35pt Holiday Bundles from Privateer Press!
November 22, 2011 by beerogre
Just in time for the holidays, the guys at Privateer Press have released 35pt bundles to get you started with your favourite faction of Warmachine & Hordes... of course if your a hopeless addict like me then these can be used to bulk out your existing forces too!
There are bundles for all the factions for both Hordes & Warmachine, including special bundles for the new Blindwater Congregation and Thornfall Alliance factions for Hordes Minions.
If you're interested in kicking off a Warmahordes force, or expanding your existing collection, then you can check out all the offers at the Privateer Press Store.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
No love for the poor Mercs? Ashlynn, Gorten and the gang are going to make a sad face.
There is a mercs one you get:
# Warcaster Magnus the Traitor
# Mangler Heavy Warjack
# 2 Renegade Light Warjacks
# Talon Light Warjack
# 10 Greygore Boomhowler & Co.
# 10 Steelhead Halberdiers
# Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
# Free Mercenaries Token Set
# Free Privateer Press Tape Measure
# Free Pair of Privateer Press Dic
Not having a starter battlegroup to work from they come in about $50 more than cygnar or kador, and you might want something bigger than light jacks.
lol I swear that wasn’t on the list a couple of hours ago. And it’s shame they don’t sell the Merc starters any more because Magnus (Mangler, Renegade, Talon) is exactly what you used to get in it. The Rhulic battlegroup was pretty cool too 🙁
@siygess – I know what you mean. Magnus is a big player in the storyline, so I’m sure he needs a new starter box… but that’ll not happen until the Mangler and Renegade move to plastic/resin.
With the Mule (and other Merc Heavies) moving into resin/plastic, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see an Ashlynn D’Elyse starter box in the future.
Of course I’m holding out for a Rhulic Starter Box… they would be brilliant in plastic/resin. I love my metal versions, but I would buy them all over again if they were in plastic… just so I could repose them!
Its kinda disappointing to me how they based these on the battlegroup boxes to begin with really, for one it makes the factions without one look less inviting since they cost more(particularly Thornfall and Blindwater, being newer as well), and for another it would put people who bought a battlegroup or the two player box off, cos they might really love the faction they chose but don’t want to buy the same models again, but had the deal been based around another caster, and some other jacks/units they’d have been taken in by the shiney.
I have to agree with @cazboab The fact that the Khador and Protectorate bundles are based on the battleboxes seems somewhat redundant. Given the new resin man o wars I would loved to have seen a man o war heavy Butcher list. Still its great to see the bundles for the likes of Mercs and retribution.
Well, I agree with @casboab but you have to realize that this sort of thing is normal… It has to happen, everytime there’s a promotion on bundles that help you start the game. This is obviously for people who want to start out (so they don’t have the battlegroup) or who want to try out another faction…
Also, it’s a nice big present to give someone for Christmas.
These targets are highly valuable in PP’s eyes, and the very regular releases are enough to take care of the needs of regular players (and they’re way more regular and uniform than the ones from other companies).
So… I wouldn’t complain !
Not bad at all. I may have to look into picking one up.
wow, if I were to get into hordes that Legion set has almost every miniature from the range that I like, shame the necron book came out: too many good minis!
Had a look at the shipping on the PP store there and its prohibitively expensive to the UK. Bit of a pity but bar the dice there isnt anything you couldnt pick up yourself
It seems the bundles have free shipping 🙂
Ashlynn & Magnus surely need a starter set, but more amazingly, there still isn’t a proper starter for Retribution. Somewhat surprising, as they’re even a proper faction.
Privateer Press has done a bang up job per usual with their minis and making it easy for new people to get in or existing players to pick up a new faction…hmmm, Trolls or Skorne or Circle? I played Cygnar in the past, but once I picked up Legion, I found the aggressive style of Hordes suited me. Will be putting one of the Hordes factions on my Christmas list~
Wow. I’ve been wanting to get on board with Warmachine for a while now, and it finally looks doable. It would be nice if another certain company would release playable forces in a bundle but, alas, It’s not meant to be. (Just so we’re clear that was a dig at GW.)
