Hordes/Warmachine new MKIII Battle Boxes

As promised I continue to follow the Hype Train and collect more of the rumours and facts about the new edition for Hordes and Warmachine.
One big thing for me are the new Battle Boxes because they always help to draw in new people and normally should also provide older players to get into new editions by providing the rules and stuff for a reasonable price. Most of us will buy the MKIII rulebook nonetheless, but for testing it out those should be perfect.

So lets see what the new boxes will offer us:

• MSRP $40 for a battle group (1 caster and at least 2 large or 3 medium models)
• All necessary cards
• Quick rules
• A paper battlemap and terrain
• A paper ruler, dice and tokens

Additional information to these boxes:

• The caster will be Battle Box only (at least for the first time)
• The material will be the same PVC as today (although precolored)
• The paper battlemap is most likely 24x24", which would perfectly fit for introduction games

My impression so far: 

The paper ruler is garbage (it was already in the current box), the battlemap and terrain I don't need (but are nice for beginners). But still I hope that you get more than only this stupid wall, maybe some markers for woods or so.

The rest sounds awesome! If they really will stick to 40$ (which will most likely be 40€ because they always do it 1:1) sounds like a perfect price for a starter box. Also you get a hopefully useful battlegroup. For me the Legion one is somewhat 50:50 because I already have half of the stuff, but maybe I can convert some of the Shredders. For me, at this point, it is a must buy (and maybe I will also get a second faction now).

More information about MKIII

Nearly a week ago, Privateer Press anounced the new edition for Warmachine/Hordes. Slowly information is trickling into the public and to be honest: I am quite hyped about the bits and pieces that are made public now and are collected in the different communities. Not everything is shiny, but hey I am used to edition changes in Warhammer Fantasy so this can only get good *crossing my fingers* :)

Ok, so let's dig a bit deeper into the stuff and add information to my last post about this topic. This time I try to give also a bit of my opinion to the changes/rumours I picked up.

75 is the new 50 and 50 is the new 35

Points are increased throughout the whole game. It is not exact a doubling of point costs, but overall it seems they increased points. They state that if you are used to a model size today of 50 points it will be roughly 75 points in the future, if you are used to 35 it will be 50.

This change is interesting: I think that will give them a good opportunity to balance models better. I don't know MKI where they had even bigger point costs (which seems to not work well) but MKII was at some points a bit unbalance in point costs. Sometimes you asked yourself: Why do these model cost the same, even if one is cleary stronger. Sure point balance is always a thing, because you also have to count in synergies, counters etc. pp. Therefore I think this could be a good thing that they change something there.

Psychology will change massively

Fear, Terror, and Massive Casualty tests are gone it seems. So they have to rework many models especially Horde solos and beasts. Seems like they want to get rid of fleeing units somehow.

This is a bit unclear to me. I LOVE psychology for your troups. For me this was always a fun factor in games. Nothing more fun than tiny troupers covering in fear from a HUGE battle beast. Or running away if there unit was nearly annihilated in one attack. I have mixed feelings about this one, but not enough information yet about this.

Premeasuring officially allowed 

We have come to believe that eyeballing spatial relations should not be a required skill to play WARMACHINE and HORDES.

Finally! Yes! I know that this is a extremely heated topic. In the Warmachine/Hordes communities you will find lots of emotional and heated discussions about this topic. But for me this gets rid of one of the most annoying things in the game: the hidden measuring over command areas. Yes, it is awesome if you can estimate a 16,5 inch distance (anyone remebers how warmachines worked in earler editions ofWHFB?) but for a competitive game this should not be a prerequisite. I really loved that change in WHFB 8th edition, I love it in KOW and I am pretty sure that they will do it right in Warmachine/Hordes.

Changes to War Room/Faction decks

With the change to the new edition, all faction decks will be updated and have to be rebought. Additionally War Room has gone through a big change, therefore you have to re-buy the decks you already own. Decks bought after January 1st 2016 will get a free update. We others shall get them at a discount.

That was to be expected. Still sad that we have to spend money again but War Room decks are already awesome and I just hope that they reworked the app a bit that it gets more stable and performant.

