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!

Editorial: "In a Vacuum" Part 2

Like I mentioned last week, Warmachine/Hordes is a complex game because there are 11 factions, over 100 warcasters/warlocks, and an even wider selection of warjacks, warbeasts, units, and solos.  There are a LOT of moving parts to this game we play and while there are some consistencies like spells between multiple warcasters/warlocks, every faction (let alone warcaster/warlock) has a different playstyle and to look at any one model and say "wow, that's broken" is so silly to say that it borders on bigotry.  To look at something and make assumptions on it based on your initial impressions is a common practice in humanity but it's our responsibility to try to be open-minded and consider more than just our first impressions.  I liked the way my friend put it: "You can't consider the model in a vacuum."  So today I'm going to take a practical approach and briefly look at each Hordes faction and some common models/abilities/spells that need to be considered whenever you're looking at something new and different before you pass judgement.  While this list is no where near comprehensive, I hope it will help people keep an open mind and consider all the possibilities before they decide something is "stupid" or "broken."

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 5! SMASH!

Okay so what's on for today?  Well at the end of today's article you will find some pictures from my first game with a Domina Today I will briefly talk about each of the character warbeasts that were released in Domination - all of whom seem to be some variation on the theme of smashing things to bits.    I will not be ranking these guys, even in order of my favorites, but rather just talk about the strengths of each and where I see them fitting into the current meta (at least my local one).  One interesting thing to note is that each has the rule special issue [warlock], meaning that they can be taking as a part of that warlock's themed list and are also bonded to that warlock.  Aside from that, there are no direct affinities like the other character warbeasts, so there's no real disadvantage to taking them with other warlocks.  I have to warn you that today's post is a little long, but thorough, so hopefully you'll find it useful without being too long.  Let's start in the order in which they are presented in the book:

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 4! WARBEASTS!

Okay so why do people play Hordes?  I imagine that if they really wanted to play with lots of infantry then Warmachine probably suits that better than Hordes.  No, if you want to play Hordes, you're likely interesting in the big tools of war known as warbeasts!  Domination brought us some unique and exciting warbeasts!  Unlike Warmachine, new warbeasts have to be considered not only for their battlefield performance, but for their animi, as they are effectively a new spell that our warlocks have access to.  Which warbeasts are my favorite from Domination?  Let's find out!

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 3! WARLOCKS!

By now you’ve hopefully become excited enough that you ran out and purchased your own copy of Hordes: Domination and are aware of the different spells and abilities that these fancy new warlocks can use.  There are some new spells and there are some old, but one thing that Dominations has surely brought us is a bunch of new playstyles for each faction.  Today I want to focus on my three favorite (I didn’t say “best”) warlocks, and why.  I want to first say that I LOVE eBaldur, but I already spent enough time talking about him here, so today I will be focusing on three other warlocks, with the understanding that you know Baldur is my absolute favorite.  Here are my thoughts:

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 1! ART!

ZOMGWTFBBQ I PICKED UP MY COPY OF DOMINATION YESTERDAY!!!!

I'm sure I will not be alone in reviewing everything that's awesomesauce in Hordes: Domination.  This is our first "real" book since Mk II for Hordes, and it's time for us to join the Warmachine players with our own Battle Engines!  Here's a spoiler though: ours are better.  Instead of focusing on particular models for Part 1 (of 7) of my DOMINATION! READ! NOW! articles, I will be focusing on some of the overall "vibes" I'm getting from this particular book.  We'll look at the particular factions, what new play-styles have emerged (there are lots!), and what you will likely be seeing across the table.  Some of our old warlocks now have some new tricks up their sleeves, and it's your job as a good general to know what kinds of things they'll be up to.  Let's dive right in!

Plastic Warbeast Kits are here!...

Zoidberg...?

...sorta.  It looks like Privateer Press finally unveiled their first of the plastic warbeast kits, and it's no surprise that it's the Legion heavies.  Anyone who has put the metal models together already knows that these kits were nearly the same anyway, so they were the easiest to transition to plastic (compared to the Troll and Circle beasts, who will need more drastic resculpts).  I am guessing that Skorne might be next, as the Gladiator, Sentry, and Cannoneer kits are already pretty similar as well.  We also get our character warbeast kit, compatible with the plastic kits: Proteus!  Looks like Privateer Press is really pushing the Cthulhu theme with Legion now...

Spoilers: Lots of Domination stuff!

Alright so yesterday's post featured some detailed reviews of the actual Domination cards for some Warbeasts, but there has been a metric TON of spoilers on the Privateer Press forums!  Not terribly surprising, considering that the book will be out in two weeks.  Not only do we have rules and stats but even some tier lists!  I'm a huge fan of tier lists, and they were the reason why I even got into Mk II.

Alright so here's everything that I have synthesized while trolling through the Privateer Forums: