Overview

Malifaux is a little different to other wargames. For one, there are no dice. It uses cards, pretty much the same an ordinary deck of cards, as the random element. This would be like rolling a 13 sided die apart from one crucial difference – you can cheat the flip with a card from your hand.

The second big difference is the game setting. Because Wyrd had an interesting line of miniatures before the game was launched they had a lot to incorporate. The resultant merging of Victorian, steam punk, gothic horror and old west seems implausible. Somehow Wyrd have managed to weave all if these elements into a cohesive game background. The world of Malifaux is the result.

The third selling point is its small scale. Games have at most about ten miniatures per side. These ‘crews’ are centred around a powerful Master (or two) and each model acts autonimosly.

Anyway, enough of the background – what does the game play like.

Battle Report

Steve and I played a Warmachine game on Tuesday night and documented (lots of photographs and notes) it for an upcoming battle report for the Uplink magazine. Afterwards we decided to play a 25 soulstone game of Malifaux. Soulstones are used like points to select your crew. The Master is free and will have a soulstone cache which can be used in the game. Unspent soulstones from the force selection are added to this cache.

The game was to be a ‘battle box’ game with Steve using Ortegas, a gunslinging Guild crew, and me fielding another Guild crew lead by Lady Justice. My crew have a decent ranged ability, but Lady Justice is a melee monster so getting her up close to the enemy is a priority. I think a little narrative-style battle report is called for.

Since the opening of the Hollow Marsh Pumping Station smaller pumps like this one had fallen into disuse. Somehow everything seemed to rot and decay quicker in Malifaux. Seems fitting that this is were the Ortegas will meet some justice. Sell-swords, or sell-guns in their cases, should never be trusted. They take the Guild script willingly, but then blatantly cooperate with the Union, The last three times they had been sent after Union prey they had failed to deliver. To Lady Justice this reeked of treachery. The relationship between the Guild and the Ortegas has succumbed to the same rot and decay as everything else here.

The Ortegas spread out on the far side of the small pumping station. As they quickly moved forward towards Lady Justice’s crew she realised this would not be as straightforward as hoped. The terrain was very open, suiting the Ortegas well. Nino Ortega loved to snipe his quarry from afar. Lady Justice shouted to The Judge to engage the Ortegas directly and bring a Death Marshal with him for cover. He never questioned her orders, but even with unseeing eyes she could see his reluctance. Despite this he ran straight towards them. With the decoy in place she ran to join the other two Death Marshals who were moving up the left flank around the pump. She heard the sound of their Peacemakers opening up and and then a violent explosion that seemed to silence them.

As she rounded the back of the building she saw a Death Marshal hunkered at the corner firing at an unseen target. The other Death Marshal was grappling with the insane Papa Ortega. Only a madman would consider dynamite a melee weapon!. She didn’t break stride and charged straight into the old man, cutting him down with her greatsword. As he fell he instinctively lit up ever pieve of dynamite he held. Jady Justice was thrown back in the blast and the Death Marshal taking cover at the wall was badly bloodied. The Marshal who had been engaged with the madman was destroyed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her prey, Perdita Ortega, the leader of the Ortegas. Perdita had leveled her guns in this direction.

In the centre things were not faring much better. The Judge charged Nino, but not before the sniper had taken out his accompanying Death Marshal. Nino was slippery in melee and the Judge failed to fell him. Francisco, Nino’s old cousin charged in to aid him. He struck the Judge down, but he just managed to strike Nino as he fell. Nino went down too.

Now was Lady Justice’s chance. Perdita looked to be within striking distance so she charged at full speed into the gunslinger. The initial blow was monstrous and rocked Perdita backwards. Lady Justice cursed as the second swing failed to connect and the Ortega Master shot point blank towards her. Miraculously the shot missed. She didn’t take long to count her blessings and swung again at Perdita. The greatsword connected with its target again. She wouldn’t be getting up any time soon after a blow like that. It’ll be a while before the Ortegas cooperate with the Union again.

So that’s it. Malifaux is a nice skirmish level game that reminds me a lot of Inquisitor (which is the game that go be back into wargaming). Each character has a role to play on the battlefield and it seems that Malifaux would be well suited to narrative driven campaign play.

Owen

Here’s a video of the completed crew. I need to do a little bit more work on the bases, but otherwise they’re finished.

