Convergence of Cyriss thoughts

I, like many of you, was extremely excited to hear the announcement by Privateer Press that they were releasing a new faction for Warmachine.  Of course there were some grumpy people complaining about Retribution and Minions needing more love, but generally I think everyone was pretty excited about the new faction.  There's simultaneously not much and a lot to talk about the new faction and without knowing much about them, I figured it would still be good to review some of what we know about the faction.  There are some things we can expect and assume from the announcement video but there are also some things we can't assume yet and those issues need to be mentioned too.

If you haven't already seen the announcement video (or you need a refresher), take a look at it here:

How useful are the Battlegroup boxes?

With all of the anxiety surrounding 40k right now (both due to the upcoming edition change and price hikes) I anticipate that there will be many in the future looking to expand their gaming options to other games.  Naturally, there can sometimes be some tension as one side will assert that their game is "better" than the other, but the fact remains that some might be looking to expand their horizons, and that's okay!  For those who might be interested in starting Warmachine/Hordes - or just to add another faction - the battlegroup boxes are naturally a great place to start.  These are all the same cost ($49.99) and offer a warcaster/warlock and some warjacks/warbeasts from which you can build a larger force in the future.

Now that all of the battlegroups are plastic, I think it's time to look at each and I will rate them based on two criteria: 1) Value - compared to the cost of purchasing the models separately, and 2) Longevity - how useful will the models be for building lists and expanding on the faction in the future.  I like to give weighted values to these, so while I might seem a bit harsh on particular scales, I do rate them relative to each other.  For the record, I think that all of the battlegroups are worth buying because they are at least 25% cheaper than buying the models separately and they all give a great feel for what the game is like.

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!

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...