In 2025, I know. I should just start a page on the blog labeled “The resin printer was a mistake.”

Why Warmaster? Well, mostly because some cool people in my club want to play. I dig the idea of tiny little fantasy armies with lots of colors and unique units. The system itself is the basis of the Blitzkrieg Commander and Cold War Commander games which I think are pretty decent. Some of its DNA also exists in Lion Rampant—namely the activation system.

Finally, I can print an army for around $10-15 and I was handed the files for free. I figure, worst case, I just repurpose them into a small Midgard army and play with my son. He loves Seraphon/Lizardmen and would love to play them en tiny masse.

This army will prove as an experiment. I’ve bounced off painting 10mm twice in the past: once with Napoleonics and once with American Civil War. Here, I intend to keep it very simple. I will triad drybrush the main scale color, pick out armor in silver or gold, paint teeth and claws, then one accent. Done. If I can’t bang these out quickly, I’ll hate them.

Mechanically, the ruleset looks fine. I like the emphasis on command and the difficulty of getting troops into battle. I’m worried about the faff and the dice rolls. I don’t want a giant four hour game here—and if that’s what it is, I’m switching to Midgard where games take much less time.

The armies sure are pretty! And again, the community is great. I’m not sure this one is a wise choice on my part—I tend to bounce off flat or overcomplicated rulesets—but hell, I’ll give it a shot. This is part of a conscious effort on my part to be a little less snooty about my rulesets. Sometimes you just want to roll dice with cool people.

…And convert them to Midgard by challenging them to play back to back games and compare. I’m not totally innocent.

Which is why my second army will be Chaos. Clearly.