Owen

I’ve been using the same flat battle boards for the last 5 years, so I decided recently that it was time to build a slightly more contoured board. I didn’t want it to be flat, but I also didn’t want the terrain to be so specific that I’d only be able to use it rarely. To that end I went with a dried riverbed theme. This way the river could be treated as a shallow water, deep water or nothing depending on what game we wanted to play. I also wanted to make sure the terrain was flat enough to position miniatures without too much difficulty.

The materials and tools I used were -

Frame and Base
• 4 ‘ x 4′ 6mm thick plastic sheet (thicker MDF would also be fine)
• 2″ x 1″ x 4′ batons
• 12-16 ½” brass screws
• 4 x 3″ brass screws

Terrain and Sculpting

• Several different pieces/sheet of 1″ and ½” of packing foam
• Plaster Filler (I used a brand called Polyfilla)
• PVA Glue (I used 1:1 watered down Durabond)

Painting and Finishing

• Acrylic Paints
• Flock (Static Grass)
• Matt Varnish Spray

Tools

• Dremel
• Electric Drill
• Electric Screwdriver
• Jigsaw
• Sand Paper
• Hot Glue Gun
• Rubber Gloves!
• Paint Brushes

STEP 1: Put a Frame on the Board
Okay – this is pretty straight forward stuff, but like all woodwork you need to measure twice and cut/drill once. Also, be careful – all of the power tools can do a lot of damage to a person, so pay close attention to what you are doing. First up you need to drill some guide holes in the 4′ x 4′ sheet to fix the batons through. Make sure the holes are not too close to the corners as you’ll be using the 3″ screws to secure the batons together and you don’t want the screws that hold them to the board to get in the way. To that end I measured and marked eight holes – each 4″ from a corner and 1″ in from the edge. I drilled this with a small bit on the Dremel. I then grabbed the real drill and sunk wider holes (just wide enough for the ½” screws). I positioned a baton flush with one edge and then attached it to the board using the screwdriver. I attached the opposite baton. I oriented the batons so the broader (2″) side ran flat with the board.

Next I needed to cut the other two batons to length. Rather than measuring the 44″ (48″ – (2+2″)) I lay them between the fixed batons and mark the length to cut. I then cut them to length with the jigsaw and fixed them in place.

This step is optional, but for more rigidity I drilled holes from the longer batons into the new shorter ones and secured them with the 3″ screws.
I drilled four more holes through the board in the centre of the batons and fixed with screws. There are now three screws holding each baton to the board and four screws connecting the batons.
The board and frame is now solid and pretty well supported.

STEP 2: A decision to make?!
I now had a decision to make – which side of the board would I build the battlefield on. The ‘top’ side is a flat 4′ x 4′ area with the frame underneath. Building on the bottom would mean loosing 2″ (the thickness of the batons) from every edge, but it would be more robust for storage. As can be seen in the photo I opted for the later an decided to build the battle field between the batons and sacrifice some table area. If I ensure the battlefield does not rise above the baton edge I should have a board that is less likely to be damaged.

STEP 3: Shaping and Gluing Foam
As mentioned earlier I used basic packing foam, you know the kind that electronics and the like come in. I shaped most of the foam using a bread knife, but before doing so I drew the shape of the battle filed onto the boards. This way I could position the available foam, which was a hotch potch of hoarded bits, before cutting. Once all of the foam was cut I used a hot glue gun to fix it into position. The glue melted the foam slightly, but since it was melting it where it wouldn’t be seen that didn’t really matter.

STEP 4: Conturing the Foam
I grabbed a large tub of Polyfilla (or Spackle) and used it to contour the edges of the (low) hills, riverbed and river bank. To do this I wore a pair of rubber gloves and had a small container of water hand. This is a messy job, but produced a great looking result. For the dried riverbed I ensured it looked like it had been shaped by flowing water by working it in the same direction. I gave the Polyfilla 24 hours to dry before moving to the next step.

STEP 5: Applying Sand
This is a straightforward, but time consuming step. I watered down PVA glue and applied it in 1′ x 1′ sections, being careful to avoid the bottom of the dried pond and riverbed (the previous step gave them enough texture). I then tilted the board and poured sand onto the wet area. I repeated this process until the board was covered in sand.