If you want to get more information, please follow the links to the official sources:

- Primecast Epsiode 30

- Privateer Insider 13/04/2016

Ok that is it for now. There is already more in the pipeline so expect at least one more post about this :)

So long,

Paradox0n

Privateer Press launches new edition of Warmachine/Hordes

So today when I read the tabletop news I first had to double check if it is not the 1st of April. But no...
Privateer Press anounced that on 29th of June 2016 they will release a new edition of Warmachine/Hordes!
It will come with new rules, new casters, new cards and new starter boxes. For us Warroom users there shall be a discount on the faction decks, because they will be incompatibel with the old MKII rules.

But first a promotional video from Privateer Press:

So what exactly did they tell us yet?

• We have rebalanced every model in the game.
• Each warcaster has a unique, flavorful spell/ability. Some casters already had, some had to be added.
• Doubled the point scale.
• Addresses difference between Focus and Fury.

New Mechanics:

• Power Up: Warjack are allocated a focus for starting in the caster’s battlegroup.
• Spirit Bonds: As warbeasts die, Warlocks can gain fury “from the grave”
• Upped warjack/warbeast points. 28-30 points now.
• Games are still similar sized.

Change with Huge-Base Models:

• They feel like the monsters of the battlefield like they should.

Presentation of Story

• Time-skip! Two-year jump.
• Flash-Point. First installment in a trilogy.
• Story line stuff. Resolutions and new things.
• No favorite character is safe.

Let's see with what they come up with in the future. Looking forward to it.

So long,

Paradox0n

Lock & Load: Outpost Germany

Last weekend the first Lock & Load event in Germany was hosted in Frankfurt. For me as Warmachine/Hordes noob this event was clearly positioned in another world. Both in costs and players level :) Nonetheless I followed the discussion on the german Warmachine/Hordes forum and it really sounded as if the German distributor and the especially the organisers put in a lot of heart-blood to make the first of its kind a big bang and show that it pays out to do something like this in Germany :)
If you are interested in the games, they made a playlist of the main games which they also streamed on Twitch:

To give you a little impression of the event, Dominic from Phantasos Studio made a short video:

And on the German Brückenkopf Online, you can also find an article with some impressions of the event.

The only thing I am a little bit sad about is that you couldn't get the limited stuff on the shop from Privateer Press because as soon as they went online, the shop went down for 2 hours or so. Seems like too many people wanted to have this insane plush shredder:

As said, this is only collecting various stuff I found concerning the event, but I thought that maybe some of you missed it and are interested.


So long,
Paradox0n

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.3 - Legion vs. Khador

New day, new game, new opportunities. After my lucky win in the Claws & Fangs game the day before, we decided to play a bigger game this time. Since I only had the contents of the 2-Player-Box and a Spawning Vessel, we decided to play a ~25 points match. We also took another scenario from the rulebook, this time the Killing Fields scenario, where you have to conquer and hold 3 objectives on the map for victory points. And we decided to use a chess clock for timing our game, although not counting it as win condition by Deathclock. Just for information how long we use for turns and stuff. Nonetheless we set it to the standard tournament timer of 60 minutes per player.

Khador Epic Kommander Sorsha Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich Juggernaut Kodiak Battlemechaniks Winterguard with Bazookas, Officer and Standard

Legion of Everblight Lylyth, Herald of Everblight Carnivean 2 x Shredder Full Blighted Ogryn Warspears Small Spawning Vessel

My plan was to move one Shredder to the objective on the left, contest the middle one with my Ogryn and fight for the right one with the rest of my army.
In Turn One not too much happens, everything moves forward, my Ogyrns Assault the Winterguard, which is nearly unkillable through Tough, Bob&Weave and Iron Flesh. My left Shredder frenzies and runs to the Winterguard and my Carnivean contests the right objective and kills the Juggernaut. The Spawning Vessel spawns a Stinger but the spray does nothing.
That is already 2 victory points for Khador

Turn Two brings even more death. The Winterguard happily kills all of my Ogryn without me able to do anything against it. My left Shredder advances against the left objective and contesting it. The Spawning Vessel spawns another Stinger, and the Kodiak battles against my Carnivean. Everything pretty tough so far.

In Turn Three I decide to Feat because I see no other possibility to win the game as to go for a caster kill. The Winterguard is at the moment not killable for me and dominates the center of the field.

So I poke Sorscha with Lylyth to get the mark on her, but have not enough Fury to cast Parasite. Nonetheless I have to go all in.
After some rule clarification, I make an Assault with my Carnivean which allows him to spray onto Sorscha. Also my Stingers spray and try to do as much damage as possible. Not enough, but the Carnivean gets into contact and pumps himself up to its maximum fury and kills Sorscha.

