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Warhammer Fantasy Battles is wargame that tries to realistically simulate warfare in a high magic fantasy setting. It is produced by Games Workshop for their Warhammer Fantasy setting.
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Wargame: Warhammer Fantasy Battles
Last edition: Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed8 (2010-2015)
Rules: Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed8
Previous editions: Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed1 (1983-1984), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed2 (1984-1987), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed3 (1987-1992), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed4 (1992-1996), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed5 (1996-2000), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed6 (2000-2006), Warhammer Fantasy Battles Ed7 (2006-2010)
Predecessor: Reaper Ed2 (1981)
Successor wargames: Warhammer 40.000 Ed1 (1988), Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Ed1 (2015-2016-)
Setting: Warhammer Fantasy
Company: Games Workshop company
Designer:
Ed1: Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, Rick Priestley
Ed7: Alessio Cavatore
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Players: 2 (2+ with modifications), Player abilities: Various, Possibly different, Units: Single miniatures grouped in squads
Turn structure: Taking turns, moving whole armies, Movement: Set distances,
Playing time: 90+ min, depending on the size of the battle, Play style: Tries to be Realistic, Competitive, Theme: Combat, Language dependency: Rulebook, army lists, cards
Features: Competitive, Miniatures, Random effects (dice)
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Playing pieces
The game uses 1:56 scale (often called 28mm or 32mm scale) miniatures.
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Terrain
Ed8: Added random terrain generation.
Scenarios
Ed8: Added some scenarios.
Line of sight
Ed8: Added True line of sight, so if you can draw line of sight between models in real life, they have line if sight.
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Movement
Moving a fixed distance: If you move your unit, they walk the distance stated in their statistics.
Ed8 added random charge distance
Moving a random distrance: If your units charge, they have to roll a test (2d6 to create a bell curve) to see how far they can get. Although it's realistic, the randomness often frustrates gamers who prefer abstract rules.
The same rule was added to Warhammer 40.000 Ed6.
- Bell of Lost Souls: WFB: To Charge or Not To Charge: Tutorial article for WHFB Ed8 on using random distance movement.
- Frozencore (from Wolves for the Wolf God): Getting to know 40K 6th edition: Assault Distance In-Depth: Tutorial article for WH40K Ed6 on using random distance movement.
Measuring distances:
Ed7
Measuring distances - after declared action: You need to guess some distances, before you declare actions (artillery, charge). Then you can measure the distance to find out how effectively can you achieve your stated goal. It's realistic if you play army commanders, but can cause frustrations when you miss your goals because you were bad at guessing.
Ed8
Measuring distances - any time:
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Building armies
Army structure (slots): You have an army structure you have to adhere to. There are slots you can fill with different unit types.
Ed8:
Army structure (percentage): From the amount of Army points, you have different amounts to spend on different unit types.
Units
Casualty removal: If the unit takes wounds, you have to remove miniatures from to unit as casualties. This makes the size of the units smaller after taking damage.
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Changes between editions - Ed6 & Ed7
Changes between editions - Ed7 & Ed8
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Resources
Warhammer Fantasy Battle WikiPedia article
Games Workshop: Warhammer - Age of Sigmar: Official website.
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Have you played the Warhammer Fantasy Battles miniatures wargame from Games Workshop? How do you like it? Would you recommend them to others? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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