Games - Warhammer Fantasy Battle

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	Games - Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer Fantasy Battles (often abbreviated as "Warhammer" or "WHFB") is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop and set in the Warhammer Fantasy
setting.

The game is played with 'regiments' of fantasy miniatures . It uses stock fantasy races such as humans, elves, dwarves, undead, orcs, lizardmen, etc. Each race has its own unique strengths and flaws. Elves for example have the most powerful archers and magicians in the game but have fewer specialised close combat units.

Warhammer is periodically updated and re-released with newer rules and changes to the gaming system to improve playability. The 6th edition of the game is currently the official one.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle has also been the made into computer games: the 1995 Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and its 1998 sequel Warhammer: Dark Omen (also see Warhammer computer games).

Playing the game

Warhammer is a competitive tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of plastic and pewter miniatures. The rules of the game are contained in a series of books, which describe how to move miniatures around the game surface and simulate combat in a balanced and fair manner. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6' by 4' tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. Any individual or group of minitaures in the game are called a "unit", whether represented by a single model, or group of similar troops.

Core game rules are supplied in a single book, with supplemental Warhammer Armies texts giving guidelines for army-specific rules. Movement about the playing surface is generally measured in inches and combat between troops or units given a random element with the use of six-sided dice. Army supplements also assign points values to each unit and option in the game, giving players the ability to play on even terms. An average game will have armies of 1000 to 3000 points, although smaller and larger values are quite possible. At the present time, there are 16 different armies: Beasts of Chaos, Bretonnia, Chaos Dwarfs, Dark Elves, Dogs of War, Dwarfs, High Elves, Hordes of Chaos, Lizardmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Orcs and Goblins, Skaven, The Empire, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Wood Elves. In addition, there are some smaller forces like the army of Kislev, which are usually not completely supported in miniatures.

Game play follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (where spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. This repeats for a number of equal turns, generally six, although occasionally to a time limit or until no units are left on the playing surface. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to remaining points value of their own surviving units and the value of enemy units killed. Special factors, or "objectives" can add or subtract from this total based on pre-defined goals.

Dice rolls always use traditional six-sided dice, with a high result being desirable (in most cases). For example; an archer unit may be given a statistic that allows it to hit on the roll of a four or more. Various factors can change this number, reducing or raising the number needed. Mitigation of random results is a large part of the game, as well as traditional battlefield tactics.

Collecting

Warhammer players commonly collect and paint one army (or more) of their choice. Armies can be built up from the available "army boxes" or "battalion sets" or slowly collected, one miniature or unit at a time, to build up a reasonable sized fighting force. Others simply collect the miniatures because they like the way they look. There is also an interesting amount of rare, old, Out Of Print Warhammer miniatures that are traded on online auction sites such as eBay. Some serious collectors have been known to pay large amounts for one rare, OOP miniature! Many of the various Warhammer races have both plastic and metal miniatures available to the player/collector.

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