Privater Press, Part II (Hordes Time)

Privateer Press has taken the cover of their new line of starter boxes for Warmachine and 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.  Last Week we took a hard look at the new starters for Warmachine, so let’s take a look at those fearsome beasts from Hordes.

Hordes is a fast paced skirmish game set in the Iron Kingdoms.  Rather than focusing on the Steampunk mayhem of the civilized regions, it focuses entirely on the awesome and powerful wild things that live beyond the borders of the map.  Monstrous Warbeasts capable of shredding waves of lesser men vie for control of battlefields from frozen mountaintops to the scariest of hidden copses.  A powerful Warlock controls the Warbeasts and focuses them on the task at hand, without the Warlock, the game is over.

As we said last week, Hordes is playable with Warmachine and you can play freely against each other without any major conversion issues.  So feel free to grab your Trollbloods and stomp some Cryxian Banes into the ground.  So let’s take a quick look at the new starters and see if we can’t find your new favorite murder beast.

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.  

Circle Orboros Battlegroup Starter Box

The Circle Orboros is an allied fellowship of druids who desire to protect the wild places of Immoren (the continent where the Iron Kingdoms flourish) from anyone who wants to despoil that natural beauty.  To this end, they have harnessed powerful nature magic and an array of wild things to stop the desolation of their lands.  If you have an affinity for wolves and natural colors, Circle Orboros may be your jam.

• 4 Highly Detailed, Single-colored Plastic Miniatures with Stat Cards.   This battlegroup is focused around a single Warlock and a trio of Warbeasts.  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 Circle Orboros faction specifically, this is a lore book that will help you engage with the faction of wilderness loving, tree hugging, and Wolf calling druids.
• HORDES: Primal Rules Digest.  A short form version of the rulebook for Hordes.  These have always been a fantastic value and contain all the rules you need to play the game.  
• 18” Ruler.  Distances in Hordes 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 Fury Tokens.  Fury tokens are the game’s mechanical representation of the mental influence your Warlock draws from their Warbeasts.  These can be used during the game to open up combat and movement options that aren’t available to a Warbeast normally. Each Warbeast has a limit to the amount of Fury it can contain without losing control.  It is also the resource used to cast spells, and generate a few other specific effects
• 3 Spell Tokens:  Each Warlock 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 is 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.  

Legion of Everblight:  

If you read our review of the Warmachine starters, you probably heard us mention that one of the groups of elves went super zealous and have devoted their energy to wiping out human arcanists.  The Legion of Everblight represents a slightly different group of Elves. Everblight is ancient dragon who has used his powers to corrupt the elves of the frozen mountains into serving his dark will.  Featuring mutated draconic monsters, bad ass elves, and some extremely frosty paint schemes, the Legion has a distinct look and feel to the way it plays on the table top.

The Introductory guide will be focused on the Legion of Everblight.

This box also has 5 models (1 Warlock, 2 light Warbeasts, and 2 Heavy Warbeasts).

Skorne:

The Skorne faction represents newcomers to the Iron Kingdoms and is a decidedly vicious and murderous faction of mercenaries.  Using death and torture to fuel their sinister magicks, the Skorne utilize some of the most brutal methods of inspiring acts of greatness from their Warbeasts and servants.  Skorne has a decidedly reptilian feel and one of the most interesting backgrounds for a wargame faction we’ve seen in quite a while.

The Skorne starter comes with four models, 1 Warlock, 2 light Warbeasts, and 1 heavy Warbeast.

The introductory guide is focused on Skorne

Trollbloods

The Trollbloods represent the amphibian dwellers of the large swamp that occupies a part of the Iron Kingdoms.  They are a populous race, seemingly with a troll for any occasion.  They operate with a surplus of light Warbeasts and will swarm the table with a rolling mass of Trolls.  They have a wide array of options for the new player and will give you some interesting textures to paint while gearing up for war.

Like the other factions, the introductory guide is focused on the Trollbloods

Two Player Starter Box

Ideal for the pair of friends who want to get into Hordes and like Skorne and Trollbloods, 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.  
• HORDES: Primal Rules Digest.  A short form version of the rulebook for Hordes.  These have always been a fantastic value and contain all the rules you need to play the game.  
• 18” Ruler.  Distances in Hordes 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 Fury Tokens.  Fury tokens are the game’s mechanical representation of the mental influence your Warlock draws from their Warbeasts.  These can be used during the game to open up combat and movement options that aren’t available to a Warbeast normally. Each Warbeast has a limit to the amount of Fury it can contain without losing control.  It is also the resource used to cast spells, and generate a few other specific effects

• 6 Spell Tokens:  Each Warlock 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 Skorne side of the box comes with a Warlock, one heavy Warbeast, two light Warbeasts, and a unit of Praetorian Swordsmen (the rank and file Skorne soldiers), along with the introductory book for Skorne

The Trollbloods side comes with a Warlock, three light Warbeasts, and a unit of Trollkin Fennblades (one of the rank and file choices for the Trollblood faction) and an introductory guide for the Trollbloods.

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 our review of the Hordes starter sets, so check back next week and we’ll see if we can’t find something else interesting in the Iron Kingdoms to take a look at.

Game on, Game Fans