only decent game played that day. It was very close, and swung back and forth throughout. It came down, in the end, to the combat described above, which I managed to lose after about three rounds of combat - my chariots were finally destroyed and the general along with them, whereas the last archer stand managed to make just enough saves to save it and the HE general from destruction (one sodding hit point left, grrr....). Needless to say, my friend went on to win the competition and will get a free copy of the rulebook on Thursday when it comes out on general release. I guess that's another game that he will never play...
Overall, I do believe that for the $35 plus ~$200 for your army, this game will be worth buying. I suspect that some people will be disappointed with what they consider to be the "dumbing down" of fantasy. I don't, but then I also like E40K (not as much as SM1 or 2, but I still like it). I don't, however, think this will be more than just another six-month game. Yes I know people have heard from friends of friends of people who work for GW that they want to make it another core game, well guess what: they said the same thing about E40K and BFG and both of those are either dead or dying. It doesn't matter - as long as you have the rules, an army and an opponent you can keep playing until the cows come home. I know I will.
Brad