Hordes: Primal MkII Review
Primal MkII from Privateer Press is on store shelves! We’re taking a look at this hefty tome.
As with Prime MkII, this book is big, and beautiful. It’s got a lot of great artwork and pictures. The book is 248 pages long and full color. Every single diagram and drawing looks great, and much of the model artwork is brand new.
The MkII rules aren’t overly different from those of Warmachine. All the rules for battlegroups, units, cavalry, scenarios, terrain, line of sight, etc, are there and are identical to those in Warmachine. The only real difference is the rules for Warlocks, Fury, Warbeasts and Animi instead of Warcasters, Focus, and Warjacks. And of course, you’ve got the rules and stats for the four major Hordes factions instead of those in Warmachine.
In the basic rules, we have a few differences from MkI. Some of the most notable changes (in my mind) are: Warlocks cannot reave fury from Warbeast’s killed via damage transfers. This removes the ability to “popcorn” by transferring damage to a Warbeast, killing it, reaving the fury, and then using that fury to transfer to other Warbeasts. It makes Warlocks a little less survivable, but not too much, and a Warlock camping fury to transfer is still very difficult to assassinate. The diagrams and pictures to illustrate major rules concepts (such as line of sight) are nicely done. The addition of a 2 page spread at the back of the book with the rules for resolving timing issues is also a big plus.
The background isn’t quite as new I’d hoped it would be. In fact, I’m 99% certain the main dialogue by Magnus which describes the four factions is identical to that in Prime MkI and set prior to the events of the Castle of the Keys and what followed (from Evolution and Metamorphosis). However, the introductory story is brand new, as are the descriptions in many of the unit entries. I’m not terribly surprised, since Hordes as a whole is a younger game than Warmachine by several years, and has had much less written about it prior to MkII. One great and unexpected bonus is the fantastic map which shows up early in the book. This map includes major battle sites, cities, regions, and towns. Most of the areas in and around the Skorne empire have never been shown before, from what I know. I am sure they’ve never been in any MkI books, nor in the old World Guide for the Iron Kingdoms RPG. As a map/world building enthusiast -Way to go Privateer!!!
Every faction section includes the rules for one new Warbeast, as well as every model and unit in the original Prime. As with Warmachine, I’m expecting the individual faction books to go into much more depth and bring the faction histories “up to date” as it were as well as include all the new units previewed over the past several months. Since I know some of you are curious, the new Warbeasts are the Warpwolf Stalker for Circle, the Scythean for Legion, the Dire Troll Bomber for the Trolls, and the Titan Sentry for Skorne. A painting guide a the back rounds out the book.
I would like to add that I do like this painting guide. There are demonstrations for painting wood, tartans, and metal that are very nice. I’ll be trying out the wood grain techniques when I next get the chance.
So this is a great book at a great price, available in hardcover and softcover! It continues the standard of high quality work put out by Privateer Press, and gives other game companies something to think about. The Skorne book is the first faction book due out, and I’m already waiting to see all the nice things to come out of it.
Hordes Mk2 Primal
-hardcover: $44.99
-softcover: $29.99
5 stars (out of 5)