If you say now: Uh the charge wasn't possible, that is because the right image is a bit misleading. It was taken AFTER the kill when we discussed who it could have been prevented. NumbDice made the error to move his Mechaniks because he thought his Kodiak needs the support. Otherwise I only could have sprayed which would not have been enough here.

Victory through caster kill (again). If this all or nothing wouldn't have worked, I would have lost the game through scenario. On the left you can see the remaining time (although we played no Deathclock) and the victory points.

Lessons learned this game:
- Again: Time your Feat correctly!
- Fury management -> Couldn't cast an important spell because of missing Fury
- You can wound yourself for Fury in your upkeep!
- Ogryn are no match for the Winterguard deathstar
- Play with enough points! I played with 4 points left as allowed (which I just realized while writing this down)

I also should have played some things differently. First I should have put my Ogryn on the left flank, completely contesting the objective. With no fury management needed, the would have been the much more stable option. Second: The only way in this setup to get the Winterguard is to kill Kovnik Jo. And/Or to bypass the armor (e.g. Spine Explosion on a Shredder).

Hope you enjoyed this battle report. The battle was fought some time ago, some things were only roughly in memory so I could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.2 - Legion vs. Khador

Since my Legion of Everblight 2-Player-Box arrived some time ago, Numbdice and Me met for a gaming session and sent our wives on a party :) After scanning through the rulebook and all my stuff, we decided to start with a Mangled Metal match so that I can learn the rules a bit more and get a feeling for the Legion of Everblight.

We grabbed some terrain pieces from my board, got 4 pieces of my modular table and created a terrain which we thought would be nice to play on.

Since Mangled Metal is normally only played with the contents of a battle box, I played pLylyth, 4 Shredders and a Carnivean. My opponent had eSorsha, Juggernaut, Berserker and a Kodiak. Not exactly a battle box but in the points limit and so we played exactly that :)

First round wasn't really spectacular, everything moved forward and we stared each other into the eyes (or whatever Lylyth has). I had to be careful with my Fury since Lylyth can only soak 5 points so with running I was already at the limit.

The second round was a bit more interesting since I didn't run anymore but used the Animus of my lesser beasts to make tough Lylyth and the Carnivean a bit more durable. Lylyth moved into the woods do hide herself and get a bit of shooting into the Jacks.

The Berserker moved in direction of the woods, the other two Jacks charged my Shredders (exactly what I hoped they would do).
On the picture you can see my selfmade tokens in action :)

In the third round the fighting really began, the Berserker battled against my Carnivean, the Kodiak and Juggernaut killed my Shredders and Lylyth bushwacked into safety. At the end of the round, the Berserker exploded and left a pile of garbage in the woods.

All in all I was pretty lucky that nothing more happened to me and the bit of damage I got could be either mitigated or soaked.

So I prepared for the last round of battle, because my Lylyth stood in a good shooting position on Sorsha. And with an Assault order I could also spray on her with my Carnivean. And exactly that I did. The result of: 2 boosted shots on her -> Witch Blood and Parasite and a Carnivean spray you can see on the left picture :)

Win through caster kill. I was really happy with the result, because if that wouldn't have worked, I would have been dead in this or the next round. All my Shredders were killed and my Carnivean can not stand up against 2 Jacks. So it was all or nothing at this point.

Lessons learned in this game:

- Don't forget when to Feat!
- Shredders are nice cannon fodder and can annoy but will not win you a game. Take one for the Animus on your caster
- Lylyth's ability to shoot and move out of the way and THEN cast her stuff is great
- Carnivean is not so bad as thought. Spraying and then close combat is quite effective, especially on feat turn

And we had some spectators on the game. Loki, one of my cats, took a seat and had a suspicious look what we are doing :)

Was a really nice evening, with lots of talking and beer drinking and stuff. Sadly I couldn't convince Labschi from the game. Otherwise I would have playing mate directly in reach.
The second game awaited us then on the next day.

Hope you enjoyed this short battle report. The game was already some time ago, so I also could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes: Reinforcements arrived

Doppelpost today! Okay so I still have my big package flying around with lots of fancy stuff I want to use in the future for my Legion of Everblight force.