STEP 6: Painting and Flocking the Board
Painting the board is pretty easy. I wanted the sand and textured Polyfilla to give natural highlights so I used a heavily watered down mix of Burnt Sienna artists paint (you know the kind that comes in a tube). This is a pretty quick step, but because it is so watered down it can take a while for the paint to dry. I left it 24 hours. Next I used PVA glue to judiciously apply flock to certain areas of the board. As I was aiming for a dried earth look, I didn’t want too much grass. I also painted the wooden at this stage.

STEP 7: Sealing the Board
There are a couple of different approaches to protecting a board, but I decided to use spray matt varnish. This only provides a small bit of protection, but it also helps to keep the flock in place.

It seems like a lot of work, but it is worth it to have a good looking board to field your battles on. Here are a couple of pictures of the board in use -

Owen

I’m in the middle of writing a battle report from my first game. I hate playing games with unpainted miniatures and the crew was only partially painted for that one. I decided I’d remedy the situation. This video shows Lady Justice painted. The crew are over half finished, so hopefully I’ll get them finished over the next few days.

Owen

I’ve finally succumbed to Malifaux. I looked through the background and the rules and I liked what I read. I didn’t analyse the stats and abilities of the different factions, but decided to choose based on aesthetic. I went with The Guild, specifically Lady Justice’s crew. Here’s a short video on their assembly.

Owen

The good gentlemen (I might be using that term a little loosely!) at Lost Hemisphere have started a new podcast. Check out a blog post introducing it here. I enjoyed their first episode and look forward to many more.

I’m a fan of The Iron Agenda and Focus and Fury podcasts. In my mind they fill slightly different niches, IA are slightly more considered and (dare I say) scholarly, while F’n'F sound more hardcore and seasoned. Each podcast also has different production quality, IA is more honed and F’n'F is pretty raw. I subscribe to and listen to both, so it’ll be interesting to see where Lost Hemisphere Radio settles, but so far so good.

Owen

Here is an update to the two player ANNIHILATION campaign system based on myself and Peter’s campaign -

• ANNIHILATION v1.1 Campaign Rules (PDF)

Feedback and experience would be most appreciated.

Owen

The ANNIHILATION is over and Khador came out on top. Each of the four games was contested closely and the attrition rules limited both of our force selection, particularly in the final game. Here are all of the articles related to this campaign -

[Games 1 and 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Campaign Rules]

We’ve fought a hard campaign and there are plenty of things to reflect on. I’m going to tweak the campaign rules for readability, but otherwise they’ve worked well. I’ll run the campaign again with other factions, but for now the rules seem robust enough.

Anyway, now that the dust has settled and we’ve had a chance to assess our losses here are our final remarks.

Peter: So, quite a comprehensive loss on my part for the campaign then, and it had all looked so good after the first game. And even after the first few rolls of the dice in this one, to be honest!

Looking back, I think my biggest weakness throughout the series of games was not doing enough to protect my caster. The first game I had a house to hide Sevvy behind, and it made all the difference. In the later games I was a bit too easily led into attacking, and in the last game in particular, bad dice meant that I got tied up in combats that I was expecting to win decisively. Owen did a much better job of keeping his eyes on the prize and had plenty of firepower to bring to bear on me when I made a mistake.

I’ve enjoyed the games a lot, especially having to pull together a force from a limited pool. By the end of the four games my force is actually looking reasonably healthy, not hurt by the High Reclaimer bringing back my bait unit of Bastions. Having seen the amount of damage I did to Owen’s force, even through Khador armour I would be interested to see if other factions came out with enough points for the final game. Cygnar wouldn’t be able to rely as heavily on hanging back and shooting due to the scenarios, and Cryx playstyle tends to be classified as a glass hammer.

Apart from the fairly major mistakes in a couple of games, I think I made a big mistake in my choice of casters. I think carefully looking at the scenarios would have suggested different choices on my part, but then I wouldn’t have had the chance to bring back all of my Bastions ready to charge back into the fray, which was one of my favourite moments in the final game.

Overall then, I think as a test run of the system which Owen set up it was almost entirely sucessful. We had a few issues tracking the zones in the last scenario, and I’m not a big fan of ‘jack bonds other than the ones that come with epic casters, but I think the openness of knowing which scenarios and which faction you are facing result in fairly evenly sided matches. Plus I managed to total a Devastator during it, and that’s never a bad thing!

