Warmachine & Hordes New Editions & New Starter Sets!
April 11, 2016 by brennon
Privateer Press have finally now let the cat out of the bag about Warmachine & Hordes and a NEW EDITION of the rules. They have been streamlining the rules and creating a great entry point for someone to get stuck into this massive world that they have built...
You can check out the video above from Privateer Press where they talk about some of the changes that they have in mind and what they love about the Iron Kingdoms and the armies within it. But, there would be no New Edition without some interesting models on the horizon.
Battlegroups Of Warmachine - What's Inside?
Some new Battlegroups have been shown off for new players which come with all of the things you need to get going.
- Mini-Rulebook
- Quick Start Rules (Basic Training)
- Faction Guide (How to expand your force)
- Gaming Mat
- Terrain
- Tokens, Dice, Ruler
- ...and of course the models for your faction including a Warcaster/Warlock and Warjacks/Warbeasts
I'm really liking the expanded content of the box as it gives you the needed pieces to begin playing AND in conjunction with that means that if you and a friend pick the game up you have double the amount of fun to work with.
Why The Change?
Interestingly as they have said above in the video these new Warcasters and Warlocks for the various factions are designed to maximise the power of each Battlegroup on the tabletop and work in tandem with their Warjacks and Warbeasts.
It looks like we're getting a neat mix of the old and the new in terms of the models for these Battlegroups and I can already imagine some of you are getting excited about the prospect of starting a new army.
One of the other big things we're seeing from these models is that they all come in a variety of coloured plastics so you could almost just get started right out of the box and just start playing.
The whole idea of this seems to be to make it easy to get stuck into Warmachine and Hordes and enjoy it with as little hassle as possible. A good step.
Battlegroups Of Hordes - Who Will You Side With?
Of course as well as Warmachine the armies of Hordes continue to fight on with all new Battlegroups too.
I think this could be a great new start for the world of Warmachine and Hordes and bring more people into the hobby. Of course Privateer Press support a lot of different tournaments and other events too across the world so there should never be a time when you can't find a game.
I reckon I'm going to be sticking with my original thoughts on the world of Warmahordes and joining the Trollbloods for a cask of ale up in the mountains. Their Battlegroup looks fantastic with a rather epic looking Warlock there.
When Is This Coming?
The time of reckoning is...
June 29th, 2016
...so you better have your warriors to hand when the new edition strikes. You can find out more about the announcement HERE.
What do you think to this upcoming change?
"...there would be no New Edition without some interesting models on the horizon"
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"The time of reckoning is June 29th, 2016..."
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It REALLY is time to get into this game methinks…
I don’t see any unit cards in the pics, are they eliminating those somehow?
And if not, do I have to buy new ones for the new edition?
The Press Release (linked in the forums), indicates new stat cards, 12 decks one for each faction. I never finished buying the 2nd Ed cards for all my figures and I doubt I’ll be getting these as I haven’t played in a long time.
I’m pretty sure they said they’ll be releasing a new deck of stat cards for each faction. It’ll likely be around $15.
Another issue of the slow painter, had a box since October and have yet to play a game. May just wait until the new rules now so I don’t get confused.
Pfffft, October, I actually started painting the cygnar starter I bought when they changed to 2nd edition last week!! Got it and a Cryx one at the time and immediately fell under the spell of the dragon father.
Now thats slow painting, a whole edition! 😉
Pfffft, a whole edition? I have minis for Second Edition D&D that I haven’t painted yet from games in the early 90’s. And now I wait for the reply from the historical gamer and their original Little Wars sets that have yet to see primer.
Pfft.. I’ve got a first edition boxed starter set of Cygnar from a time when Hordes didn’t even exist that I’ve yet to assemble and paint XD
Not to mention Warhammer 40k figures from the early 80s as well… They’re older than I am lol.
@superfurrymaniac – are you having fun painting them? I was just looking at the sets above thinking they look like they would be fun to paint and with small numbers one could put a lot of effort into it 🙂
The full sized game is quite a bit bigger than what you get in the starter boxes, though you can focus on some big centrepiece minis in the colossals and battle engines, especially if MkIII does make them more effective.
Or you could just bribe John to paint them?
I’ve barely got anywhere to be honest. Got them all built up and undercoated and then stalled on a colour scheme. Doing Orboros and I just can’t decide whether to stick with the standard or go for red or blue as a main colour. There’s some awesome paint jobs out there.
It’s going to be interesting to see what changes PP makes to WMH with this upcoming new edition.
Please someone tell me that my complete collection of faction and campaign books are not obsolete. Apart from that “Yahoooooo”, though those miniatures in the battle boxes look suspiciously like they are made from soft plastic.
odds are that all your books will soon be obsolete… I know my books from earlier editions are 😉
They will be from a rules point of view, but they’ll likely be only place that the fluff they contain is available.