I think the last GW deal you could make a list out of without it being a hilariously expensive apocalypse bundle were the Praetorians…
I have yet to play this game, so I am woefully ignorant on the fieldability of the above armies, but given that we all (rightfully) like to beat up on GW for their prices, I was wondering about the idea of true cost for a competent army. In looking at the bundles, I was surprised that the actual total count of mini’s for the cost is not that great. For example, looking at Cygnar, you get 2 heavy jacks, 2 light jacks, a caster, 6 infantry, 6 techs, 1 character and 1 squire for $187. 18 mnis. rougly $10 a mini. Is that really so much better than GW? (Battle force(s) and Black Reach in particular.)
With Warmachine/Hordes the cost per unit isn’t the same as Warhammer. It takes loads of figures (bucket loads if you play Skaven or Goblins) to field a Warhammer army. Whereas, in WM/H 35 points is a rather normal to large game. Also, the size of the figures included, especially in the case of the metal ones, is not cheap, but fair. So for $187 you get everything you need: dice, figures, markers, etc. Also, much different to Warhammer Fantasy is that just changing a Warcaster/Warlock changes the entire force and how it works. Most WHF make you stick with one kind of play, Privateer Press games make it easy to change everything basically with one different figure. A GW battle force box doesn’t even include a hero and many necessary units you’ll need for success.
“With Warmachine/Hordes the cost per unit isn’t the same as Warhammer” – right, for GW for a Starter Army based on their starter set (at $99), GW gives you more mini’s for your dollar. If you also buy the High Elf Battalion for $105, and your choice of 1 additional unit – say of cavalry, ($30 or $35) or an elite troop ($40), you end up with something like 27 minis from Island of Blood (not even counting the skaven), 40 from the battalion, + the thrower and charriot, plus whatever you got with you last choice – anywhere from 5 to 20 minis. This gives you a 2000 pt army (especially if you go w dragon princes). Total Cost is 240. 66 troops + 3 large models (thrower, Griffon, charriot). About $3.40 per mini. So a Horde army, lets use Minions, is coming in at $240 for 1 Warlock, 2 each heavy and light beasts, 10 brigands, 6 slaughterhousers, and 2 characters(?) – Roorsh & Brine. Thats 19 regular minis and 4 large minis. This is about $10.40 a mini. Now admittedly I am using the most cost effective army build possible that GW offers for Fantasy, but the core comparison here is starter army vs starter army, so it seems appropriate. Now where this breaks down is of course when you want to run anything other than a High Elf or Skaven army (and yes you would need to buy a lot more skaven). But then my whole point here is about cost per mini for a functional army. Seems like Warmachine / Hordes has a much higher cost per mini. Its really that with Privateer you just field much smaller armies. (This response was just looking at the game from a cost / mini standpoint. Your other points about how the game changes based on caster choice, etc, are excellent, but beyond my scope of inquiry.)
Per model, its both yes and no:
The “yes” a jack in resin plastic costs a bit less than something a similar size in finecast- a heavy jack is a fair bit bigger than Ghazghkull Thraka for roughly the same cost and more options, GW would probably run off jacks in an all plastic kit at about the size of a dreadnought(currently £28 compared to a heavy jacks price of £22), and then you compare the metal models of a similar size like a chaos dread that costs more than a battlegroup box, but the old metal jacks still cost about the same as the resin ones, all be it with far less options/spares.
The “No” is some infantry, take 10 of the old metal imperial guard, they’ll set you back £20-25 depending on which regiment, were ten winter guard will set you back about the same depending on the options, but 10 empire handgunners from GW will only sting you for £15.
When you factor in the bigger things that eat up points in 40k like tanks and uber characters, and the fact that warmachine is mainly about those type of units rather than the masses of infantry, it sorta balances itself out- you can easily make an 18 model list in 40k that runs about 1000-1500 points with grey knights and would cost you around the same as one of these 35 point sets once you add up a finecast character some termis as paladins a couple power armour squads a dreadnought or two etc. then you need a £20 book to use the GK, with warmachine and hoards you get a card in the box with the model that has the unit’s rules, and the book is pretty much optional.
