Battles are fought between two opposing forces. For purposes of explanation the game rules assume that each force is represented by one player, but there is no reason why several players shouldn't play on the same side, perhaps with one acting as overall commander while the others are allotted portions of the army to control.

Before the battle begins players must select their forces. There are various ways of doing this. Players new to Warhammer will probably want to use their entire army against their opponent's army, in which case players can either field everything they have or agree to use two armies of roughly equal size.

It is clearly useful to have a means of choosing evenly matched armies. By allotting a strict points value to each kind of warrior, hero and monster, and by choosing armies to a fixed points total, it is possible to ensure armies are as equally matched as possible. The Warhammer Armies series of books provides army lists for just this purpose. Each list defines how many of what kind of troops each army can include. In addition, points values are given for the different troops, characters, and war machines.

Most Warhammer gamers play to these army lists, and organise their armies around a convenient points total, usually 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 points.

When arranging a game it is necessary to decide what kind of battle you want to fight. The Warhammer rulebook provides rules for movement, shooting and combat, which can be used to enact many kinds of conflict from casual encounters and skirmishes to full-bloodied battles. Below you will find options for ten different battle scenarios. Either pick a scenario to play or randomly select a scenario by rolling a dice.