Owen: Playing 35pt ‘caster kill games can get a little formulaic with each player trying to pull off their tricks before the other. Not so when you play a campaign like this. Each game challenges you as you have to pay attention not only to the scenario winning conditions, but also to the losses you are willing to take to win the scenario. With the campaign view in mind both Peter and myself did some merciless slaying in the first two games. In the first and second games Peter and I (respectively) had the scenario win in the bag, but continued the carnage until our turns ended. It isn’t enough just to win, we wanted to take down as much of the enemy as possible too!

He may have a ruthless streak, but Peter is a great opponent. He got into the spirit of the campaign and played four great games. His Bastions, who refused to die, were a pain throughout the whole campaign and I’m certain that if there was a fifth game in the campaign I’d be toast. As it is I got lucky with two of the wins. One area I was happy with was my choice of ‘casters. Sorscha and Irusk are great scenario ‘casters. My one regret is not choosing Sorscha to lead my army in Game 1. For the ‘clear the area’ scenarios such as Mosh Pit and No Man’s Land her feat is awesome. Irusk is handy enough in a fight too as he can buff a lot of his army and exercise some great board control. Overall my army selection was good, but it was a little frustrating that I was left with a number of duplicate FA:1 units for the last game. That’s the nature of an attrition campaign.

I’m planning an update to the campaign rules. Whilst the ‘jack bond rules had zero effect in our campaign they have the potential to be very powerful, so I’ll change them to be optional. Other than that I’ll leave the structure as is. More play testing may necessitate changes, but for now the campaign rules seem fine.

I enjoyed that so much I’m itching to play another ANNIHILATION campaign. I might bring the Legion out to play next time.

Owen

Update A new version of the campaign rules are available here

Honouring the fallen

The scene was one of devastation. The Menite crusaders were all fleeing the battle, inert ‘jacks abandoned and the injured left to die where they lay. The Khadoran jubilation was short lived. Yes, the enemy had been vanquished, but the cost has been high. Irusk lamented the death of every Khadoran soldier. Their blood had been spilt on Khadors own soil and he could think of no more noble death than to die defending this great empire. Still their loss hurt him.

Irusk ordered a nearby Mechanik to return to the camp to fetch medics to see to the wounded and get more Mechaniks to reclaim the damaged ‘jacks. He could sense the confusion felt by the Marauder. Both of its arms had been disabled in the battle and it moved around looking for a target. He could hardly believe it was over himself. The intensity and ferocity of the Protectorate’s attack had been extreme. Had they really expected to bring their crusade to these lands without the Khadoran army reacting? Either way, the last two days had been bloody and costly for both sides. A unit of Widowmakers lay dead in perfect formation to his right and he was surrounded by dead Machaniks who had rushed forward to reach the damaged Marauder. Who knows what the final death toll would be? All of these valiant sacrifices would not be forgotten.

Game 4: 50pt / Break The Line

It all comes down to this. I was ahead on campaign points with 6 against Peter’s 1.5, but with this game worth 5 ultimate victory could go either way. Both of us were suffering from the losses in the earlier games. I had several units that were down on numbers, but thankfully most of my ‘jacks were available and both of my ‘casters were viable for this game. Break The Line is a tough scenario requiring the army to fight on a broad front. Looking at my remaining pool I’m a little light on units. The loss of the Great Bears in the last game was particularly painful. Here’s what I had left before this game and the units marked in red were chosen to fight for Khador in this final battle -

Warcasters	Kommandant Irusk, Kommander Sorscha
Warjacks	Destroyer, Destroyer, Devastator, Juggernaut, Marauder
Units	War dog, War dog, Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts), Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 1 Grunts/2 Grunts), Great Bears of Gallowswood, Greylord Ternion (Leader and 1 Grunt/1 Grunt), Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5 Grunts), Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard, Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts), Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard, Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts), Widowmakers (Leader and 2 Grunts/1 Grunt), Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts), Koldun Lord, Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount), Man-o-war Drakhun (without dismount), Manhunter

Peter wasn’t faring a whole lot better. With Game 3 going down to a ‘caster kill Epic Severius wasn’t a viable choice for this game. He was still doing okay for units. Two units of Bastions, coupled with the High Reclaimer’s feat, could be game winners. Anyway, here is what Peter had to choose from, with the units marked in brown being chosen for this final game -

Warcasters	Hierarch Severius, High Reclaimer
Warjacks	Dervish, Blessing of Vengeance, Templar (Damaged), Castigator, Redeemer, Revenger (Damaged), Crusader
Units	Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts), Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts), Choir (Leader and 5 Grunts), Choir (Leader and 3 Grunts/1 Grunt/1 Grunt), Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts), Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts/4 Grunts), Monolith Bearer, Monolith Bearer, Vassal, Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts), TFG Officer and Standard, Vilmon, Paladin, Paladin