Funny, we are both using some extreme examples to make points. Grey Knights / Paladins with an uber HQ are about the most expensive – points wise- in 40k. So yeah you could come up with a low mini count army and be at a standard point game. But what about cost per mini? Lets use Darrells (extreme) Drago based GK army, – 1 HQ (Draigo) w 5 Paladins, 2 Stormravens, 1 Paladin Squal (5), and 2 Dreads. Thats $100 for the Terminators, $132 for the stormravens, $90 for the dreads and Draigo at $22. $344 for 11 troops, 2 dreads (compared to heavy jacks) and 2 vehicles (no comparrison). So yeah in this army, cost per mini – (excluding vehicles altogether) is $19 a mini. Hmm. A cheap (cash wise) army overall, but cost per mini is outrageous. I still thank that an average normal army for 40k, cost per mini, is much cheaper overall in GW, but thanks for the suggestion, gave me something else to chew on.
Perhaps a more interesting angle would be to look at cost per point as opposed to cost per mini. 35pts would be considered standard for WM/H and correct me if Im wrong but its about 2000pts for GW? The bundles on the PP site are good but it is possible to build 35pts for cheaper, especially if you choose on of the Factions in Two player battle box. In it you get 20pts and 21pts respectively. Its possible to build this up to 35pts very economically, especially if you shop around
Yeah I think probably its better if you were to compare like for like models, rather than per model cost of a force or per point cost, it would probably even itself out on average, were the PP stuff seems cheaper is that you need far less of it for a sizeable force in the game, and the rules are mostly in the box with the models rather than in separate £20+ books.
I think its mostly a psychological difference to be honest- in 40k you need to swap weapons out to get an effective squad in most cases but the units in warmahoards are generally speaking fielded with what comes in the box, and 40k has lots and lots of point sink units that are used quite often. Probably the best way to decide which is better value(though its all still subjective and differs between models) is to proxy a list from one using the models from another, for example if you proxy terminators as heavy infantry in war machine, you generally find yourself paying more to get the 6 man unit , but if you proxy winter guard or idrian skirmishers etc as imperial guard you’ll pay roughly the same as you would if you went for the metal guardsmen, but the plastic ones will be a tiny bit cheaper. on face value the difference in price per model doesn’t sound like a lot cos it’ll be in the pence/cents range, but ads up to a fair wad of change once you realise you can use up to 299 guardsmen(before commissars and advisors even) as your HQ and two minimum troops choice in a 2000 point battle, and at that we’re not just talking lasgun spam, there’s about 300 points left to spread some AT and close combat specialist gear around.
That sorta leads into one of the biggest differences between the two systems for me, its very difficult to swamp your opponent with masses of cheap grunts in warmachine/hoards at the list building stage, but in 40k there are armies that practically encourage it
.
I guess another thing is that Im probably from the generation when a metal model was a big deal to me. I love metal and it’ll always hold a certain sentimental spot for me
Well as far as spending money and how much…
If your in this hobby your going to spend quite a bit, to me it comes down to which game system fits me better. With warmahordes while you don’t perform exotic weapon changes and scratch builds. You do have to buy certain units to deal with certain threats or run certain combos to deal with certain threats. Which to me would be one in the same. In comparison to 40k. So then it comes down to “Is the perfect fit a game that requires extreme model building skills or one that puts the focus in other areas.”
However beside the vulgar display of price gouging performed by GW, it does appear that the 40k rule set is reaching a critical mass and is not only broken but in great need of a total imploding or significant reboot. However GW can’t even effectively do this until they atleast bring all the faction books up to speed.
Don’t get me wrong I like 40k and have 2 and a half apocalypse size armies. Even though I havent bought a model since 2 price increases ago. IE 2 years…
Partially due to the fact of price increases and also due to Warmahordes over all game system being so solid…
So to conclude in a rather lengthy way I guess it depends on what you are looking for first and the money second.
Would I of never of done 40k if hit warmahordes first ?
probably not…
Not bad as a bundle I guess
My concern with PP Warmahordes is that its not that cheap, and pricey per figure. However it is a great system and a “force” is not a massive outlay. IMO the 2 player box set is the best deal and gives you 2 great forces. The resin stuff is not that bad and some of the metal stuff is excellent. The older figs do need redoing as some of the PoM stuff IMO is just dire sculpt wise
I look forward to playing more with my PoM and Trollbloods
Is it just me or have they taken them down off the site?
Yeah, cos those were from last year, this year’s deal is 25 points and a rulebook.