Winter 2012 Holiday Bundles: Hordes

Much like the Warmachine Bundles offered by Privateer Press for the holidays, today I will look at the Hordes holiday bundles and rank them on the same criteria (Power Level and Longevity).  It's taken me a while to fully evaluate these lists and there are some very interesting differences between the Hordes bundles from the Warmachine ones.  Notably, the Warmachine bundles included the plastic battlegroup box (and so you would normally get a second warcaster to play).  These bundles do not include the plastic battlegroup box (except for Skorne, for some reason) and, in the case of these bundles, that is actually more of an advantage since the rest of the bundle isn't limited by warbeast choices.  Also, the Hordes bundles include a full-sized rulebook instead of the pocket sized one - probably since there's no battlegroup warcaster and they wanted to offer a fair deal.  What's also different with these bundles is that there isn't even a Trollbloods holiday bundle, which is very curious.  Instead, there are two Minion bundles - a great boon for anyone interested in starting the Thornfall Alliance or Blackwater Congregation.  It's great the Privateer Press created separate bundles for what is, essentially, two separate factions.  Well, let's jump into it!

Winter 2012 Holiday Bundles: Warmachine

As you may already know, Privateer Press has put out some 25-point holiday bundles for purchase on their online store.  They've been doing this with increased frequency the past couple of years and this time it's good to see that these bundles include warcasters outside of the normal battlegroup boxes (kinda).
It's cute that they're including metal ornaments with the bundles, but I'm sure most people will be glad to have a good starting point for adding another faction.  Also, each bundle includes a mini-copy of the rulebook (40k fans have been calling for this for their game for literally a decade) and the tokens for the faction.  On top of the discount for the models themselves, this is a pretty nice chunk of stuff to receive for free, so keep that in mind with my value rankings.  I will include the tokens in the discount calculation, but there's currently no $-value attached to the mini-rulebook so keep that in mind.  Also, it's worth considering that with the exception of the Retribution and Mercenary sets, each of the deals includes the battlegroup box for the faction, meaning that you do get 2 warcasters out of the deal so you have some options.

Like I've done in the past, I will be reviewing these boxes for their monetary value, power level on the table, and longevity (how good it is for building a force in the future) and instead of giving an objective score, I will instead give them rankings relative to each other.

35 point Army Deals: Legion of Everblight

Continuing the 35 point army deals, today we have the cheapest deal yet, clocking in at a mere $201.94 for the Legion of Everblight!  Part of the fun of playing Legion, of course, is being able to run with lots of warbeasts!  One of the most fun aspects of playing with the Legion of Everblight is being able to run with lots of warbeasts and to run them efficiently.  Today’s list not only has a bunch of warbeasts, but they’re warbeasts that you’ll see used in multiple Legion lists so you’ll be getting the most bang for your buck – and that’s part of the goal of these 35 point army deals.  Perhaps it's due to the lower cost of running a Legion army that they are very popular (although not as popular as they once were).  Without further ado, I present today’s 35 point Army Deal, led by Thagarosh, Prophet of Everblight!

35 Point Army Deals: Mercenaries

Today I want to continue my series on Summer Deals for those wishing to go beyond Privateer Press' 25 Point Summer Deals.  While the deals they offer are nice, for those who are willing to spend a little more $$$ for effectiveness, I've decided to craft 35 point lists for each faction that I hope will both be a good starting point for building a collection with that army, while also being fairly effective and/or fun!  Today I will be creating a list for Mercenaries (specifically, the Four Star Syndicate) that clocks in at only $221.88 retail.  The added benefit here, of course, is that Mercenaries can be taken with other factions and so I purposely chose some models that I feel will both be effective and useful in other factions.  Without further ado, let's look at the list, breakdown of cost, and briefly how one can use the list to be most effective!

35 point Army Deals: Minions

Once again, in the spirit of Privateer Press giving 25 point army deals, today I will present another 35 point list that is a good deal, falling within the $200-250 price range and will be fun/competitive to play with too!  Today I will take a look at the Blindwater Congregation, specifically, because as hard as I tried, it was difficult to find a really competitive list with the Thornfall Alliance that fit into the price range.  If there's enough demand I might try harder, but for now I came up with a list that is both affordable (coming in at $227.93 retail) and will be fun and characterful to play!  The only note that I need to make here is that one model (the Gatorman Witch Doctor) has not been released yet, but it can easily be replaced with a Thrullg for now - which will actually shave off an extra $2!  Without further ado, let's take a look at the list and then I'll give a brief description on how it's supposed to work:

35 point Army Deals: Cygnar

With the recent arrival last week of the Artificer General Nemo and his assistant Caitlin Finch, I decided to delve right into what seems to be one of the most powerful warcasters of recent memory.  The best part about the list I'm about to share is that it's incredibly cheap for a 35 point army ($219.92 retail) to own without sacrificing on brutal effectiveness.  In the spirit of the new 25 point summer deals, I decided to share with you all some cheap (but fun!) 35 point armies to try out that I aim to price between $200-250 retail.  Not only will I share the list and retail prices with you but I aim to also provide a brief description of how the army is played in the style of a short list building article!  Let's start today with Cygnar's 35 point deal: Artificer General Nemo!