As you can see there isn’t a whole lot of army left for either faction! The attrition from the previous games was really dictating our army choices. Between the compromised army selection and the fact that the campaign win was still up for grabs I wasn’t feeling confident. In fact, they’re not the reasons I wasn’t feeling confident; it was Peter’s two units of Bastions…

It all comes down to this …

Break The Line is a tricky scenario; the battlefield between the two deployment zones is divided into six areas. From turn three if either player ends his turn controlling two areas in his half of the board and one in his opponent’s, he wins. To be sure you don’t give away an easy win you must context all three areas on your half of the table at least. The battlefield had two farmhouses in the centre, with some hills and a forest surrounding these. Peter won the dice roll, but let me go first. My deployment was divided into three battalions – the IFP and manhunter on the left; the Koldun Lord marshaling two Destroyers in the middle; and Irusk’s battlegroup and Widowmakers on the right. The remaining elements were positioned to be a little flexible to move between the middle and right areas. I had to proxy a couple of Mechaniks as I only own four.

Peter put the full unit of Zealots (with Monolith Bearer) and a Paladin to challenge my left (not shown in this photo). The bulk of his force was concentrated spanning the line between the middle and left areas with the High Reclaimer in the centre, ready to do what he does best – reclaim the souls of the fallen. In this group were two units of Bastions, two Choirs, a small unit of Zealots and a Paladin. Peter had the Redeemer positioned slightly towards the right area, the Blessing of Vengeance in the middle and the Dervish to the left. He also had to do a bit of proxying with Trollkin Scattergunners representing a unit of Bastions, some TFG representing Zealots and Deliverers pretending to be a Choir!

My turn one was unremarkable with everyone pushing forward and Irusk casting Superiority on the Juggernaut. Peter’s first turn should have been equally unremarkable were it not for the amazing shots from the Redeemer at the Widowmakers. He managed to hit one directly and deviate another shot onto two more making three dead snipers.

Turn two is when the jockeying for position really began. The IFP had been badly stung by the Zealots in our last game, so I was determined not to let that happen again. They moved forward into Shield Wall, but kept their distance from the Zealots. On the right the Juggernaut moved up to go around the back of one of the farmhouses to try to slow the approaching Zealots on that side. The Drakhun and War Dog moved up for potential counter charges while the Destroyers bombarded the Blessing of Vengeance from afar, doing some damage. Irusk activated and cast Inhospitable Ground and cast Iron Flesh on the Drakhun (stupidly denying him the potential of a counter charge!).

Peter pushed everything forward on his turn. On the left the zealots moved up and lobbed bombs at the IFP. Luckily (for me!) they proved to be out of range or mostly inaccurate. Those that struck (or deviated onto) the IFP did no damage. The Zealots on the right threw their bombs at the Juggernaut dealing little damage. After the amazing luck with the REdeemer in the first turn Peter’s dice luck seemed to have abandoned him. In the centre the Bastions moved up menacingly and the High Reclaimer cast Ashes to Ashes through his arc node at the Marauder. It bounced into Irusk and the War Dog. Irusk and the Marauder were unharmed, but the dog was reduced to single box of damage.

Turn three had to be about killing Bastions for me. I doubted I could take out both units so I decided to concentrate on the one coming towards Irusk’s battalion. I hit them with the Destoyer’s Bombards, charged them with the Drakhun and War Dog and had the Juggernaut trample over the Zealots to get into them. After all that I had killed four of the five and reduced the last man to two points of damage. There was nothing else I could throw at them and with the Reclaimer’s feat still to come, and the additional focus from the souls of the dead I knew next turn was going to hurt. Irusk cast Inhospitable Ground and feated, hoping to mitigate some of the damage next turn. I charged the Blessing of Vengeance with the Marauder, but forgot about its shield. He used defensive strike to hit me with it and bounced the Marauder back 1″.

On the left the IFP ran up to the Zealots and then used Defensive Formation to ensure their B2B triangles provided them with Shield Wall. I hadn’t damaged the Zealots (they were Invulnerable this turn anyway), but at least they were nearly all engaged by the 2″ reach of the Blasting Pikes. The Manhunter pushed forward a bit on that side too.