They said, the fluff will be available in the tales of skull island books
Sorry, just had a closer look at the miniatures and they look like hard plastic.
On a few wm/h painting groups I’m on the word is they’re ‘PVC’ plastic… =/
The PVC plastic that the Wrath of Kings models by CMON are made up of is actually really good.. if you get the chance, check out those models, they are super detailed, lots of really small weapons on some of them, and NOT bendy or fragile at all.. I really really liked working with the PVC and was able to do some very easy conversions including torso, head, and whole limb swaps that would have been nigh impossible with metal or resin… so if they use the same stuff the Wrath of Kings used, I’m actually really happy in that… Read more »
Agreed. The WoK minis are excellent.
I have many of the WoK models and they are some of my all time favorites. The PVC is very easy to handle. Sanding is just a bit hard as the PVC will have some minor fiber bits that need to be cut.
They are indeed confirmed to be PVC. Most of the current warjacks and beasts are in PVC IIRC so probably not a massive change in material.
SWEET! I think I’m gonna like these new kits. Defintely getting Trollbloods and might pick up Cygnar. We will see.
Have always been on the outside, looking in with Warmachine. That Trollbloods set has really piqued my interest, this could be the year to check this game out.
Wonder if the starter sets will be in hard plastic…
Either way, I am in! The announcement mentions a major re-balancing of the system, maybe good news for those who don’t like Cryx. As for me I am and always will be a faithful servant of Toruk, the dragonfather!
MkII was an excellent ruleset, but it’s definitely showing its age now. A bit clunky and a bit dated, so it doesn’t surprise me that ‘streamlined’ is the key selling point of the MkIII rules.
Agreed. MkII was a great rule set, but it was starting to show cracks, especially with the power levels of some models and factions (Cryx). They have said a lot of the changes have come from player feedback, forum discussion and suggestions from players.
Could be interesting. I am sick of seeing army lists with only one Warjack/Colossal so I hope they make them more useful/powerful. Warjacks are what interest me the most in this game.
Which battlebox (or boxes!), will you choose?
For me, it is definitely Cryx, and maybe either Legion or Trollbloods for Hordes.
From the Privateer Press forum…
The models in the new battle group sets are unassembled PVC plastic.
“Every model ever made for the games was redesigned, rebalanced, and updated to a revised set of rules.”
http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/letting-the-jack-out-of-the-bag-and-why-chinese-food-will-never-be-the-s
“We’ve got a ton of stuff to show you—from videos and podcasts, to developer articles, new characters, fiction, art, and models—all queued up to share over the weeks ahead”
This is a little unsettling. I mean, yes, new and shiny, but I am not happy if this invalidates all the books and expansions I have bought, they all add up, and this edition was supposed to be the one that lasted for a long time.
It doesn’t invalidate the stories, the background information, the images or the pictures in the books. The stats, sure, but you’re getting new cards in the form of a faction deck. Sure, if you used the books from other factions to see what they could do (I use Warroom for that), then that part won’t be any good. I have all the faction books, supplements, and the core rulebooks for both Warmachine and Hordes. I mostly got them for the stories, background, images, and inspirational photographs of models and cool battleboards. I’m looking forward to the new version–bigger, more efficient… Read more »
Also, 6 years is a good lifespan for a rules version. So that’s a pretty long time as far as rulesets go.
Actually, no it’s not. It amazes me what low standards we have for rules sets anymore (not specifically talking about PP here, there are loads of awful rules sets out there).
It lasted 6 years. The rules and models are being updated, it’s change for the better, embrace it.
I think that the amount of time is less important than the necessity of updating the rules. A ruleset with a lot issues shouldn’t wait for an update, whilst one which works perfectly should never update. In MkII’s case, the time is about right. The industry has moved on with regards to rules writing and MkII is showing its age. The game has also expanded a lot since then and the rules need to keep up with that. They were never written with the likes of colossals and battle engines in mind, there are new factions too, and the base… Read more »
Time to get PP on the Weekender guys
Damn it, now I have to find money for a Warma-Hordes collection. And PP couldn’t have the decency to tempt me with only one faction, oh no, they just had to create both awesome techno-mecha Undead and weird evil mutant dragon monster factions, and do it all alongside multiple flavours of army sporting smoke belching walking steampunk tanks. How am I supposed to choose between Steampunk Commies and electricity obsessed Tesla fanboys? How, I ask you, how? 😉
Heh–why choose? Just buy ’em all =p
nice!
Oh God… sh*t hit the fan… new Warmahordes coming soon, new BA coming soon after them. It is going to be a pocket draining year 🙂
As long as it becomes more about the jack/beasts then I am all for it 🙂
They said that warmachine battlegroups will work better. Though I don’t know anything about the specifics yet.
