Warmaster Skirmish

Recently I discovered in the Specialist Forum a mod to play Warmaster with less stands. The basic idea is to represent one unit with just one stand as in other games with similar mechanics like BKC or FWC. This system is ideal to introduce you to Warmaster as it requires much less figures to play.

After reading the mod, me and a buddy decided to try this Sunday a 2k armies game of Orcs versus Elves.
My Orc army consisted in: 6 Orc warrior units, 2 of Black Orcs, 2 Ogres, 8 Goblins, 3 boar boyz, 4 wolf boyz, General, 2 Orc heroes (one with chariot), 1 Goblin hero and 1 Goblin shaman.
My buddy's Elves army consisted in: General, 2 heroes (one on eagle), 2 magicians, 6 archers units, 2 bolt throwers, 4 spear units and 4 heavy cavarly units.

Orcs up and Elves bottom

Elves moved first with a brigade of archers occupying the wood of the left, a brigade of spear rushing to the hedges in the centre, another brigade of 2 archers and 2 bolt throwers positioning on the hill, and one last brigade of heavy cavalry on the right flank. Heroes and Magicians forward.

All the Orcs moved forward excepting a brigade of goblins on the left commanded by a Goblin hero, and a brigade of boar boyz to the right commanded by an Orc hero on chariot. A brigade of Orc warriors took the wood in the centre; an excellent position for the Goblin shaman to fall back, as well as to affect Elves moving orders.

End of turn 1

The Elves consolidated their positions on the left flank whereas the brigade with the bolt throwers boldly advanced forward . The Silver Helms brigade was totally disrupted by my Goblin Shaman spellcasting "Gotcha".
The Orcs failed most of their orders and only two brigades advanced once each.

End of turn 2

In the picture below, the Elves has outflanked the Orcs on the left bottom side, whereas the Boar boyz together with the Goblin Shaman has wiped out the brigade with the bolt throwers, but no before they killed one unit of Black Orcs, one of Wolf riders and one of Boar boyz. As you may see at the far bottom, the brigade of goblins had not activated yet after five turns!

I think this was turn 5

Noticing the Orcs that the Elves had one full brigade of archers chasing goblins far from the battlefield, and another brigade of archers and bolt throwers destroyed, and yet another brigade (the spears) pinned with Orc warriors, they rushed forward with all their units towards the hill where the heavy cavalry, general and staff was standing.

As the leadership of the Orcs is so low, I decided to move all of them into initiative range, to launch and all or nothing assault with my surviving units in the next turn.

I lost four or five units in the Elves turn and was at two units distance for the break point, but then the all the remaining Orcs could attack with their initiative, surrounding the Silver Helms, hero and general, and finished them all. Game over and victory for the Orcs by a narrow margin.

Conclusion:
We had to roll less dice and to move less stands but in the end it took us almost the same time to finish the game as in any other normal Warmaster game. Also, we felt that the strategy and way of playing didn't change much with respect to the original Warmaster ruleset.
Warmaster Skirmish is great if you start from zero and first have to paint a full army to play; but if you already have a painted army, go for the original Warmaster as the mass effect of so many troops deployed on the board cannot be beaten.