As expected Peter feated on his turn and returned the Bastions to full strength and added a Zealot to the unit that was trampled. The Bastions proceeded to demolish the Drakhun and the War Dog and deal some decent damage to the Juggernaut. The Paladin and Redeemer charged the Juggernaut as well. It’s movement was knocked out, but it was otherwise functional. There from other unit of Bastions charged the Marauder and managed to barely scratch it. Peter’s damage dice (4D6 on a charge) were appalling.

On the left the Zealots maneuvered with the IFP killing a couple with bombs and the Paladin. A well placed bomb took out the Manhunter.

On turn four I needed to stall Peter’s army. The Marauder and the Destroyers (one with range the other in melee) got stuck into the undamaged Bastion unit and dealt a lot of damage to it. The Juggernaut took a couple of wild swings, but was ineffective. The Mechaniks moved up to get close for a combat repair if needed and block charge lanes to Irusk. He cast Inhospitable Ground again, but was beginning to feel the heat. The Widowmaker Kaptain who had been taking pot shots at the Zealots on the right continued to do so. On the left the IFP killed a lot of Zealots, but not enough for them to flee, and took out the Paladin.

On Peter’s turn four he moved the two units of Bastions in to take out the Juggernaut and deal some substantial damage to the Marauder. I didn’t spot it at the time, and thankfully neither did he, but in moving the Bastions he had left a firing lane open for Irusk. He cast Ashes to Ashes onto the Mechaniks, killing all bar one and dealing four points of damage to Irusk. The Redeemer fired another miracle shot to kill the Widowmaker Kaptain who was in cover (effectively DEF 20!) with a double 6s. On the left the Dervish and choir moved towards the IFP. The Zealots proved ineffective in melee.

I needed to finish it in turn five as Peter really had me on the ropes. The Juggernaut was gone, the Marauder was badly damaged and the left flank wasn’t going to hold much longer. I left all focus on Irusk with the intention of putting two Swordcannon shots into the High Reclaimer. Before I did that I decided to fire the unengaged Destroyer at him. It was marginally out of range, but the deviation drifted onto the Reclaimer. The boosted blast damage roll was high. The other Destroyer stepped back from combat with two Bastions to take a shot. The free strikes caused a lot of damage, but no systems were taken out. His shot was in range and on target. The damage roll was again big and the High Reclaimer went down. Arcing fire Bombards are a thing of beauty! Irusk didn’t need all of that focus in the end. Khador wins.

Not quite the final thoughts

Wow, Khador may have won, but it was at a high price. When you look at the remaining Khadoran forces I’m not sure I could field a viable 25pt army from the 100pts that started the campaign.

The win in this game gives me the campaign win by a decisive margin, but every game was close. The result could have easily gone the other way. Peter and I will write up some concluding remarks for the campaign and I’ll post them soon.

Owen

Update Concluding comments can be found here.

This is an article I wrote a couple of months ago for Issue 3 of the Uplink magazine [pdf]

“Play like you’ve got a pair!” is the catchphrase for this fast-paced aggressive game. If you like the sound of a wargame that has a stunning range of miniatures, is based in an immersive and compelling world, has some of the most beautiful books produced by any gaming company, is balanced and has a set of rules that are rock solid then Warmachine is the game for you! Warmachine has been around for about seven years now and is produced by Seattle-based Privateer Press. Its second version, called Warmachine MkII, released at the start of 2010 after an open field test in which thousands of players contributed feedback to tweak and refine the game and model rules. This award-winning game has earned Privateer Press a devoted set of followers worldwide who love their games equally for their strong character-driven storyline and fantastic gameplay.

I mean, what’s not to love, Warmachine is a game full of massive steam-powered machines of war that can headbutt, slam and throw their enemies to the ground before pounding them to oblivion. These machines, named warjacks (or just ‘jacks), are controlled by battle mages known as warcasters. The background of the Iron Kingdoms, a set of countries on the continent of Western Immoran, is one of almost constant war. The warcasters are the powerful protagonists at the centre of these conflicts that are tasked with leading the armies of their countries. They are warriors beyond compare who can wield potent magics to cast spells and boost their ‘jacks in battle. In the world of Warmachine the warjacks are sentient constructs of armour, weaponry, pistons, gears and steam-powered might centred around a cortex. The cortex is a delicate piece of magically constructed engineering that gives the ‘jack basic intelligence and allows it to operate autonomously. It also enables the warcaster to see through the ‘jacks eyes and push it to extremes. This is the unique selling point of the game, the focus mechanic that represents magic. The fact that the game has exceptionally well thought out and balanced rules doesn’t hurt either!

