For some time I've been think about getting into Warmaster Ancients. Would anyone recommend it? Are there better alternatives for ancient historical wargames?

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Warmaster! I love Warmaster. It's one of my favorite systems, and 10mm is probably my favorite scale--though I seldom get the chance to play Warmaster, and 1/72 plastics are cheaper and easier to paint. With all that being said...I've only ever played the Middle-earth version of Warmaster, the "Battle of Five Armies," so I can't recommend the historical system specifically, but the vast majority of the material is the same.

However, signs indicate that GW has run its course with Warmaster and all of its iterations. They took away the entire BoFA range, leaving only the boxed set; they removed several pdfs from their website for Warmaster Fantasy, including the free rulebook; and they stopped printing Warmaster Medieval and have yet to restock the Warmaster Ancients Rulebook. Rick Priestly, the game's creator, left GW in 2008. He has since created two games that are very similar to Warmaster: Black Powder, a game set in the age of the musket, and Hail Caesar, a game set in the ancient world up into the Middle Ages. Hail Caesar is the game you'd want to see about. It's supposed to be very similar to Warmaster, but much more versatile and "relaxed." Read some reviews, see what you think. So, based on my experience with Battle of Five Armies, yes, I would recommend Warmaster Ancients; however, you may want to look into Hail Caesar instead.

I'm just now getting into historical wargaming, so other people may have better/more suggestions than I do.

i do have battle of five armies and it is very good, i enjoy playing it, it gives a fresh feel from gws other systems. not sure if this really helped but... whatever.

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"fool of a took" gandalf

I've done a bit more research, and the main two I'm interested in at the moment are Impetus and Hail Caesar. Which of those is better? Or would you recommend other options?

By the way, the reason I turned down Warmaster Ancients is because, from what I've been reading, Hail Caesar seems to be a better and newer edition of it. Is this right? Or does Warmaster have any advantages over Hail Caesar?

Also, I would like to use the Pendraken 10mm armies. Are all these systems compatible with those models?

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Yes, Hail Caesar is pretty much a newer, better version of Warmaster Ancients. The main advantage that WMA has over Hail Caesar is better and more extensive army lists, more designed for competitive play, whereas competitive play is possible wih Hail Caesar, it's designed as a fun game to play with your pals.

I've never looked into Impetus extensively. Try to get Xelee in this thread! He loves Impetus. But, there is a "lite" version called Basic Impetus for free on the Impetus website, that should give you a clear idea of the rules. In fact, you could just play Basic Impetus--the website also has a large number of army lists specifically for Basic.

All three games--Warmaster Ancients, Hail Caesar, Impetus--can support the use of 10mm models. Hail Caesar has what you were looking for in WMA; Basic Impetus is something you can do for free. Both of them are good options. If I had the money to spare, I'd get the Hail Caesar rules. The massive advantage of Impetus is that you can try it--and even stay with it--for free. The thing is, I'm a bit daft when it comes to rules; I'll just admit, I basically need my hand held, a la GW rule sets (thats probably the result of playing video games over tabletop wargames). I'd need someone to explain Impetus to me. Currently, I'm sticking with cheap and familiar; I'm just converting WotR for personal historical use (I'd switch over to HC/WMA if I could afford it, or Basic Impetus if it was laid out more clearly).

what size are the hail ceasar models because I coulnt realy find out.
if im switching to hail ceasar(which most likely wont happen) I will go for the spartans.

martijn

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"tonight you will taste man flesh!"
saruman the white

While the official Hail Caesar range is 28mm, from Warlord Games, it can be played in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 1/72, 28mm, etc, etc. Any scale whatsoever, to be honest, as long as you have the miniatures. It doesn't matter, just make some measuring adjustments.

Well I am here, belatedly. I do love Impetvs, it is the best wargame ever written IMO. The version you pay for also has a rulebook that is everything a Wargamer could wish for: Full colour, spiral bound (because so you can leave key bits open) and every paragraph is numbered to make referencing rules precise. However, 'GW style' it is not. Some people are very enthusiastic about Hail Caesar (as they are about 'Clash of Empires' and 'Fields of Glory') so we are all spoiled for choice and I'd suggest just getting what most appeals* but making sure you base in such a way as to make figures as flexible as possible.

I can't endorse 28mm as a scale strongly enough - nice looking figures, for a reasonable price and the armies look very cool. Now that we have premade magnetic basing via Galeforce 9 etc, I think that you can pretty much base your guys individually and then they'll fit whatever rulesets (why not more than one, I use the same figs for multiple games) you try out.

Cheers

*Though probably not Fields of Glory. That game has a very narrow target market.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com