I finally got a chance to play Warmaster for the first time. We played a line-em-up battle using the half-painted orcs I bought recently and my opponents' Empire army.
You can definitely see the resemblance between Warmaster and Hail Caesar. Both game share a lot of elements, but are still quite different in some ways. I sometimes hear people say that HC makes Warmaster obsolete and you should just stick to Hail Caesar like it's a newer version of the same game but this really isn't the case. I like the way figure stands handle in this game and the way you can move with them without much hassle. Tinkering with formations is fun and there's no pain of paying wheeling costs etc.
Oddities in the rules include units that can make big, sweeping manoeuvers just by rolling good for their activation and combats being fought to the bitter end in one go, but apparently Warmaster Ancients again deals with these issues differently. Also, Warmaster feels less related to Warhammer Fantasy than Hail Caesar is, which is a bit funny considering the fluff.
Here are some crappy pics of the game. Commentary embedded in the images.
UPDATE:
I tried retouching a strip of boar boyz to see if I can improve the paint job quickly. The models on the right took me about 4 minutes. Worth the effort?