Before I can talk about how focus works, I first need to introduce the basic combat mechanic. Like most wargames every model has a set of stats that represent its movement, combat abilities and capacity to sustain damage. Warmachine does not rely on players learning off tables to calculate the chances to hit and wound an enemy. Rather a player simply rolls 2D6, adds them to a combat statistic and compares them to their opponents defense. Equal or beat their defense and it’s a hit. Wounding them is done in a similar manner – roll 2D6, add the strength (and power) of your weapon and if it beats their armour they sustain damage. It is in these dice rolls that the delicate balance of the game lies. Everything is based around average rolls. For example, most ‘jacks have a melee attack (MAT) statistic of 6. A high defense (DEF) on a warcaster would be 16. On average rolls a ‘jack would have a hard time hitting a ‘caster. Here’s were a ‘jacks controlling ‘caster can help out.

Every warcaster has a focus statistic (typically around 6 or 7). At the start of a turn the player can allocate focus from their ‘caster to ‘jacks to enable them to do exceptional things during their activation. With focus a ‘jack can perform power attacks, such as throws, slams, armlocks and headbutts, and importantly boost attack and damage rolls. Boosting allows the ‘jack to add an additional die to a roll. That DEF 16 warcaster seems a lot easier to hit now that the ‘jack is rolling 3D6! Focus allocation is one of the key skills in the game as the ‘caster can also use focus to cast spells and boost their own attacks. Every warcaster has a unique list of spells that they can cast to destroy their enemy, control the batlefield or help out their own army. They also have a once per game feat that can dramatically change the face of the game. When playing against a new warcaster the first thing you do is check out their feat to see what it does!

So, that’s the basics of the gameplay – you have a powerful warcaster (or two!) at the centre of your army who pushes it to excel in battle. Warcasters are so focal that changing a warcaster can completely change how an army performs. Armies are constructed in a similar fashion to other games, you set a point total and add ‘jacks, units and solos until you reach the limit. Warmachine is a game of synergies. Some units and solos work well with each other and specific ‘casters. Games tend to be scenario focused were there are two winning conditions – win the scenario or kill the enemy warcaster. Larger games, 50 or 75 points, can have a large number of miniatures on the table and will take 2-3 hours to play. At this scale Warmachine isn’t the skirmish game that it appears to be at initial glance. The carnage is beautiful and battles can change quickly as a player who seems to be winning the scenario suddenly finds his warcaster under threat. However, even small games that comprise a warcaster and a few ‘jacks are great fun. These battlebox games last less than an hour and are so-called because they are made up of the contents to a factions basic boxed set. Each of these boxes contains a warcaster, a few ‘jacks, their stat cards and a quickstart version of the rules (which are also available for download). If you’re considering playing Warmachine this is a decent place to start.

There are essentially six factions in Warmachine – Cygnar, Khador, Protectorate of Menoth, Cryx, Retribution of Scyrah and Mercenaries. Coming from games like Warhammer and 40k this might look like very few, but the fact that each faction has a lot of warcasters (as many as a dozen in several cases) really mixes things up. These ‘casters completely change the character of an army, so there is a lot of strategic diversity in the game. There are a lot of resources on the Internet that talk about the features and differences of the different factions, so I won’t go into them here. Each faction has a broad theme and a unique aesthetic. For example, the Khadorans could be characterised as a cold power hungry race that value superior armour and bone crushing weapons over speed and precision. Their large brutal ‘jacks are symbols of a stoic people and an ever expanding empire. Each faction has its own character. The factions are well balanced as Warmachine is released incrementally, i.e. each book release sees every faction get something new, so you don’t end up with army books developed under an old edition become obsolete. As MkII is a new edition of Warmachine everything was reviewed and updated. The releases of MkII during 2010 will see each faction getting a Forces book that details the background and rules for every miniature in that faction. From 2011 the game will return to the incremental releases

There has never been a better time to get into Warmachine. It is a mature game, with lovely miniatures and a great set of rules. Ask a friend to give you a demo, or take the plunge and pick up a couple of battleboxes, but whatever you do remember to “play like you’ve got a pair!”.

Owen