Privateer Press has taken the cover of their new line of starter boxes for Warmachine/Hordes. They are gearing up for the release of their newly revised rules set for the game and part of the roll out involves new starter boxes for the individual factions and a brand new two player starter for both lines.
Warmachine is a game of Steam powered fantasy combat set in the Iron Kingdoms. Players can take control of an army group under the control of a Warcaster. The Warcaster is a rarity on the battlefield, a spellcaster with the ability to exert control over the steam powered warjacks that are the last word in modern combat. You lose your Warcaster, you lose the game.
Hordes is a similar game, but rather than focusing on the steampunk aspect of warjacks and steam powered gear, Hordes focuses on the primal powers of the world and the Beasts that serve them. Mechanically, they play similarly and you can play games across product lines (your Warmachine guys against my Hordes dudes) without having to tinker with the conversion.
So let’s take a quick look at the new starters and see if we can’t find a shiny steam powered kill robot for you.
Note 1: All of the single player starter sets have an MSRP of 39.99 on them, which is an excellent price for a starter product for any game.
Cryx Battlegroup Starter Box
The Cryx represent the necromantically powered bad guys of the Iron Kingdoms setting. Operating as minions of a darker power, the Cryx rove the Iron Kingdoms, destroying their opposition with necromantic powers and the risen dead as their line troopers. Their army is built of undead soldiers, powerful necromancers, and Warjacks powered by the souls of the Damned. If this sounds like your cup of weird tea, then take a look at what’s in the box.
- 4 Highly Detailed, Single-colored Plastic Miniatures with Stat Cards. This battlegroup is focused around a single warcaster and a trio of Warjacks. Each model comes with its own stat cards so you can track it without needing to flip pages or look up six different sections of a rule book. (we recommend card sleeves that are clear on both sides so you can use a dry erase marker and just wipe them clean after a game).
- Basic Training Tutorial Guide . Other game systems would classify this as a “read this first” document, but Basic Training works just fine. This will walk you, as a new player, through the mechanics of game play and get you ready for playing your first game.
- Battle Map. This is a nice addition to a starter box, as it gives you a map that you can play on for your first games.
- Introductory Guide. An Introduction to the Iron Kingdoms setting and the Cryx faction specifically, this is a lore book that will help you engage with the faction of spooky necromancers
- WARMACHINE: Prime Rules Digest. A short form version of the rulebook for Warmachine. These have always been a fantastic value and contain all the rules you need to play the game.
- 18” Ruler. Distances in Warmachine are tracked in Inches, and this is a handy short measuring stick to get you started.
- 4 Six-sided Dice. This game runs on six sided dice, and the folks at privateer press are nice enough to supply you with four (you shouldn’t need more than four)
- 10 Focus Tokens. Focus tokens are the game’s mechanical representation of the mental influence your Warcaster exerts on their Warjacks. These can be used during the game to open up combat and movement options that aren’t available to a ‘jack without focus. It is also the resource used to cast spells, and generate a few other specific effects
- 3 Spell Tokens Each Warcaster has a set list of spells that they can cast. These tokens are handy reminders for which spells are in play and what unit they are targeting.
- Obstacle Card. A terrain piece for spicing up your starting battlefield until you get your own terrain pieces up and running.
This is a pretty amazing value for a starter product. It comes with all of the units you’d need to start learning the game, the dice to play and a map to practice on. The only piece that’s missing that i have a minor gripe about are the lack of templates for irregular attacks, but that’s a manageable gripe.
Note 2: The single player starter sets contain basically the same setup for gear, so i will only cover differences in the kits, and a blurb about each faction.
Cygnar:
Considered by some to be the crown jewel of the Iron Kingdoms, Cygnar is a country that boasts advanced mekinika (the sciences behind Warjack construction) and a well trained regular army. Cygnar as a faction features a lightning theme (several units generate electrical attacks and have resistances to electricity), and some very interesting army group themes. If you like the color blue, Cygnar may be the way to go.
The Introductory guide will be focused on Cygnar rather than Cryx
Khador
Struggling with the hostile winter that engulfs most of the northern edge of the Iron Kingdoms, Khador is a faction that believes that bigger is often better and deploys more heavy warjacks than any other faction (in the setting’s lore, on the tabletop, it’s up to you to outmass and outnumber your opponent). They have a very Eastern European feel to them and they love the color red.
The Khador starter box comes with Two Heavy Warjacks and a Warcaster instead of the traditional 4 figures.
The introductory guide is focused on the glorious Khador
Protectorate of Menoth
The Protectorate of Menoth is a theocracy focusing on the conservative teachings of the old god Menoth. Surviving in an extremely arid region, the Protectorate of Menoth is a hard country for a hard people. Their army is full of religious fanatics and holy men who use the cleansing flame of Menoth to burn the unbelievers and prosecute their holy war.
Like the other factions, the introductory guide is focused on the Protectorate of Menoth
Retribution of Scyrah
The only nonhuman faction with a starter box, The Retribution of Scyrah represents one of the major elven populations in the Iron Kingdoms. Convinced that human meddling with magic has destroyed the Gods of the elven people, the Retribution of Scyrah seeks to destroy all human arcanists to bring about the return of their gods.
The Introductory guide is focused on the Retribution of Scyrah
Two Player Starter Box
Ideal for the pair of friends who want to get into Warmachine and like Cryx and Cygnar, the Two player starter is an abundance of models and gear to get the two of you into the action. It contains:
- 28 Highly Detailed, Single-colored Plastic Miniatures with Stat Cards. This starter group will get broken down at the end of the review, but 28 models is a good start for a pair of new players.Each comes with its own stat cards so you can track it without needing to flip pages or look up six different sections of a rule book. (we recommend card sleeves that are clear on both sides so you can use a dry erase marker and just wipe them clean after a game).
- Basic Training Tutorial Guide . Other game systems would classify this as a “read this first” document, but Basic Training works just fine. This will walk you, as a new player, through the mechanics of game play and get you ready for playing your first game.
- Battle Map. This is a nice addition to a starter box, as it gives you a map that you can play on for your first games.
- WARMACHINE: Prime Rules Digest. A short form version of the rulebook for Warmachine. These have always been a fantastic value and contain all the rules you need to play the game.
- 18” Ruler. Distances in Warmachine are tracked in Inches, and this is a handy short measuring stick to get you started.
- 4 Six-sided Dice. This game runs on six sided dice, and the folks at privateer press are nice enough to supply you with four (you shouldn’t need more than four)
- 20 Focus Tokens. Focus tokens are the game’s mechanical representation of the mental influence your Warcaster exerts on their warjacks. These can be used during the game to open up combat and movement options that aren’t available to a ‘jack without focus. It is also the resource used to cast spells, and generate a few other specific effects
- 6 Spell Tokens Each Warcaster has a set list of spells that they can cast. These tokens are handy reminders for which spells are in play and what unit they are targeting.
The Cryx side of the box comes with A Warcaster, two heavy warjacks, a light warjack, and a unit of bane warriors (the rank and file undead soldiers of cryx), along with the introductory book for Cryx
The Cygnar side comes with a Warcaster, two light warjacks, a heavy warjack and a unit of Stormguard (one of the rank and file choices for Cygnar, they come with pole arms that shoot lightning), and an introductory guide for Cygnar
This big box has an MSRP of 89.99, but is worth the price for a new player (you can save even more if you split it with a friend).
That's it for our review of the Starter Boxes for Warmachine, check back next week for the lowdown on Hordes.
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