How do you play Warhammer

Answer

Step 1: The First step in playing a game of Warhammer is to Build your army. Now this does not mean you must have 100's of painted miniatures on the table top. Yes that sure does look cool and I would strong encourage you to work toward that goal but to start with anything from pennies to slips of paper will work. What you do need to start with is the Army book you wish to play with. Inside this book there is tones of story and background about each army, but the key information is the army lists. To start your Warhammer character start with a small battle. You will need two core units and a Leader. Each army has a couple choices for core units and for the army leader. Read the stories and look for what appeals to you. Will your army be two solid blocks of spears and a knight on horseback leading? Or will you have two units of knights to thunder down your enemy and a Mage as your leader throwing fire balls. Feel free to mix and match your army choices and play test a couple different times to get what you like for your own style. The point value is the most important thing. Each model has a point value. Knights are the most points at well over 20 points a model, where foot men are far less, anywhere from 2 to 8 or 10 points depending on how much upgrades you give them. A good start would be a 500 point army. Well get building and see you at step two
Step 2: Ok so step one probably took you a good half hour or so. Now its on to step two. Setting up the battle field. for a small 500 point battle a 4'by 4' table will be more then fine. as you go to larger and larger battles 4' by 8' and bigger tables could be used. Now the second part of setting up the battle field is having things on the battle field. While some battles are fought in open fields, it is rare in life to find just a perfectly level field. Rolling hills, a tree here and there, a old wall are all things that could be found on the battle field. Now if you have been to any gaming store you will have seen many of these things, but for your first battle you may not have them. So throw a old book down as a hill top. Lay a paper towel roll down on its side to be a wall. A large round candle can make a great tower. Look around the house, there are tons of things to use. A general rule, tho by no means a hard rule, is for ever 2' by 2' space on your battle field, put 1 item down. so on a 4' by 4' table you would need four items. Placement can be done in many ways. One person could place them all and the other person pick sides, or you could randomly roll the dice and lay items down.

Step 3: OK now you have a 4 by 4 table laid down with items, Its time to deploy your army. This can be done in a couple ways. Simplest is roll dice against the person your playing and the winner picks sides. Or if one person set up the whole table the other gets to pick there side. Once you have the side of the table your going to deploy on, put down your first unit. Following this your enemy (on the battle field) will deploy one unit. Keep going back and forth starting with who ever deploys first until all forces are on the field. A low cost army like the Orcs might get 3 or 4 units for 500 points, where a high cost army like High Elves might only get the 2 units and there leader. Its OK don't let this fool you. The point system balances things out. There are more Orcs but the high elves are better fighters on a one on one bases.

Step 4: With both armies deployed its time to fight. Warhammer moves in turns. To start with you must determine who gets the first turn. Roll dice and the person with the highest gets to chose if they want there army rushing forward and taking the first turn, or if they would like to let the other person go first There are countless strategies on this point. And for that mater countless strategies in how you fight your battle. Are you going to be defensive take cover behind the wall and hope you can hold up to a charge from the enemy? Or are you going to rain fire down on them while your foot troops slowly advance Let a Mage soften up the enemy? The choice is yours, you are the general

Step 5: The turn of Warhammer consists of several phases. The first is movement Unless there are special rules for your army, based on the army books, the general move here is 4inches by foot men and 8 by mounted units. A good tape measure allows this to happen. If you are going to charge with a unit you can move 2x as far as normal, but they must reach the enemy. So now go and move your army

Step 6: Magic comes next. In this phase you cast any spells from your mage and defend against enemy spells. Your army creates 2 power dice. Each mage generates there own power dice according the the rules in there book. Anywhere from 1 to 4 dice could be generated from each mage. On defense your enemy will have two dispel dice and dispell dice generated from there mages. Again this is per the rules of each individual army. The way to cast spells is to pick the spell you wish, and then role a number of dice from your power pool up to the level of your mage plus one. So if you have a level 3 mage, you can use 4 dice. if you beat the number the spell requires you cast the spell. if you role two 6's its cast extra strong and your enemy can't dispel it. Be careful if you role two 1's that's bad news and check the miscast table in the main rule book. Your enemy can dispel with any or all of there dispel dice and if they roll higher then you did, the spell don't work. A good stradagy here would be to make your enemy use up all his dispell dice before you get to the spell you really want to cast

Step 7: Missile weapons come next. Each unit as a BS skill as listed in the army book. If the unit is armed with a missile weapon, be it bow, black powder gun, cannon, rock thrower, bolt thrower, blow gun, or anything else, it gets fired now. Some weapons have special rules, (Move-or-fire weapons for example) so check the army book for special rules. Assuming all weapons can fire, start with any weapon that is a guess weapons and shoot them first. (Cannons, rock throwers you must guess how far you want them fired) Work out the rules for each weapon as per the army book. Every big weapon like cannons rock throwers have special rules. Then fire your more regular weapons. These weapons all have a range. Nominate who you shoot at and then check range. If you come up short so too did your arrows. Roll a 6 sided dice for every model that fires. to hit, you must roll the number called out in the main rule book that is required for the BS of your troop. Many modifiers can come into effect. If the enemy is behind cover, if your firing from the high ground, if they are at long range etc. if you score a hit then you need to roll to wound. Each weapon as a strength score. this goes against your enemy's toughness. If they are equal numbers then you need to role a 4 or better on the 6 sided dice. if your strength is higher, you only need a lower number, if the enemy is tougher, then you might need to roll a 6 to wound.

Step 8: So you have soften up the enemy with a magic and missile now it comes time to get dirty. Close combat. This is played much as described in the missile section. Each model has a WS and that goes against the opponents WS. If both weapon skills are equal you will need a 4 to hit. Again all sorts of modifiers can be applied based on special rules of the troops and the weapons they fight with. once you work out who gets hit role to wound. Each model has a straight number. This goes against the toughness just like the missile weapons. Again if both are equal 4's are needed to wound.

Step 9: OK you moved, fire balled and shot, then fought in battle. Now comes the hard part, its your enemies turn to shoot, fireball and fight you back. Did you move your troops to good places? are they on the high ground? are they behind cover?
THIS IS ALL WRITTEN IN THE WARHAMMER RULEBOOK WHICH YOU NEED TO PLAY WARHAMMER