In this picture you not only can see the All-in-One army box. But also the UAs (unit attachements) for my Ogryn Warspeers and my Strider Rangers. Also you can see two more Acolytes for the Spawning Vessel to make it a big unit, a Forsaken and a Swamp Gobber crew.
Plus there is the official template set.

Aaand I was running out of or missing washes. Especially a blue and a purple one is needed, so I opted for the Warpaints Inks because I heard lots of positive stuff from them. Let's see if they are really this good.

And I am still owing you some Warmachine/Hordes battle reports. But I had too much on my mind and nearly no motivation to really blog. If you follow me on the social medias you may have seen that I am still alive because I made some advertisement for the Wasteman kickstarter which was successfully funded this weekend. Very happy that someone can make his hobby to his work :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Farewell T.P. and Melting the Ice

© The Smiling Grouch

Welcome back to another Monday Music and Musing episode! Before I really want to start my musing, I have to start (again) with some mourning: Last week one of my favored authors of fantasy (comedy) novels died: Terry Pratchett.

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Many artists made drawings and paintings to honor the creator of the Discworld and writer of many many fantastic novels. The picture shown by me is from The Smiling Grouch. On the Tumblr page you can also find some other interesting pictures.


But now let's continue with something not so sad: On the weekend I had the chance to play two Warmachine/Hordes matches with my Legion of Everblight against NumbDice's Khador. First a Mangled Metal with only one battlegroup to learn the rules and then a 25pts scenario game with the complete content of the 2-players box. I don't want to spoil too much because I will try to write down some short battle reports. But since I am still owing you some music:

Power of the Dragonflame by Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody), an Italian metal band.

The games where lots of fun and really, really thrilling. I found it absolutely interesting how the game changes in scenario play. Can't wait for my other stuff to arrive to build a more balanced list.

Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes 2-Player box arrived

Finally it is here! The Hordes 2-Player Box arrived. After some (to be honest extremely long) waiting because our LGS had trouble getting the German box, I have it now in my hands. So I can start with building and painting the stuff and see how much I like the miniatures before the All-in-one-Box will arrive (which should be somewhere around middle of the month, depending how long postage and customs take)..

Sadly my gaming mate, who took the German rules of the box, is sick, so the first match(es) with my newly found Legion of Everblight army will have to wait a bit longer :( At least I now have time to assemble and maybe paint them before the first game.


So long,
Paradox0n

Milestone reached: 60.000 hits

So its another milestone which this blog breached: 60.000 hits since I am tracking. Maybe you ask yourself why I am not waiting for the 100k mark for making a happy dance. That's easily explained: I just count this mark more like 50.000 hits because recently I have lots of search engine traffic (but no exact values sadly) so I have to give a best guess.

It seems to pay off that I tried to be a bit more present in Social Media (please check them out if you don't habe already) and in blog/community rolls of big hobby sites (like BoLS or Faeit).

And I was lucky and just hit the blog and was greeted with the perfect number ;-)

So what are the plans for the future? Most likely there will be more Warmachine/Hordes content (as soon as I got my stuff) and also a bit more of Shadows of Brimstone. If everything works fine I may also have a bit more time and I can play some bigger games of Kings of War which my system of choice will most likely be since ATM I see my future not with Warhammer Fantasy. But who knows, maybe the new edition will be excellent.

I also hope that I find more time to paint there are many many miniatures waiting. But that also depends a bit in which games I will play the next months.

I wish you all a food time and thanks for reading this blog!


So long,
Paradox0n

First Warmachine/Hordes game

So Saturday I had my first game of Warmachine/Hordes. A friend of mine plays both games and invited me to a introduction game of the gaming system. So we met for a standard game and he gave me a brief crash course in the rules and stuff. But theory isn't the only thing, so we started a 25 points game where he gave me his Khador Winterguard troops and he used his Blindwater Congregation crocodiles (which he never played before). I tried to make some pictures while we played but please don't expect a fully fledged battle report because most likely I can't tell you what exactly we did, because it was really lots of stuff to think to learn and to do (and to drink!).

But it was enough to get me very interested in the game and I ordered the Hordes 2-player starter box yesterday. And already found some people in my area who play Warmachine/Hordes instead of WHFB/40K. Pretty interesting. Don't want to spend too much money on the game so I will try to boost the both starter troops with the least money effort possible.