Warmachine

WARMACHINE is a skirmish scale tabletop miniatures game by Privateer Press set in their Steampunk and Sorcery styled Iron Kingdoms. The game itself focuses around small scale encounters between powerful warrior-mages known as Warcasters and their ten-tonne, iron-clad, steam-powered allies known as Warjacks.

"STEP INTO A WORLD FORGED OF IRON AND TEMPERED BY WAR."

- Privateer Press, Prime MKII

It is a fast paced and aggressive game that favours the attacker and is never over until the last turn of the game. Whilst the Warcasters and Warjacks are undoubtable the stars of the game, infantry too play a vital role and larger games require that infantry and Warjacks be used in conjunction to support each other and obtain victory.

The Page 5 Controversy

The original release of WARMACHINE Prime had a write-up on page 5 that laid out the attitude and goals of the game in a bold, tongue-in-cheek and, some would say, confrontational tone. Some players misinterpreted Page 5, and used it as a free license to act improperly at the game table, others railed against it, stuck in their “comp” and “cheese” ways from previous game systems.

Page 5 essentially tells the player what type of game WARMACHINE is: It’s an aggressive, competitive game where players should take every advantage available to them in an attempt to beat their opponent. Things in this game are powerful, there will be combos that seem unbeatable at first – but there are always answers. Page 5 is also about sportsmanship – in every game there is going to be a loser and a winner and both must be gracious, and ready for the next game.

In MKII, Privateer Press have toned down the controversy of Page 5 and have made it clearer to the masses – it is still there and still lays out the values of the game, but in a less aggressive manner. No matter the original intentions of the developers, Page 5 became a standard part of WARMACHINE, and has appeared in every book released for WARMACHINE and HORDES with the exception of the “Forces of” books.

A New Edition

WARMACHINE Prime was originally released in 2003, and slowly gained in popularity. Each year, Privateer Press released a new WARMACHINE book, extending the main storyline, adding new rules and adding new units and options to each of the 4 main factions. In 2007, Prime Remix was released to clean up the existing rules that had been heavily FAQ’d and Errata’d and bring all the extra rules from the expansions into the core rulebook. In 2009 Privateer Press announced that it was time for a new edition of the game, and in a nearly unprecedented move, held an open public playtest.

For the later half of 2009 the core WARMACHINE rules, along with rules for every unit from all 5 factions were available to download for free from the Privateer web page. Players downloaded and played, and loads of feedback was gathered. In January 2010, Prime MKII was released – a culmination of 7 years experience capped by years of internal testing and 6 months of player testing.

Prime MKII was not the first book released for MKII however, that honour went to the new faction’s book, Forces of Warmachine: Retribution of Scyrah, released in 2009. Privateer Press plans to release one Forces of book a month until each of the major factions is brought fully up to date with MKII.

Review by Chris C.