Warmachine: It’s Alive!
It’s been almost a month now since the second edition of rules for Warmachine officially hit shelves and, like many, I have answered the rally call for the fields of mangled metal and steampunk sorcery.
Early January saw the rebirth of Privateer Press’ hard-hitting no-holds-barred steampunk-fantasy game Warmachine, and now that a month has passed, one can look back and see just what this new edition means for the future of the game.
Originally heralded as one of the most up-and-coming games in recent time, winning numerous Game of the Year awards and praise from critics across the industry Warmachine ran into some bumpy patches around the release of the Superiority book. New “super units” (units which boasted noticeably more gameplay power than previous ones) and infantry began to slowly but surely outshine Warjacks (the games main draw) in almost any area. Seeing a warjack in play was becoming an increasing rarity… Readers, it’s a dangerous sign when the thing that makes a game unique, the thing on the cover of the rule book, isn’t seeing play…
It’s like Warhammer 40K without Space Marines, or Warhammer Fantasy without… … Ok well never mind about Fantasy…
Sadly, my beloved Cryx where sealed into their tomb (ie: closet) for the foreseeable future.
I will make a small side note here. I love Warhammer, both Fantasy and 40k, I have several armies for both, but when I think of Games Workshop I imagine some castle set in the English countryside, bolt of lightning crackling, wolves howling and virgin maidens from the local towns disappearing frequently to sate the rituals of some dark, evil, power.
Now obviously that’s an exaggeration if the sniper dot on my head is to be believed, but the point of my story remains: GW and it’s playerbase often feel like rival teams, and having stated such, I recall one of the main reasons I love Privateer Press: it honestly feels like they are just an extension of the playerbase, and to prove that point they did something that I have never seen another company do in my lifetime.
They released all their Mark II beta material to the players, and asked them for feedback.
Not released to a group of chosen playtesters, or to a shadow-group of players and gaming professionals, to the whole playerbase.
Anyone and everyone who wanted to be a part was given full access, again, an amazing act I have never seen before in the gaming industry.
Flash forward a year later and we have the premiere of a new edition of the game, created and tested by the very players it was made for.
So… How does it measure up?
Every model, for every army, has been redesigned and revamped into something useful and deadly, while old ones who mangled gameplay where toned down to scale with everything else (Sorscha). Old rules, mainly the same recurring ones that crippled gameplay (Frozen, ahem), got a new overhaul and various mechanisms have been added in a noticeable effort to balance gameplay.
Even from the early testing I have done with my beloved Cryx (who punished me by reminding me how amateurish and sloppy their paint job was) I see a refined attention to detail and most everything that pissed me off from the old version has been brought to a sensible power curve.
Now, not only does the new edition mean new rules, but it seems that Privateer Press as a whole is taking on a new approach to their game: The addition of Army Books, plastic models, and the promise of more on the horizon show to me Privateer Press is maturing as a company, moving from the rambunctious trial-and-error methods of it’s youth to a full fledged force in the gaming world that knows what it wants and it more than willing to advance towards it’s goal, all the while keeping at heart the ideas and dreams that formed the base of their work all those years ago.
If Privateer Press can keep up the good work shown here and do the same with Hordes MKII while avoiding the pitfalls of the past they only stand to grow as a major player in the gaming scene. Definitely check out the new edition, whether you’re an old scrapper or a steamjack greenhorn everyone owes it to themselves to feel the rush of revamped metal on metal action.
~It really reminds me that, first and foremost, Privateer Press is a company of gamers. Their dedication to their product and love of the craft show a bright future in the industry, and a willingness to not only learn from past mistakes but listen to what their players want is a welcome sight that I would greatly like to see more of in the coming years. -Mr. Black
