Warmachine Review: No Quarter # 50
That’s a milestone right there people. So what’s inside?
Well the answer is pretty straightforward: the same kind of content that keeps us buying No Quarter every two months. It’s full of stories, news, hobby coverage and general fun for Warmachine and Hordes enthusiasts.
First up in News From the Front, Doctor Norbert puts out the call to organize or attend a Foodmachine event. If this is the first you’ve heard of the system, it’s a series of official tournaments where you can exchange cans of food for in-game cheats.
Up next it’s an update on Iron Gauntlet: the global Warmachine and Hordes Championship circuit. Congratulations on those 10 hard-earned points Keith Christianson and Daniel Knauss.
In New Releases we get to see what awesome is in store for us in October. For those of you who don’t scour the internet for news it looks like we’ll be seeing the Fennblade Kithkar for Trollbloods, the resculpted House Guard Halberdiers in plastic for Retribution, Reductors, Reflex Servitors, and the Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex for Convergence, Hordes High Command, and (I’m almost too excited) the Ghordson Earthbreaker for… well… any faction that can take a Rhulic Warcaster to the table. Sorry Cryx. Of course I’ll be taking it mostly with Searforge since my Dwarf-and-Ogrun-only army has been pretty neglected lately. And if you’re wondering about September’s releases, Privateer has already posted them on their home page.
And of course what would all these new releases be without a few previews? That’s exactly what you’ll find in the next section; appropriately titled: Vengeance Previews. Kommander Zoktavir is there. If you want to see what he’s all about look to the Lounge. Of course the Butcher isn’t the only thing they’re teasing us with.
They’ve also got the Ghordson Avalancher to look at. And speaking of which, where are all the spoilers for this thing on the Privateer forums? I haven’t seen any yet. Anyway this thing is a tank. It’s nearly as survivable as a Conquest with the same ARM value and only two fewer damage boxes. It’s also a serious gun platform with two POW 13 Repeating Cannons with Rapid Fire and decent range. If that’s not enough it also comes with two torpedoes for which you can choose to make Quake or Crater attacks. One knocks things down on a direct hit, the other makes rough terrain. They both have nice fat AoE 4s and the same POW as the cannons. Oh and since they drill underground they not only ignore cover but also elevation. Guess you still get concealment.
Next is a nice long section covering Lock & Load 2013 – the third all Privateer Press all the time convention held up in Seattle. Winners of all the events get immortalized with their names in this issue. There’s also excellent coverage of the painting contest with lots of great entries from some very talented folks.
The next few sections give you some great reading with an excerpt from the latest from Skull Island Expeditions: Into the Storm. This is followed up with Guts & Gears featuring Stormguard and the new exclusive Silver Line Stormguard. This new unit’s rules are printed here, as well as a cool hobby section on how to paint an all silver unit that looks striking on the battlefield. Next is a long overdue Gavyn Kyle Files featuring one of the most iconic warcasters in the game: Coleman Stryker. There’s even some cool spoiler art of his upcoming mounted version. And for all you Iron Kingdoms fans, there are some cool new weapons in this issue’s Foundry, Forge, and Crucible.
Up next is M&P (Modelling and Painting). This issue features that awesome resin bunker from The Butcher Unleashed. It offers some nice tips you can put toward painting terrain if, like me, you didn’t grab a Butcher Unleashed for yourself.
There’s lots more to read in Forces of Distinction XIV. This month our two new theme forces are Trial by Fire for Major Marcus “Siege” Brisbane and New Blood for Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight. Trial by Fire seems pretty awesome to me. It gives you FA U Journeyman Warcasters, and the potential to take a point off all warjacks in addition to lots of other stuff. It doesn’t even seem that restrictive with lackluster unit choices being the only real issue. You only get mechanics, Long Gunners, and Gun Mage units; although the wording of the latter does entitle the use of the Black 13th. I think this theme list will be popular. New Blood seems so-so. Beast Mistresses and Spawning Vessels are upped to FA 2, but the only unit option is Spawning Vessels. If you take two of them your Beast Mistresses get a free warbeast. Reminder: Beast Mistresses can only take lessers. While I’m not a Legion player, 4 points of free lesser doesn’t really seem like that big of a bonus when you have to take a second Beast Mistress to get half those points. Although a Horde of lessers sprinting across the table could be fun. And you can be sure they’ll make it since Tier 4 gives Mistresses and their Beasts Advance Deploy. As always both of these new Theme Forces come with some cool Fluff to read.
Ten-Year Reuninon is a particularly interesting battle report. To commemorate the 50th issue of No Quarter DC, Will Schick, Jason Soles, and Lyle Lowery square off in a Four on Four match using only models from Warmachine Prime. Following the Batrep is Lessons of War, where you’ll find special rules for recreating a key battle fought between Protectorate and Cygnaran forces in Protectorate controlled Sul. These events were taking place during Warmachine Legends: the final MKI book for Warmachine. It features Cygnaran Warcaster Chancellor Birk Kinbrace and a whole army squaring off against Hierarch Garrick Voyle. Wait did I just say that? They actually wrote stats for Voyle? Really you need to see this for yourself people, but he has three stats set to 10, and a P+S 25 Armor Piercing attack with (not critical) Decapitation. All you devoted hobbyists that converted one after seeing him in that sweet diorama from Gencon 2009 finally get your reward.
Last of all is the player gallery with some cool player-submitted shots of armies, as well as the winners of the “From the Deep” Painting Challenge. You’ll find not one but two tentacle-related Cryx conversions including Florian Heinemann’s “Octosphyxious” and the winning tentacle Leviathan by Ben Boyd. Trying to give it words doesn’t do it justice but it’s a Leviathan with some Throne of Everblight parts to give you a crazy octopus-demon-posessed Colossal from Hell.
~Thanks for reading.