Yeah, let’s hope running more warjacks / beasts is a thing. Annoyed me that when I got into Mk2, I fell in love with the look of the Khador warjacks and then after playing for a while relapsed they were mostly crap and I needed a ton of (rather ugly looking) infantry to be competitive.
It looks like there’ll be more points to spend on jacks, plus they’ll get the free focus is they’re in the caster’s CMD which should solve the biggest limitation on running a lot of jacks.
While I am not surprised by the lack of Merc / Minion battle boxes, I AM surprised to see there is no box for Cyriss. I wonder if the refocus on Warjacks will screw up my 15 point Ashlynn list. That would duck 🙁
Suck. That’s it, no more posting from my phone. Frelling autocorrect..
See GW precoloured “plastics” for the factions, is it so hard for you to do it?
Considering the vast majority of miniature companies don’t do precoloured plastics it’s a bit odd that you’d highlight the one that have actually planned it for an entire range.
Not really if you follow my decade and more old rants about the manufacturing capabilities of GW and how lazy they are in using them, or better how they do not use them even though they have them.
PP did the right thing here having the factions manufactured in precoloured plastics and it is yet another company a fraction of GW that does more than what GW ever does.
But that’s running with the assumption that people want precoloured. Of the plethora of complaints that are frequently aired about GW it’s not one that features. Either people are indifferent or, like myself, prefer the grey plastic. I buy my minis to paint them, and I prefer priming over grey. The Space Hulk stuff bothered me with the red plastic.
If someone wants their minis in a single colour then ten minutes with a can of primer and it’s sorted.
This is all good if you consider GW a model company, I do not do so I consider them what they really are a games company, having precoloured plastics means the customers can have a basically coloured army by finishing assembly and then move on, if they want, to paint them eliminating the “sea of grey” mind you GW has in their possession technology that could make not only precoloured plastics but also sprue on sprue so they could for example have blue marine bodies with black weapons and backpacks. I believe its mostly not an assumption of people wanting,… Read more »
psychotic storm – Games Workshop are a model company. They always have been.
@ bubble15 GW is a models company only in the minds of its board (if even there) and their statements to their investors. If they want to be a models company, they must drop the games and go compete in model shops like all the other models company like Bandai, tamiya, airfix and the rest. They will not do that and the cannot do that, their models are wargame models, they are robust to survive the tabletop usage, not elegant and detailed as a scale model is. Sorry they are a games company, they even stopped creating FW models that… Read more »
Did GW not announce precoloured plastics a while ago? (Battle of Vodros stuff?)
Ballsy move, right after announcing online discounters are parasites on the gaming world, and by default, people who purchase there.
Citation? Link?
GW (in)famously did that a few years back, and a string of their apologists followed suit.
But I don’t remember PP saying any such thing. Yes, they favor brick and mortar. Always have. But I’d like to see this “parasite” thing for myself.
“We do not condone the free riders’ parasitic business model and elect to both continue and enhance our partnerships with those distributors that share our point of view and actively work in the best interests of the brick-and-mortar retailers,”
http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/34100/privateer-axes-offending-online-retailers
@bruunwald
PP say that because online retailers are offering their stuff so low, it is having an adverse effect on LGS who sell their products because the latter cannot compete with the online prices. That in turn means LGS end up dropping Warmachine et al. because they aren’t actually selling their stuff, and that is obviously a bad thing, because that closes up an avenue for people to get into the game in the first place, and come across other people to play against, as well as it typically being LGS who run leagues and events. So I guess I don’t… Read more »
PP’s sanctions are only aimed at sellers that provide no extra value to the game (e.g. have table space, run tourneys etc.) whereas GW’s was aimed at all independents, particularly those who did not carry shelves full of GW stock.
IMO It was a good move by PP to actively help those independent stores who help promote PP’s brand.
They doubled the point scale to better tune the balance of models. Each warcaster/warlock now has a unique spell. Power Up: warjacks now automatically start with 1 focus if in their caster’s CTRL during control phase. They didn’t say anything about changes to Jack Marshals. Spirit Bond: warlocks can possibly get some focus from warbeasts that are ‘in the grave’. Warcasters/warlocks get about 2-3x as many free warjack/warbeast points–more stompy robots/monsters on the battlefield. They are improving gargantuans, colossals, and battle engines–making them better. Premeasuring is in. No more fear/terror checks–units won’t run away because you failed a single die… Read more »
I haven’t played Warmahordes in well over a year. The game was getting too big, too bloated and too convoluted for a casual gamer (IMHO).
If they streamline the rules and make warjacks and warbeasts more prominent (to hell with infantrymachine, I got into this game for the big stompy things), then I may consider getting back into it.