hits is forced to fall back, while the winner has the option to stand, pursue or fall back. Fights may continue, even against multiple enemy units in succession, until one side is destroyed or the attacker does not wish to pursue the enemy. Warmaster Ancients gameplay Even before Warmaster Ancients were published, there had been attempts to use the fantasy rules for purely historical armies. However, they had significant drawbacks – cavalry under the fantasy rules were too powerful, skirmishers too weak and some historical troop types were not catered for at all. The gameplay for Warmaster Ancients follows the same basic procedure as Warmaster Fantasy, but differs in the following way: Magic, dragons and other such are naturally not present in this rule set (although historical large creatures, such as elephants, are present in some armies). Units may only receive three consecutive orders. Combat is limited to two exchanges, unlike the fantasy version, where units may continue to attack as long as they have valid targets in range. This allows players to reinforce their troops under attack. There are special rules for many historical unit types. Units based on the 20 mm edge are designated as "shock troops" and include heavy cavalry, elephants and phalanges using pikes – their greater hitting power is offset by their shorter frontage which opens them to outflanking. Among the most important new troop types are skirmishers, mobile light troops that can evade an enemy charge and can be used to delay an enemy advance. Spin-offs for other periods Quite a few rulesets have been written using the basic warmaster mechanics. Battle of the Five Armies - covering the conflicts from Tolkien's Middle Earth. Warmaster Ancients - covering ancient and Dark Ages historical periods. Warmaster Medieval - covering the medieval period. Blitzkrieg Commander - covering World War II Cold War Commander - covering post-war to modern periods (derived from Blitzkrieg Commander). Future War Commander - covering near-future and sci-fi (derived from Blitzkrieg Commander). References from The Battle of Five Armies boxed set. Notes External links (Games Workshop Official Page) (yahoo group) Warmaster Forum Warmuster Fan Rules Warmaster Ancients at Warhammer Historical (Official Site) Brumbaer's Homepage Stephan Hess's resource site, including some flash battle reports that show the flow of battle Trilemma Warmaster - Michael Prescott's site with flow of battle images, galleries etc Warmaster Picture Archive Warhammer Fantasy Wargame rule sets